And here we are with the park just about complete and ready to go for next spring.Come the spring, winter’s snows will melt giving way to flowers, lawns, golf courses… and the Benny Skatepark in NDG.Betty Esperanza is the founder of Skateboards for Hope – now in its twentieth year. She collects used skateboards, gets […]
And here we are with the park just about complete and ready to go for next spring.Come the spring, winter’s snows will melt giving way to flowers, lawns, golf courses… and the Benny Skatepark in NDG.Betty Esperanza is the founder of Skateboards for Hope – now in its twentieth year. She collects used skateboards, gets them painted with messages of hope by kids in schools, and sends them off to kids in Cuba, Uganda, Panama, and other countries. Betty rallied a group of NDG parents and skateboard enthusiasts who readily joined her in petitioning the borough to install a skatepark in the community. Really what they wanted was a new skatepark to replace the old, cracked and worn Benny Skatepark.
The new Benny Skatepark should be up and running in April. nStarting in June, 2021 the Coalition brought questions to every borough council meeting. Stein put together a petition. And there were events held to raise awareness about the need for a new park: there was the Skatepark Showdown video comparing Benny to skateparks in British Columbia, the Benny Bash Skate Jam, the Girouard Park Skate Jam, and lots of campaigning on social media.It’s a project four years in the making, and promises to be the go-to haven for skateboarders in the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
FYidan laxerA design committee created in January, 2023 began meeting to work on the skatepark’s design. Stein’s son, James, was on the committee. Designs were finalized in October, 2023, and announced to the public the following April. Construction began in earnest last May and was completed last November.In May of 2021 Coalition de Skatepark NDG was created with Esperanza, Jonathan Stein (co-owner of NDG Music School), Evan Thompson, and Paget Williams. The Coalition approached Sterling Downey. As a former graffiti artist, and co-founder of the UnderPressure Arts Festival, the tattooed, bearded Verdun borough councilor seemed a natural advocate. A meeting with Christian Arsenault, the former councilor for the Loyola district, followed soon after.Then-borough mayor Sue Montgomery was on board. Gracia Kasoki Katahwa inherited the file when she became mayor. Finally, in June 2022 council announced a new skatepark to be built in Benny Park, with a pledge of .5 million, and with construction to start in the summer of 2023.
