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This is the most current information we have on McKinley Skatepark, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. If you have
information to add to this skate park please submit skatepark photos by clicking the "UPLOAD PHOTOS" button on the left.
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Skatepark Pictures or any other information on your local skatepark.
And now a little background on skateparks. The first skateparks were primarily private, for-profit endeavors, although several public parks were built globally. Parks then included pools, bowls, snake runs, freestyle areas, banked slalom areas, half-pipes, and full pipes. Most were concrete and were outdoors. In more extreme climates parks were built indoors, often of wood.
The modern public skatepark is relatively new, made possible by legislation such as California's 1998 law stating that skateboarding is an inherently "Hazardous Recreational Activity" (HRA), and therefore municipalities and their employees may not be held liable for claims of negligence resulting in skateboarders' injuries. Parks are usually for persons 14 or over.
The Tony Hawk Foundation is at the forefront of helping cities to get skateparks built. The Tony Hawk Foundation seeks to foster lasting improvements in society, with an emphasis on supporting and empowering youth. Through special events, grants, and technical assistance, the Foundation supports recreational programs with a focus on the creation of public skateboard parks in low-income communities. The Foundation favors programs that clearly demonstrate that funds received will produce tangible, ongoing, positive results.
As any street rider will tell you, you don't need much to have a good ride. All you need is the smallest little thing to have fun on... one ledge... one raised sidewalk... a driveway curb... one dirt jump... a picnic table... or just one little ramp. That's all it takes to have hours, days, or even years of fun on, being creative, figuring out just how many tricks you can do on one thing, going off on tech, thinking with a fresh, or even psychotic mind... working it for all it's worth. So just because something is small, doesn't mean it can't be fun.
The free city skatepark in McKinley Park, up on the hills behind the Sou' Side of Pittsburgh, is just like that - small, but totally fun. And that the city recently removed the skate-only restrictions at the skatepark makes it all the better (this was more than likely due to budget problems, unable to pay the lady who guarded the place to keep riders out, or maybe they just got smart and realized keeping riders out was just unfair).
McKinley Park is is situated up on Bausman Street, which includes a track & field area, tennis courts, and in about the space of a tennis court or two, a small skatepark. It has a nice simple 4-1/2 foot mini, with a big mild transition, with a 2 foot deck on one side, and the other deck leading to a long wedge to the street course. There's also a basic 2-foot tall 6 foot-wide subbox on one side of the mini, that is also available from the street side. On that other side, the street side, it starts with the wedge on the right (looking down), the subbox with book-end ramps in the middle, with a center ramp as well launching you to the sub-box or whatever, as well as a 4-foot quarter on the left side.
Small. It's an ok park. 5' halfpipe, tabletop with rails, box, rails, some 1/4 pipes. It's made of metal.
McKinley SkatePark
Bausman Street
South Side, Pittsburgh, PA