Sasha Erfanian, Centretown News
Charlie Bowins, who died March 3, led the push to put a centrally located skatepark in McNabb Park.The Ottawa Skateboard Community Association is lobbying to have the new skatepark at McNabb Park named after local professional skateboarder Charlie Bowins, who died March 3 at the age of 27.
“It seems only natural to name the park after someone like Charlie who was so heavily involved in our community,” says Meaghan Isaacs, co-director of the association.
The city’s only centrally located skatepark is under construction as part of the redevelopment of McNabb Park.
The park is located along Bronson Ave. between Gladstone Avenue and James Street.
It is expected to be open to the public by mid-June.
Isaacs says it is the result of skateboarders coming together to first convince the city this park was a lacking commodity.
She says the community raised $25,000 of the $100,000 required for the skatepark development. The city provided the remainder through grants.
“Everyone is beyond stoked,” Isaacs says.
“It has been such a community effort. This is their park. They helped so much along the process to get it built.”
Among those leading the push to get the new park was Bowins, which Isaacs says is a large reason why it would be fitting to see the park named in his honour.
“Every event we held, every initiative we took toward the McNabb Park he was there in some capacity helping along the way,” she says.
“He was always someone we could count on for that. We didn’t even have to ask him. It was just an assumption that if we were doing something for skateboarding Charlie would be involved in some way.”
The association has been lobbying for years to get a permanent location for skateboarders.
The city converted the nearby McNabb Arena to a skatepark in the summer months, but it would be taken down for hockey camps in August, Isaacs says.
“For a bigger city like Ottawa it has always struck me as strange that the downtown core doesn’t have a permanent, concrete, outdoor park.”
“It adds this facility. It creates a meet up spot, which is huge. Ottawa has never had a meet up spot,” adds Aaron Cayer, owner of the Antique Skate Shop.
Skateboarders previously met at Cayer’s shop or various other locations around Ottawa, he says.
“You always knew that someone might be skateboarding, but we didn’t have somewhere, a physical location,” says Cayer who met many of his close friends at skate parks.
City officials share in the excitement of the community to have a skatepark in the downtown core.
They expect the updated McNabb Park to have very positive repercussions for the local community.
“We have no such facility in the central area of the city now I think it will be extremely popular,” says Paul Landry, acting manager of recreation planning and city development for the City of Ottawa.
“It’s centrally located so it’s going to meet the needs of youth and adult populations that are users in that whole area.”
He says the park will also help integrate skateboarders who are new to Ottawa into the community.
“We have a huge influx of students and they don’t really know where to go this allows them to go to the park and instantly meet people,” Cayer says.
The design of the park features all different levels of difficulty to encourage inclusivity regardless of one’s skateboarding abilities.
“We designed the park to be fun for someone who is well experienced but also if you’re learning it’s a very approachable park,” Cayer says.
The skatepark is the newest and most sought-after commodity in the McNabb park, but Landry says the redevelopment will include other additions.
“That is a major component,” he says.
“This redevelopment brought some new play areas, an area for a community garden and there is a really interesting public art component along the Bronson side.”