Best Skate Parks in Park City, UT - City Park, Woodward Park City, Trailside Park, Park City Ice Arena, Resort Center Ice Skating Rink. 5 hours ago  A California city filled its skate park with sand to deter skateboarders. Then the dirt bikes showed up.

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By Shawn Ray RaymundoAmid pleas for residents to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic, the city took additional steps this week to keep skaters out of San Clemente’s skate park by pouring 37 tons of sand onto the concrete surface.SamanthaWylie, the city’s recreation manager for the Beaches, Parks and RecreationDepartment, explained that since closing access to all parks on April 1,skaters continued to visit Ralphs Skate Court despite posted signage warningagainst trespassing.“OnApril 1, we kind of let it play out to see if users would abide by theclosure,” Wylie said. “During that (two-week period), we saw people continue toskate the park, groups would gather, kids with their parents; it became aregular (occurrence). It appeared the closure was not being abided by.”Shealso noted that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department had been patrolling thearea as well, prompting several contacts to let skaters know the park wasclosed. On Monday, April 13, she said, the decision was made to take actionsimilar to those of other cities.“Thesand was what other agencies were doing. We’re doing what other parks have doneto enforce that message of social distancing,” she said, noting that some citieshave used mulch, hay or sand to fill in their skate parks.Accordingto Wylie, the parking lot to the Richard T. Steed Memorial Park and theadjacent skate park on Avenida la Pata was closed.

But that didn’t stopvisitors from parking their cars at the dog park down the road and walking upto the skate park, which wasn’t blocked off with any tall fencing.“Wedid consider fencing. Fencing is really difficult to get right now, and we knowwe’ve done fencing at the skate park before, and it just gets hopped over,”Wylie said, later adding: “We also considered security, but there’s a cost tothat.

The sand, it cost us nothing to put it in, (and) it’ll cost us nothing toremove it. So that’s why we went with that decision.”.

The city on Monday poured 37 tons of sand onto the concrete surface of the Ralphs Skate Court off Avenida La Pata as part of an effort to deter skaters from visiting the park during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Shawn RaymundoTheaction, however, has raised concerns among those within the skateboardcommunity, according to Stephanie Aguilar, president of the San ClementeSkatepark Coalition. The city on Monday poured 37 tons of sand onto the concrete surface of the Ralphs Skate Court off Avenida La Pata as part of an effort to deter skaters from visiting the park during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Shawn Raymundo“We’revery confident that the removal of the sand will not damage the concretesurface. If there is any damage to the concrete, it will be fixed,” shesaid. “The concrete gets damaged during normal use, and our maintenance isquick to fix it whenever things come up.”Forthe Coalition, Aguilar said, the endeavor reinforces the skateboard community’sbelief of a double standard the city has had for skateboarders in San Clemente.“Socialdistancing hasn’t been followed in a lot of different areas, whether it’s onour trails, tennis courts, the basketball courts, the walking paths; we didn’tsee the city dump sand on the walking trail,” Aguilar said. “We didn’t see themdump sand onto any other sport area that’s being used.

It just plays into, kindof feeds into that double standard the skate community has been treated with.”In recent weeks, the city has taken drastic measures to limit the spread of the virus by and San Clemente Pier, as well as cutting off access to the coastal trails, including the Beach Trail and Sea Summit/Marblehead Coastal Trail.According to Wylie, the tennis courts, which are surrounded by 12-foot fencing, have been closed, while the nets and rims have been removed from the basketball courts.Shawn RaymundoShawn Raymundo is the city editor for the San Clemente Times. He graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in Global Studies.

Before joining Picket Fence Media, he worked as the government accountability reporter for the Pacific Daily News in the U.S. Territory of Guam. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnzyTsunami and follow San Clemente Times @SCTimesNews.

Filling the skate park with 37 tons of sand is just plain mean. Kids who skate there are keeping 6 feet of distance between on another.

Whomever thought of this must be a genius in torture.Some jerk also came up with another mean idea and that is to chainlink fence off our beaches. There is no entry whatsoever at any of our San Clemente beaches. This is criminal, if you ask me. Cards against humanity app. OPEN THE BEACHES!!!

Surfers will keep 6 feet of distance between one another and beach walkers will also keep social distancing.ENOUGH.Open the beaches and the skate park should be swept clean by the big meanie who dumped the sand there.God help us.