BALTIMORE — People in West Baltimore are not happy with the lack of progress made in improving one neighborhood park.
Since 2018, there has been a push to add a skate park in Easterwood Park.
Two years ago, those plans were put on hold because the park needed fixing.
But people are now asking what happened to the funding that the state allocated to the park for a skate park.
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“We have money allocated to open a skate park in Easterwood on the west side and the money has disappeared for lack of a better term and we have a skate park all drawn up and plans are ready and we have yet to provide a park to this community," says Lisa Pyenson
Community advocate Marvin 'Doc' Cheatham says the youth in West Baltimore have to travel miles on a skateboard, public transit, or other ways to get to other city-owned skate parks.
He says it is important to give the youth a place they can enjoy closer to their homes.
“This is about kids that were that close to getting a skateboard park and now it's not here. We’re the only place in the state of Maryland that Black kids have no place within their own community to go skateboarding," says Cheatham
Skateboarder Chrissy 'Sosii' Brown says she didn’t have access to a skate park growing up. When she did find a park, she says she found community, and that is what she wants for other young people.
“To do something you never thought you could is a feeling of triumph and children deserve that and that happens every day at the skate park, you know, so that's why the environment to skate is so important," says Brown.
A lot of the people blame State Senator Antonio Hayes for the delay, claiming he and city leaders used the money elsewhere.
WMAR spoke with the senator who says there is still a possibility of a skate park in the future, but other improvements have to happen first.
“But there was no objection to a skateboard park for many of the people we talked to in the community, but what they said was, before you invest into an activity that we did not request we would rather those resources be spent on eliminating some of those safety hazards that are presented in the park," says Senator Hayes
Some of the improvements the park still needs; repairing broken swing sets, broken fences, repairing the surface of the playground and even creating a solid walking path in the park.
Senator Hayes says he will continue to push for funding to improve all city parks, but it is up to Baltimore City to make the changes.
