Dec. 14, 2015 By Christian Murray
When Woodside resident Gennaro Massaro heard the Parks Department was considering installing a skateboard area in Windmuller Park, he took swift action.
Massaro, a Berkeley Towers resident who lives across the street from the park, said he started an old fashioned paper petition and that he has collected 300 signatures to date.
“I hear bang, bang, bang and have to close my windows,” said Massaro, who lives on the fourth floor and is vice president of the co-op board. He said that the skateboarders continuously jump on and off the park’s bandstand and in doing so have wrecked it.
A new skateboarding feature for the park was proposed last summer as part of a $500,000 upgrade to the park, with money allocated by Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer. Massaro said he found out about the potential feature by chance at the end of last month, after his neighbor was informed of the plan by a Parks Department worker.
When asked about the redesign this week, Van Bramer said the skateboarding feature was by no means a done deal.
“It was in the proposal stage,” he said.
The skateboard area was being considered as a means to reduce the likelihood that the band shell and other upgrades would not get degraded.
“I spoke to folks in the Berkeley Towers and some of the board members and said that there were enough people concerned about it that it is off the table,” he said.
Van Bramer said that he will be holding a community meeting in January where people can take a fresh look at what upgrades people would like.
Woodside teenager Sam, who was skateboarding today, admitted that skateboarding is noisy. However, he said the basketball players make plenty of noise especially when they dribble the ball up and down the court.
“There are a lot of skateboarders who live around here,” Sam said, in disappointment in hearing what might have been. “It would have made a great addition.”
Massaro is looking forward to having his say in terms of how the funds should be spent.
“I think we should have more things for the senior citizens,” he said. “What about shuffleboard or Bocce or even a horseshoe pit.”
