“The whole place has just kind of come alive,” skateboarder Noé Jimenez says. It’s about an hour before sunset, and skaters are weaving through Edgewood Skate Park, riding the ramps to set up for tricks, grinding on the edges of obstacles or simply cruising back and forth, their wheels crunching on asphalt and humming along the park’s smooth new concrete surface. Located on the site of an old outdoor ice rink since 2000, Edgewood Skate Park has experienced a renaissance in the past year, thanks in great part to the tenacity of local skaters who spent years pushing for improvements and funding improvised elements out-of-pocket while they bided their time. Today, an eight-foot chain link fence around the space is gone. The concrete addition with several new quarter pipes, ramps and ledges dips down on the far side of an old asphalt expanse that includes weird elements like a cast-off highway median. Local artists and skaters have lent color and personality to the scene with their street art. “David Moser Is Here” reads one wall, a tribute to the city landscape architect who worked with skaters to design the park’s extension and who died on the same day the renovated park was formally unveiled last September..."

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