World class skate park breaks ground in North Houston

In its ongoing effort to be seen as a world class city, as well as an international destination, Houston - the Mayor's office anyway - has recently announced the development of the nation's largest - and the world's second largest, skate park. Here is a previous press release about the project. It'll join an already completed one near downtown.



Click here for more press releases from Houston's mayor. You'll notice that many are focused on the same theme. We are world class!

But do skateparks really benefit cities?

- The Tony Hawk Foundation says yes they do (big surprise).
- Suburban Rails agrees.
- As does Stand up for Skateparks.

There appears to be quite the advocacy network in the nation promoting skateparks. I was unaware. Nothing that I've seen yet points to an actual study with empirical proof that they increase the local economy, but they look pretty cool. They also gives kids things to do. Cities are probably interested in luring kids to the parks because if they don't skate there, they'll shread up downtown. This is probably subtle social control.

The concrete industry probably likes these things too.