In the ongoing saga of Barrio Trails BMX park, a pair of neighborhoods and the meetings they are holding this week could shape the future or doom the park for good.
The two neighborhoods, Miles and Barrio San Antonio are holding meetings tonight and tomorrow to discuss the BMX park and whether they want it to remain once the drainage project is completed.
The meetings are not public meetings with county officials, they were organized by homeowners who live near the project.
Bicycle advocates offered to attend the meeting with the Miles neighborhood to help answer any questions, but were not taken up on that offer.
Ted Warmbrand, the president of the Barrio San Antonio Neighborhood Association, said his neighborhood is and has always been in support of having a dirt BMX park in the drainage basin and allowing the riders who use it to help design the track.
The support isn’t as strong in the Miles neighborhood.
Peter Norback, a blogger with TucsonCitizen.com has posted some information about the Miles Neighborhood on his blog.
In a post last week he quotes the co-chair of the Miles Neighborhood Association as saying, “Having this course at the Park will be attractive to BMXers from around the entire city,” he added, but “…the influx of people and traffic…” needs to be examined thoroughly.”
In a new post this week, Norback offers additional details about the sentiments of the neighborhood.
In the past week lots of Miles neighbors talked to each other about the proposed BMX dirt jumps in our new Arroyo Chico park. This is a good thing even though most of them didn’t know that BMX stands for Bicycle Motocross, a very popular bone breaking and nose bending sport millions of young men and women athletes just love. But who cares if they knew, they are getting involved in the community. Barbara Farragut on 12th Street, which is near the BMX course, talked to her neighbors a week ago Sunday and the consensus was that if there were adequate parking for the BMXers and insurance coverage in case of injury, they were all for it. Of course, they also want the jumps closed by 10 pm. (This happens anyway because there are no lights.)
The entire situation will come to a head next week at a public meeting with Pima County Flood Control officials who are in charge of the project and have said in the past they are committed to rebuilding the BMX park. That meeting takes place August 25, at the Pima County Public Works building, 201 N. Stone Ave., in Basement Room C. It starts at 5:45 p.m.
What the heck is so awful about a BMX park? Personally, I’d love to see one of those in this neighborhood.
Why? Because the effort involved in getting good at BMX is considerable. It takes hours, days, weeks, months, and years.
Besides, it’s a heckuva fun thing to watch. Even for old fiftysomething fogies like me.
In case anyone’s wondering, I feel the same way about skateboarding.
Well said, Martha.
@d870d6a37f5efeb8f9a800d210e10c40:disqus – What the heck is so awful about putting a football field behind your house – and yes, there would be weekend tournaments and night games — and we can also hold soccer tournaments there, too. See, I get to enjoy it for a hour or two with my kids and then go home, which is miles away…. but you get to deal with all the noise and traffic and lights shinning into your bedroom. So yes, I would be all for this because you have to deal with it and not me. Pretty easy for me to show support, isn’t it?
My wife and I are directly impacted by this project. We both attended last night’s public works meeting with Flood Control. When all the facts were laid out, I would find it hard to believe that anyone would really object to this track. It is basically the same little make-shift track that has been there since ’05, which was built mainly from local kids in the neighborhood. It is a very positive environment, which has really been lost in our modern day society. With both communities (Miles/San Antonio), along with the local cycling and el Grupo, a open-door policy has been agreed upon to work together to keep everything in line. With that said, I think the local kids will keep this place neat and respectful to all — after all, they do not want to lose their track.
Of course, this new proposed modification to the drainage basin has not been green-lighted by the Army Corp of Engineers. Fingers are crossed.