Pros and Cons of the Mcintire Skate Park

Charlottesville’s only Skate Park, the Mcintire Skate Park, has it’s pros and cons when it comes to those who actually want to use it to skate. Though it is a great park, and it provides Skateboarders from not just the city but the surrounding areas as well with a great place to sharpen their skills, the park still has problems that cause it to lose a little bit of that perfection that it had when it was new and less popular. 

The Mcintire Skate Park came at a perfect time for Charlottesville, with the other skate park having been torn down. Skaters were forced to the streets, where they run the risk of being kicked out, or even arrested for skating at certain spots such as the Downtown Mall, Stonefield, or even Barracks Road. The park provided experienced skateboarders with a place that not only gives them a safer place off the streets to skate, but a place with more difficult obstacles and different tricks to try as well. The pros definitely outweigh the cons when it comes to this park. 

However, over the 6-7 months that the park has been open, Parents all over Charlottesville have been catching wind of this amazing place to dump your kids off to ride around and hang out. This would be completely fine, but this group of people set off a problem that the park has that has been making it’s real skateboarders miserable. The Mcintire Skate Park is not, even in the slightest, beginner friendly. Though this isn’t a problem for experienced skaters, it causes all of the little kids with their scooters and walmart skateboards to be mixed in with more experienced skaters, which makes the park more dangerous for everybody.

Still though, the park has been great for Charlottesville, and many Skateboarders are happy with how it came out. And if you’re interested in learning how to skate, the park is open sunrise to sundown, every day of the year, so don’t be afraid to pick up a board and give it a try.