Photos by CJ Harker

Interview with Jesse Clayton

When did Pops skatepark get built and how?

We started it in the fall of 2008 and it opened in the early summer of 2009. How it got built was just a bunch of volunteers. There was that rec center that was kind of underfunded by the city, and there was a group of local people, a couple of ‘em worked for NKCDC, which is a local community development corporation. One of the women that was working there volunteering, came into Exit skate shop back when it was still on Girard avenue and was like, “Hey, what’s it take to get a skatepark built?” You know, there’s these kids that were skating in the corner of the rec center. There was a little roller hockey court that was empty that they were using. We told her we had done this before and all we needed was permission and a little bit of money, and that just kind of snowballed.

Had you ever made a skatepark before?

No. I mean I had done a bunch of mini ramps and just DIY projects, like crete’ing up a barrier or whatever. I definitely knew I had enough construction background to do it. The project kind of changed as we were going through it. At first we were trying to be really minimalist and almost trying to build a skate park in disguise by making planters, trying to call it a sculpture garden, thinking that people wouldn’t know it was a skate park. But once the cat was outta the bag, it was like just go for it. We got busted halfway through by parks and recreation. The engineers came down and served us papers, stop work orders, saying that this is city property and there are no contracts, there’s no insurance. We had this follow-up meeting with the commissioner of parks and rec. But in between when we got shut down and when that follow-up meeting was, we had gotten word from the Tony Hawk foundation that we received a $10,000 grant from them. That was right around the amount of money we needed to finish up. So it’s kind of like we were going into that meeting with a secret weapon. It ended up totally working out. We finished with that grant money and had the grand opening, cut the ribbon with the city council person, blah, blah.

Were you happy with the way the park turned out initially, or with the grand opening? What was your initial reaction?

There were definitely flaws in the park that I wasn’t happy with, but after it opened, seeing it full of people every day, it was pretty easy to just focus on the positive. There was just so much overwhelming, positive energy that whatever the flaws in the concrete were, or the design, it kind of didn’t matter. But then as time went on some of the weird, screwed up things about that park are kind of my favorite things.

How would you say the neighborhood has changed since the park has been built? And do you think the skatepark had anything to do with it?

The neighborhood’s changed a lot. You could have bought one of those empty shells on the block for probably 20 grand and now they got two bedroom row homes going for half a million dollars. It’s insane. I think the change happening in the neighborhood was gonna happen regardless. But I definitely think the skatepark was kind of like an early adopter. That neighborhood was still pretty dangerous back then. It’s half a mile away from the epicenter of open air drug sales in the United States. So even now that real estate values are going through the roof, it’s still not necessarily a “safe” neighborhood. But yeah the neighborhood’s completely different. There’s a jiu-jitsu gym across the street in a warehouse that used to be completely abandoned and full of people shooting up. I think the skatepark was part of it, but I think that tide was coming either way.

These renovations that just happened, how’d that come about?

Our friends Chad and Steph over at Zembo, a local skate shop, they love the park and they’re always there skating with the locals. I guess there was some conflict with some of the new neighbors that just bought some $600,000 condo and the park was looking kind of run down. They were kind of getting concerned like “yo, the park’s the ugliest thing in the neighborhood now.” It used to be like the most vibrant and colorful thing in the neighborhood! Chad and Steph started a GoFundMe and they were the ones that approached me and Sloan like “Can you help us put together a budget and get this going?”

Did you see the tintype photos CJ shot?

Yeah. I mean when he does ‘em they develop like right on site, you know? He had this little dark room set up. So we were watching him cranking them out. I’m sure there’s a handful I haven’t seen, but they’re dope. It makes it look like we’re working on the place in like 1860.