Red Bull Barge Park floats in limbo

City Park, the largest park in New Orleans, was one site under consideration. But John Hopper, the park's chief development officer, is one of those who ultimately decided against installing a Red Bull park at this location.

"The offer was very nice and genuine. 'You want a skate park? We have one floating down the river.' What better place than the biggest public park in New Orleans? But it wasn't just the materials," Hopper explains. "We would have to get the site ready. Utilities. Bathrooms. Fence. And when we started putting all the numbers to paper, we quickly got into the multiple six-figures."

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John Linn/Red Bull Content PoolRyan Decenzo, crooked grind on the Mississippi River.

"There have been so many competing needs in the city -- always, but especially since [Hurricane] Katrina," says R. Stephanie Bruno, a writer who reported on the skate park barge story for the New Orleans Times Picayune. "My reporting suggests that the city has been putting its efforts toward applying for recovery money to rebuild libraries and roads. FEMA money won't pay for anything that wasn't there prior to the storm -- so whereas a damaged road can be rebuilt with FEMA funds, a new skate park can't be built with them."

Based on the interviews Bruno conducted, she says, "It seems as though local skaters are underwhelmed with the Red Bull equipment, preferring a custom, concrete park to the fabricated modular elements Red Bull donated." But isn't something better than nothing? To shred or not to shred, that is the question.

Phillip Santosuosso, owner of the well-respected Humidity Skateshop in New Orleans, says he would like to see the Red Bull equipment put to use. "It's kind of a sensitive subject. I heard rumors. It's money. They don't know where to put it. But we don't have anything," he says.

As for purported grumblings that the equipment itself was not quite up to snuff, he says, "It's actually pretty good. It was amazing skating on the river. We see barges every day. People were mad that there wasn't a bowl in it. I could care less. My whole model is, let's get the ball rolling. Then build another park."

Hopper says the fact New Orleans does not currently have a skate park actually worked against those hoping to see the Red Bull facility open in City Park.

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Ryan Taylor/Red Bull Content PoolRonnie Creager makes like Huck Finn somewhere on Mississippi River.

"Given the unfortunate fact that there is not a skate park in New Orleans proper, we know there is going to be a lot of demand for it. So we thought we would, quite frankly, be ill-serving the public," Hopper says. "The Red Bull park simply would not be big enough to meet demand. Then you have crowds and accidents."

Now the city is considering Lafitte Greenway, a redevelopment zone and park space that will take the place of a three-mile former railroad bed, as another possible location for the Red Bull equipment. (Further city commission meetings will explore the issue.)

Thaddeus Zarse, a Tulane University architecture professor who contributed an earlier proposal for a public skate facility in City Park, offers a slightly different spin on the Red Bull story.

Though he is willing to concur with Hopper's logic and understands the financial constraints the city faces, he clearly believes the Red Bull debate underscores some deeper issues -- among them the real cost of leaving New Orleans' without a skate park.

"I think a skate park is really important in the community," says Zarse, who, citing "poor balance," never became a skateboarder himself. "New Orleans is going through a high crime rate right now. And a lot of the crime, certainly not all of it, are 16-, 17-, 18-year-olds. I think skateboarding, even though a lot of people still view it as this kind of deviant behavior, if you're providing a space for it, is actually going to reduce crime. It's giving people an activity to do. Basketball was invented as a winter sport in order to keep rough, working-class kids off the streets. It's also potentially an economic driver for the micro-community in the area. This is my kind of 'Freakonomics' analysis.

Giancarlo Dagostaro"My whole model is, let's get the ball rolling. Then build another park," says Santosuosso, owner of the well-respected Humidity Skateshop.

"I don't think the city is really interested enough. Generally they would like a skate park. I would push for its urgency at a pretty high level," he adds.

"The city has identified where they aim to put the park and are going through due process to clear all the impacted neighbors and community groups," a Red Bull spokesperson told ESPN.com. "They are also working on raising the funds through public or private channels. Our donation came with no strings attached, and our requested goal was for it to be a public free-for-use park."

Meanwhile, the equipment itself, which once floated down the Mississippi as free and easy as Huckleberry Finn, now languishes in storage.

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