He may not be a name recognized in every household, but in some circles international skateboarding star Tony Hawk is a big big deal.
On Wednesday, he showed up at Detroit’s Ride It Sculpture Park, a skateboard park which is largely funded by a grant — the largest ever — from the Tony Hawk Foundation, according to reporter Michael Jackman of Metro Times. The park is located at East Davison, off Klinger, in the Detroit neighborhood north of Hamtramck.
Jackman writes:
The visit, recorded by crews from Hawk’s nonprofit, will be the centerpiece in a video presentation about the good works that get funding. The park’s co-creator, Mitch Cope of Powerhouse Project, a neighborhood effort to improve and promote the area through artistic endeavors, was all smiles, saying that Hawk declared the park to be exactly the sort of challenging urban course he had hoped his foundation would fund.
Hawk, who has family in Detroit, sounded like a good guy who gets the city, both its challenges and the way it’s misperceived. Hawk said, “Detroit gets a bad rap all the time. It’s used as an example of a dilapidated place or places that have been abandoned and that’s not true of it all. I have family here, so, I know a little bit about it, but to see it first-hand, right here, makes it much more of a reality.”
Jackman reports that the park will be expanded next month when Phase II of the park breaks ground. -- A.L.
