Skateboarders clash with Trinity Repertory over proposed theater expansion
By Jacqui Gomersall,
25 days ago
PROVIDENCE (WPRI) — It’s a fight over downtown space that’s pitted skateboarders against the theater.
Trinity Repertory Co., a well-known downtown Providence theater, is seeking permission to permanently shut down Adrian Hall Way to cars and expand its facility for a new elevator, stairs and a ramp into the theater.
The plan has been in the works for years, but it’s recently become a growing point of contention. A group known as Friends of Adrian Hall has come forward voicing concerns, saying the expansion plan keeps getting bigger and now would encroach on the city’s only downtown skate park.
“I think it will just exclude a lot of people, as much as they think that it’s supposed to be inclusive,” skateboarder Kenny Borge told 12 News.
Executive Director Katie Liberman referred all questions about the reduced skate park size to the city park’s department, which is responsible for the actual park redesign.
Liberman added that the theater is “eager to be good collaborators” and emphasized significant improvements they will be making to the alleyway, including better lighting.
The theater still needs city approval to shut down a portion of Adrian Hall Way.
The City Council Public Works Committee scheduled a public hearing on the matter for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. Friends of Adrian Hall said they plan to turn out in droves to oppose it.
The skateboarders have already submitted a petition to the City Council with more than 500 signatures of people concerned that the current plan will erase the skate park as it now exists.
“From the ’90s all the way up until 2016, skateboarders have been consistently just occupying the space and advocating for it,” Borge said.
Borge and fellow skateboarders helped transform the once derelict alley between Washington and Fountain streets into a space for young people. They fundraised, designed, and built what is now Trinity Skatespot in partnership with the city and its parks department.
Borge said when they’re not skating in the space, they’re pushing brooms and picking up trash.
According to plans submitted as part of Thursday’s meeting agenda , the footprint of Trinity Skatespot will be chopped nearly in half, allowing for “mixed-use open space” that includes seating.
To make up for the reduced space, the plan proposes adding some new space to the skate park nearest Fountain Street. But skateboarders said that space isn’t even usable to them.
“It doesn’t look like more space to us,” Will Cornwall said. “It looks like less space, and if it is an expansion of space, it’s an area that doesn’t improve or expand the function.”
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley spokesperson Samara Pinto said the city parks department last met with the skateboarders on July 11.
“At the conclusion of that meeting, they expressed they would review the plan and make recommendations,” Pinto said in a statement. “To date, we’ve not received any feedback.”
Will Cornwall said his group is still awaiting a follow-up meeting to provide feedback.
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