Skaters and BMXers across Northeast Ohio are about to have another place to shred and bail.
Lorain is getting its first skatepark, as City Council authorized bond sales to cap off the funding this week. The $1.3 million project includes $850,000 from community development block grant funds, $600,000 from the bond sale, and a $20,000 donation from skater Chad Muska.
Construction will begin soon and both phases will be finished by November on the 17,000-square-foot park that will soon become a destination for skaters across the area.
“It’s going to be the biggest skatepark in Northeast Ohio,” Hannah Kiraly, a program manager in Lorain’s Economic Development department, told Scene on Tuesday. (Larger than Cleveland’s Rivergate and Sandusky’s Wheel Park.)
“We just really wanted to make a statement with this park,” Kiraly added. “We know a lot of kids want this—they need it.”
A sentiment Chad Muska can surely attest to.
Muska, one of the most prolific street skaters of the 1990s, relocated from Los Angeles to a farm outside his hometown in 2020. And since then, Muska’s been working alongside development officials in Lorain to secure funding and designs for what a world-class skatepark should look like.
Longfellow Skatepark’s green light follows a handful of other parks throughout Ohio, from Sandusky to Columbus and Shaker Heights, that have seen success.
Late last year, Cleveland’s City Council okayed conceptual plans for the city’s second skatepark set to rise in tandem with the $1.3 million makeover of Luke Easter Park. MGK himself tossed in $250,000.
Muska helped fundraise and rally for a park he was often unsure would actually be built. But support on social media and at well-attended town halls kept the momentum going.
“A lot of skateboarders get this bad rap,” Muska told Scene in a phone call. “‘They’re out there destroying property.’ It’s a bad stereotype.”
“But the more you alienate them, the badder they become,” he said. “The less space you you give them, the madder they’ll be at the city.” Space absolved by sick bowls and rails. “Now, the youth can relate: it’s not us against them. They’re for us, not against us.”
The park, to be situated just south of Longfellow Middle School, where Muska attended classes as a kid, will feature a series of banks, launch ramps, rails and ledges arranged in a key-shaped format. A backyard pool-style bowl will sit on the southern edge.
Muska said he worked closely with development officials, along with architects at Spohn Ranch Skateparks, to craft a final product that would both appease the city and impress skaters. A bid for a contractor, he said, will go out later this month.
The milestone moment made Muska emotional speaking to Lorain City Council on Monday, when the pro skater testified passionately about his gratitude and the hard work it took to get the project across the financial finish line.
The park wasn’t just a passion project, he told council, but a personal footnote to a decades-long career. One rife with trophies, injuries, globetrotting, wealthy highs and tough lows.
All due, he said, to the sport.
“It’s kind of hard to understand that from a non-skateboarder’s perspective,” Muska told the panel of 20 listening, “but I truly, truly believe that this place will be a place to put Lorain on the map.”
City Council, he said, was right there with him.
“To hear their words, their true passion for the project,” Muska said on Tuesday, “it brought tears to my eyes.”
“I guess, just being a skateboarder, especially a street skater, you always feel the city is somewhat against you,” he said. “You’re being kicked out of places. You know, skaters are ‘misfits’ or ‘bad kids.’”
They weren’t, at least on Monday.
“From the mayor to the City Council president,” Muska said. “There was this heartful response: ‘We support the skatepark.’ It was beautiful.”
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