Hey, Fresno made it into the New York Times again! This time in a story about skateboarders draining the swimming pools of foreclosed homes and using them to skate.
From the NYT:
On a recent morning, a 27-year-old skateboarder who goes by the name Josh Peacock peered into a swimming pool in Fresno, Calif., emptied by his own hands -- and the foreclosure crisis -- and flashed a smile as wide as a half-pipe."We have more pools than we know what to do with," said Mr. Peacock, who lives in Fresno, the Central Valley city where thousands of homes, many with pools behind them, are in foreclosure. "I can't even keep track of them all anymore." ...
In these boom times for skaters, Mr. Peacock travels with a gas-powered pump, five-gallon buckets, shovels and a push broom, risking trespassing charges in the pursuit of emptying forlorn pools and turning them into de facto skate parks.
Skating pools, of course, is nothing new for Fresno. The pool at the Vagabond Hotel (pictured) was a legendary draw for skaters. People would come from other states and sneak into the fenced-off, rundown hotel to skate its drained pool, until the site was leveled in 2004 to make way for the Vagabond Lofts.
[photo: Kurt Hegre / The Fresno Bee]
Sk8ers fighting against West Nile... one sweet Kickflip at a time.
The Vagabond Pool will be making a comeback when the downtown skate park is built. Along with 4 or 5 other famous skating pools.
The city of Fresno did a pretty cool thing and went to several different skater websites and actually polled the users as to which pools they would like to see built and put into one area.
@MikeOz- It could make for an interesting column.(IMHO)
the vagabond was really mellow and fun.
@Abe Lopez: I think it's cool that the city did that -- but I don't think the Vagabond will ever make a comeback. And what I mean by that is that it's cool the city is making a skate park that honors the Vagabond, but it'll never have the rebellious allure of the Vagabond pool.
It would be super-awesome if the city of Fresno would build a banked derby track along with the skate park. A banked track may woo Lola out from hiding!
If they were smart, they'd take note of the attendance and support of Fresno concerning roller derby.
Just a thought.....
there's a skatepark "pool" in madera. skatepark pools are definitely a neutered shell of what skating a pool is really like, especially one as inadvertently good as the vagabond.
i've heard that someone preserved the coping pieces of the vagabond, even with that there's still tons of room for the inevitable errors there will be in trying to recreate it.
it'd be better if they just did their best to build a good park with some variety. the people who love to skate crazy transition stuff have madera and all the pools referenced in the NYT article.
@abe lopez: is it going to be indoor?
I agree that it will be near impossible to recreate the rebellious feel of the old Vagabond.
@floyd- No, it will be outside in a heavy industrial part of downtown. Personally, I like the idea of it being in an industrial area, it kinda helps with sterile feel of a City run skate park. I could be wrong, I am definitely not a skater.
As for the coping, only parts of it are still in existence.
ah. i heard it would be south of ventura and was hoping it'd be indoors, in one of the warehouse structures they have down there.
with all the outdoor parks popping up, an indoor wood skatepark is something the valley could really use. all weather and reconfigurable... ground zero/sugarhill in madera was something really special when it was around.
for an outdoor park, i think somewhere amongst the buildings and more pedestrian friendly parts of downtown would be an ideal place. not just for the cool "urban" environment that not a lot of people/kids currently have a reason to come down and see, they'd also have a welcome side-effect of increased traffic to the retail and eateries downtown.
i'm sure the plans are already well in motion... just some thoughts.
I admire much of what Reza has done for Fresno, specifically downtown. However, I am highly critical of the choice to demolish the vagabond pool. Simply naming the new lofts vagabond does little in my eyes to either honor the icon that the pool had become or capitalize off of it's fame.
Luckily, developer Steve Weil had the the passion enough to pay for a digital 3D scan of the vagabond pool before it was demolished. It is that scan that is being used to recreate the vagabond pool at the new skate park. Also of note is the partnership between Fresno's parks department (developing & operating the skate park) and Steve Weil (developing an adjacent retail building)
The project was shown at ArcHop for our Unbuilt exhibit last January. I plan to have something substantial to show for the Landscape architecture ArcHop this coming April or May.
@floyd the skate park is outdoor.
...another TV article on how they're oiling the top of the abandoned pools to cut down on mosquito larvae, (and) putting small fish in the pools to eat'em as well... (not sure if Fresno has tried this (story was in LA area.)
-and-
-they are BUMPIN' the Biggie movie out here in NYC area (heavy rotation on TV commercials... btw.)
@kiel: i used to skate the pool on a semi-regular basis, and i now live here at the vagabond lofts.
if i adjust my perspective to understand his position, i think the decision to rip the pool out was a good choice. the man bought some land and had to reconfigure it to suit his purpose.
were there other options? excavating it and moving it, perhaps?
F##k that Jeff Roberts is a piece of sh*t!!! The new building is the same exact shape as the old one. They could have easily put a deck over the pool while they were working and left the pool. Every room would have been rented so quick not to mention half the people who skated there were artist. Arent they supposed to be art lofts? Further more that a**hole wouldnt even let us do one last fund raiser contest there when we were going to have full insurance for the day and big skate company's willing to sponsor the event. Then they make a big deal on the news about how we took the coping then try to claim they have the coping for the replica years later what a bunch of bull s##t.