"...a day they thought would never arrive"

In case you haven't been keeping track, this is the 16th story I've written about our skate plaza project over the last 3 1/2 years (you can read them all here).

Austin at his first meeting with our Mayor in 2006, and last night

To say this skate plaza has been controversial would be the understatement of the millennium. In the last 3 months alone this issue has been debated through dozens of letters to the editor, 4 public hearings and several more board meetings.

But finally, finally, FINALLY - after 3 1/2 years of considering at least 8 different park locations within the city, the decision came down to a single vote last night by our City Council on whether or not the plaza should be built at Heritage Park.

Not, however, before we enjoyed one more hour and a half of public debate. And even though we had to endure several long-winded complaints by opponents of the project, we were also treated to eloquent testimonies by courageous teenagers who stepped up to the microphone to plead their cases as well.

One young man even presented this oustanding original poem:

Man Made Criminals - By Eric Pederson

I’m a criminal because man has made me into a criminal.

Ordinance 384 – Skateboarding prohibited. Two words written on a piece of paper.

Two words of incantation that when written in proper places can transform placid participants into what I am today… a criminal.

An apathetic punk. Let loose with no regard for boundaries, no regard for the well being of personal properties. I’m no better than a grifter.

There has to be consequences for men like me. Men who go to school five days a week, who work part time jobs to pay for their rent and groceries. Men who at the end of a long week, feel they deserve some time off. Some time to go outside and participate in a sport.

So convict me. Confine me to a fenced off square of asphalt. Tell me to behave “or else,” and I will comply.

Why shouldn’t I? This is exactly what I’ve asked for. A confined piece of America where I can be free. Where I can live and learn for free. Free from worry. Free from prosecution. Free to enjoy my hobby, my sport, my passion.

Skateboarding… free from any legal repercussion.

Eventually, it was time to vote on the decision. And then, as if time had suddenly transcended itself forward from years of relentless work to a single, magical moment in time - the president of the City Council asked for the vote.

And as you can see here by this standing ovation... THE SKATE PLAZA WAS APPROVED!!!

Photo courtesy of Kimm Anderson - St. Cloud Times

People cheered, hugged and cried as advocates from as far back as 1996 were there to celebrate a day they thought would never arrive. Now, these same people will be skating on their hard-earned plaza this summer.

We still have a lot of work to do of course, but the hardest part is over. When the media reported in 2006 that "If all goes as planned, Austin could see his dream come true by the time he graduates in 2010," we all laughed, because we never imagined it could possibly take that long.

Well guess what, it did take that long. And guess what else... I think the media has seen the political process in action before.

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St. Cloud Times - Skate plaza push passes council, 5-2 (video clip included) 

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Skate Plaza Clears Major Hurdle!

In a nail biter of an evening last night at the St. Cloud City Hall, the Planning Commission voted 4-3 in favor of locating the new skate plaza at Heritage Park.

After 4 years of hard work by skate plaza supporters, area youth are now closer than ever to realizing their 15-year dream of having a skate plaza built here in St. Cloud. The only remaining step is for the City Council to approve the Park Board and Planning Commission's recommendations that the skate plaza be located at this site. Their vote will be held on January 25th.

So last night was a critical milestone. Had the Planning Commission voted it down, the City Council would then be required to pass a super majority vote which only allows for 1 dissenter. That would be too close for comfort.

This project has been hugely controversial over the last few months as news that the skate plaza was being proposed in Heritage Park hit the newspapers. People opposed to the project have voiced concerns that the 1/2 acre skate plaza will "destroy the peace and serenity" of the surrounding 92 acre nature park. Many opinion letters have been written to the newspaper, petitions have been gathered and public lynch mobs have appeared at our mayor's town hall meetings.

Here is a satellite image of the site. The purple outline is the skate plaza. The yellow outline is the existing history museum. The skate plaza will sit right up against a busy road, directly across the street from Walmart and Cub Foods, and will not encroach the existing woods or cause any more noise than the traffic from the 4 major roads that already surround the park.

But last night was both frightening and awesome at the same time.

The council chambers was filled with supporters of the skate plaza due to a successful recruitment and Facebook campaign. Of particular note were the children and teenagers who bravely approached the microphone to plea their cases. Kids as young as 5 years old came up and explained why they wanted a skate plaza, and incredibly eloquent teens from the St. Cloud Youth Commission gave nearly tear-jerking praises to the efforts of Austin and the other youth who have done such a fantastic job of "using the process to help realize their cause." I couldn't have been more proud of the youth of this community for their performances last night.

But the opposition was well organized and strongly represented as well. Many people came forward to express their concerns over the usage of the park, safety issues, spending decisions and more. Testimony from both sides went on for an hour and a half before the Planning Commission started their debate.

And that's when it got sticky.

Seven commission members grilled the City Planner and Park Department director with tough questions for nearly an hour. FINALLY one member called for a motion to vote on the site. I had my head in my hands and was sweating in nervous anticipation. HOW WILL THEY VOTE?!!!

And then, as quickly as the motion was raised, someone from the Planning Commission started asking about the possibility of postponing the decision until next month. I thought I was going to explode. But fortunately - the liaison for the City Council stepped in and explained that if they didn't decide at that point, the City Council would still be allowed to vote on it in 2 weeks anyway, so it would be in their best interest to make a recommendation now.

FINALLY... after over 2 hours, a vote was cast. All in favor? Four hands were raised. All oppposed? Three.

The room instantly erupted into applause and cheering. We had done it. We had won.

Now all we have to do is get approval from the City Council. Early indicators show that a majority of the members are already in support of the proposal. Plus, the City Council is always more likely to vote with the Park Board and Planning Commission recommendations. Anyway... nothing is over till it's over, so I'm not going to celebrate just yet.

But I do feel pretty good about this!

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For real...

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Skate Plaza Stimulation

Some of you may have seen that my son's skate plaza project has been in the news recently. Only this time, for a different reason.

The Setup

Last fall, mayors nationwide were asked by the U.S. Conference of Mayors to submit a list of what was termed "shovel-ready" projects, along with the cost of each project. "Shovel-ready" refers to projects where if funding was available, would be ready to start within 90 days or less.

Upon completion of the lists that were gathered, the conference published a report that showed all the requests from the cities that participated. Here is a summary from the report:

Today The U.S. Conference of Mayors releases the fourth in its series of reports on
infrastructure projects that are “ready to go” in cities across the nation – projects that meet local infrastructure needs and contribute to local economic development goals, that can be funded quickly through existing federal channels and start quickly when funding is received, and that can generate the significant numbers of jobs that are needed to counter the severe economic problems we face today in our metro areas and our nation as a whole.

Today we are reporting that, in 779 cities of all sizes in all regions of the country, a total of 18,750 local infrastructure projects are “ready to go.” These projects represent an infrastructure investment of $149,758,339,126 that would be capable of producing an estimated 1,604,371 jobs in 2009 and 2010. These are the cumulative totals of projects, required funding, and jobs to be created that have been reported in the four surveys of cities conducted by the Conference of Mayors over the past three months. The populations of the 779 cities submitting projects total 77,946,664.

As asked, our mayor supplied this list. In all 32 items were submitted for St. Cloud:

click to enlarge

source: http://www.usmayors.org/mser/documents/mser-report-200901.pdf

As you can see, the skate plaza was listed as one of seven Community Development Block Grant improvement items as defined by the Conference of Mayors

Community Development Block Grants – CDBG would be used to create jobs through: the construction of public facilities and improvements, water and sewer facilities, streets, and neighborhood centers; the conversion of school buildings for eligible purposes; activities relating to energy conservation and renewable energy resources; and assistance to profit-motivated businesses to carry out economic development and job creation/retention activities.

The "List"

On January 28, Tom Steward, from the Freedom Foundation of MN, created this list which he calls "10 Worst Economic Stimulus Requests Made By Minnesota Cities." And topping his list as the #1 worst request was... you guessed it - the St. Cloud skate plaza project.

Steward's entire "10 worst" list was nothing more than what he thought were bad ideas for ways to use stimulus money. The items on his list were cherry-picked out of hundreds of MN submissions and were presented completely out of context. Unfortunately, it was an easy target for the media.

The Backlash

Immediately upon release of Steward's list, our local media decided to give it credibility and run with it. In no time at all, the idea that the federal government would be spending all of the stimulus money on skate parks and tennis courts hit a national nerve and got legs.

Suddenly St. Cloud became the poster child for irresponsible funding requests. In only a matter of days Minnesota's Governor Pawlenty, MPR and Fox News were ranting about this issue and adding fuel to the fire - prompting Sean Hannity himself to write an article called Skateboard Parks Will Revitalize the Economy? in which he stated, "Perhaps Speaker Pelosi can explain how skateboard parks will revitalize the economy."

The Reality

The reality is that all of this has nothing to do with irresponsible spending. Our Mayor was only doing as he was asked and had no illusions that the skate plaza was going to receive stimulus package money. Here's how he states it:

“We were asked to submit a list of every possible project we have that could be ready to go in 90 days or less,” [St. Cloud Mayor Dave] Kleis said. “We didn’t prioritize the list. If we had, those items would have been on the bottom.”

In fact if you look, you'll notice that he simply listed the projects alphabetically by Program type.

The good news for Austin and his project is that this media hype does not affect the skate plaza in any way. It is still being funded through private donations and will still use a portion of the 1/2 cent sales tax that St. Cloud voters approved 3 years ago for park improvements, regardless of whether or not it receives federal funding.

But really, if the federal government decides that city improvement projects such as this one, which would employ local construction workers and use tons of area concrete and steel, are good for the economy - should St. Cloud turn the money down?

I can't imagine why.

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Chairman of the Board

It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about Austin’s skate plaza project, and there are two good reasons for that:

1. The original location proved to be incompatible for a large cement-based skate plaza due to extremely poor soil conditions. The site used to be the home of an ancient lake bed and the soil in that area is literally nothing but mush for 60 feet down. It would have cost an extra ½ million dollars to modify the ground before it was capable of supporting a 1 acre plaza and that was too cost prohibitive.
click for full view

2. The major potential donors have taken a “call me when you’re ready to build” approach because no one wants to give large amounts of money to projects that aren’t projects yet.

But after nearly a year of very little progress, things are starting to look up. The city has found a new location with good soil and the skateboard wheels are in motion once again. Neighborhood meetings are taking place, architects are rendering their drawings and the city is talking about the possibility of breaking ground still this fall.

Of course Austin is only being cautiously optimistic. One of the things he’s learned as a member of the Park and Recreation Board is that city projects always come bundled in red tape.

Want to put in a new playground? No problem… just order up one environmental impact study, hold a public hearing, find money in the following year’s budget, present it to the City Council for approval, and WA-LAH!... 18 months later you have yourself a new playground! Now magnify that by a factor of 10 and you have Austin’s skate plaza project.

When Austin was first appointed to the Park and Recreation Board, the parks director told him that hopefully he would see his dream come true by the time his term was up in 3 years. We thought he was joking. He wasn’t.

And speaking of the Park Board...

Those of you who have been following this story know that Austin was elected vice chairman last year. During this time he has served his responsibility well - never missing a meeting and filling in as chair when it was required. Now, in a surprise move on Tuesday, Austin was elected as the new chairman of the board to serve until his term is up next year at this time. Charli and I were quite surprised by this unprecedented vote of confidence.

Below is a video of the very meeting where Austin was elected as chair. I've taken the liberty of editing out several minutes of discussion due to a bit of confusion in the process. Since Austin was already acting as chair that night (because the regular chair's term was up 3 months ago), it became unclear how he should move his own nomination forward, and the parks director had to jump in to help "direct traffic" to keep things moving.

Here's Austin in action as he led the meeting last Tuesday (don't worry, it's only 2 minutes long)

And in the end the St. Cloud Park and Recreation Board now has a new 16 year old chairman. Or should I say chair-teen?

You can also check out this press release from a local radio station.

I'm always a little hesitant to publish these updates because I don't want it to seem like I'm bragging or looking for kudos for Austin or myself. The reason I like to write about his project is because this serves as a great archive medium. Heck, if I wasn't blogging about this period in his life I probably wouldn't have any documentation at all! Plus, several people (besides my family) have asked me to keep publishing updates.

So stay tuned. Our mayor has indicated things are looking good. I can't say exactly what that means at this point but suffice it to say we are optimistic for some serious progress this fall. So please keep your fingers crossed for Austin...

I'd really like to see this plaza built while he's still young enough to use it!

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76 trombones did not lead this parade!

In my last post I mentioned that I had a busy weekend planned - and then later in the comments revealed that my son Austin was going to be one of the Grand Marshals in St. Cloud's Granite City Days parade on Saturday (read about it in our newspaper here).

As I'm sure most of you are aware, Austin has received some very positive recognition for leading an effort to build a skateboard plaza for the youth of our city (you can follow this series of posts for more information if you're interested).

As part of that recognition, our Mayor appointed Austin and another St. Cloud teen, Alise Post (the 2006 National BMX Women's Champion) the distinct honor of being co-Grand Marshals for our annual summer festival's parade.

And, as an added bonus for the entire Lee family... my oldest and dearest blog buddy Jennine just happened to be in town covering a story for her city's newspaper (from which she was hired as a result of her first class blogging and photography skills) and stopped by for a few minutes just to meet my parents and see Austin lead the parade.

I was deeply touched by the fact that she, her husband and son, took the time to squeeze in a visit to see us even though she had to be on the other side of town only a few minutes later to start covering her event.

And thanks to Jennine, I now have this awesome photo of Alise and Austin to remember this moment.

Before the parade

After the parade commenced, I quickly headed a 1/2 mile down the street to where our chairs were set up and waiting. A few minutes later this is who I see leading the parade.

Hey... somebody get that skateboarder off the parade route!

Dad! You're embarassing me!!!

Austin was lucky though. The weather had threatened the entire day to rain during this parade, but he made it through to the end without getting wet. His sister Roseanna on the other hand wasn't so lucky. She was in position #80 out of 93 floats and the rain started coming down before her karate team even left the staging area. By the time she got to us, she was drenched.

Still in good spirits though!

Oh, and here was my brush with fame for the day...

As the usual political suspects were walking by, I saw Team Franken handing out fliers but didn't think much of it - until I turned to the right to see Al himself approaching me at a pretty fast clip. So naturally I stuck out my arm and shook his hand. I was actually surprised to see him there. I really wasn't expecting it.

He's good enough, he's smart enough, and doggonit, people like him!

So as you can imagine, it was a pretty exciting day for everyone - rain or not. My kids were in the parade, my folks came down to visit, I got to see Jennine again, and The Receders played to a packed club later in the night - after which I didn't hit the sack until 3 a.m.

And now today I'm spent. But hopefully I can now get back to seeing what all of you fine folks are up to again. So until then...

Have a great week!

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Update: Stop by Jennine's place to read her side of this event along with a very touching tribute to my parents.

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Skate Plaza On The Roll

It's been awhile since I've written anything new about the skate plaza project, but last night was just so damned cool that I don't have a choice but to share it.

As (most of) you know already, my son Austin is leading a large project to build a world-class skateboard plaza here in St. Cloud. You can check out all the details here.


By all estimates, the total cost of this project will most likely exceed one million dollars, which is a ton of money for any organization to raise. However, our Mayor has recently committed to approving the construction of the plaza in 2008 if we can raise $250,000 by the end of this year, with the balance to be paid over the next several years. To that end, Austin has been writing letters and grants, and meeting with business presidents, CEOs and civic organizations nonstop for the last 6 months in an effort to secure this amount in pledges or donations by December 31st.

Then, just last week he received this email from the local branch of our Optimist Club:

"Hi Austin,

I have some great news for you today.

The St. Cloud Morning Optimist Club has approved a commitment of $50,000.00 total to be paid over the next five years. This will be offered as a challenge grant where we will match other contributors dollar for dollar up to the $50,000 commitment..."

The letter goes on to describe how he envisioned the presentation of the award so as to inspire other businesses to step up to the challenge and make their own donations as well.

Here is Austin receiving the check last night.


Needless to say he's been on cloud 9 all week, and last night was a major, giant, HUGE step toward his dream come true. By nature of the challenge grant, this means that if other people donate $50,000, the Optimist Club will match the $50,000 themselves for a total of $100,000 - better than a 3rd of the way to construction!

And if that wasn't exciting enough for the young man, he was also elected Vice Chairman of the Park and Recreation Board at the end of the last session. That's a pretty big honor but normally doesn't require much additional duty. Unless of course the Chairman can't make it to a board meeting - in which case the Vice Chair has to run the show.

Uh... guess who was in charge last night?

rockin the house

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76 Trombones

Whew - what a weekend!

Like other expectant parents, we've been spending a lot of time nurturing our baby to be... the new skate plaza that is. Taking care of a new plaza fetus requires a lot of work - feeding it fundraisers, providing it proper media nutrition - and this weekend, showing the public the sonogram plans.

Since this weekend was Granite City Days, we first set up a booth down at Lake George (near the future site of the plaza) while boarders held demos and played a tournament of s.k.a.t.e., which is the skateboarding equivalent of h.o.r.s.e.


Before that however, Charli and a team of kids spent two days putting this float together in our garage for the big parade on Saturday night. I had no idea you could be so creative with chicken wire and tissue paper!

An awesome time was had by all and nearly 3000 cards and pieces of candy were distributed to parents and kids. But there's still a lot of work to be done and a lot of edumacatin to be had - especially to our own men in blue. At one point, two skaters came up from behind our float and started doing tricks in front of the truck I was driving. As they worked their magic in front of the crowd, a cop standing on the side of the road actually walked out to one of the skaters and told him to get off the road and out of the way and "...you can't be skating out here. This is a parade." When the skater told him he was in the parade and pointed out the float that was following him, the cop said, "Well, stay close to your float."

Whatever.

So that's what we did. How was your weekend?

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Happy Birthday Sk8ter Boy

Every so many years, Austin's birthday falls on the same day as Father's Day, and I have to share the limelight with him.

But I don't like to share so when this has happened in the past, I simply concocted a guilt trip about how he should honor me as his father and sacrifice his dream of having a special day all to himself. And then I remind him how I'm bigger than he is and that I can totally take him.

However, something has changed that has completely screwed that up. After this last year, I don't stand a snowman's chance in hell of stealing any limelight from this kid any more.

And why is that you ask? Well, for those of you who don't know, please allow me to explain.

Only one year ago at our city's 4th of July celebration, Austin saw our mayor preparing to give a speech and decided to "go for it" and mention his idea for a dream he had - to build a skate plaza in St. Cloud. What happened after that is like some far-fetched kind of movie plot, so seemingly implausible that if someone had suggested to you what was going to happen to him the following year, you would have laughed in their face.

To illustrate this clearer, here's a summary of events that have taken place over the last 11 1/2 months.

July 4, 2006 - Austin meets the mayor and tells him his idea


August 2006 - Austin is appointed to the St. Cloud Park and Recreation Board


October 2006 - Following a media blitz by area newspapers and all 3 local network affiliates, ABC News picks up the story and features Austin as the Person of the Week.


March 2007 - After several months of planning, fundraising events and more media coverage, Austin and the Mayor are featured guests on this very cool national podcast by The Gen Y Project.

May 2007 - The preliminary designs of the skate plaza are complete and local architects have created this animated flyover.


June 2007 - As retiring Park and Rec board members end their 3-year terms, new vacancies are opened up for board Chair and Vice-Chair. After electing a new board Chair, Austin is nominated and unanimously elected as the new Vice-Chair of the St. Cloud Park and Recreation Board.

Next - All details of this project including full media clips, newspaper articles and designs can be found at stcloudskatepark.com for anyone who wants to learn more. As well, you can click the "Skatepark" tag at the bottom to read all the other stories I've written about this wacky adventure. As for the next steps, Austin and the fundraising committee are busy planning more events and knocking on doors, and things are going very well. In fact, the mayor has already indicated that he hopes to break ground on the new plaza next summer.

And that only partially sums up Austin's year as a 14 year-old. Not a bad year's work - IF YOU'RE 50! Hmm, let's see - what did I accomplish when I was 14. Oh yeah, nothing.

So happy birthday bud. Keeping track of everything you've got going on is making me dizzy, but I hope I'm letting you know enough how proud I am of you and how much I love you. Because I am VERY proud, and I love you VERY much.

And I hope you have a fantastic 15th birthday and that you have a blast next week at skateboard camp.

But as for our shared birthday/Father's Day? You go ahead and keep the limelight, you deserve it. And all I want for a gift is for you to think that I had something to do with how you turned out.

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Sinko-de-Mayor

A few weeks ago a local radio station came up with the idea of holding a fundraiser on May 5th.

They wrapped the idea in a pun called Sinko-de-Mayor, put up a dunk tank and charged the contestants $1.00 per toss to sink the mayor.

When they asked the mayor what cause he wanted to donate the funds to, he graciously asked that all proceeds go to the St. Cloud Skate Plaza.

So dunk tank he did - but not without requiring that my son Austin be included as one of the dunkees. According to the Mayor, "If I'm going in, HE'S going in!"

Normally, on a hot summer day, an event like this would be a welcome refreshment. But yesterday, it blew a cold steady rain the entire time and the temperature never broke 60°. These guys were soaked and frozen before they ever set butt in the tank. And to make matters worse, the water had been filled directly from the ice-cold fire hydrant only minutes before.

Here's a few shots of the event.

From L to R:
The Mayor and Austin before the dunkfest; Austin - ready but nervous; The lynch mob; Austin's first dunk; The Mayor - ready but more nervous; The Mayor's first dunk

click to enlarge

All in all it was a very successful event. People actually came out because of the cold weather just to see how these two blue-lipped participants would avert hypothermia. Money was raised, hot chocolate was drunk, and good times were had by all.

Ok, by most. I know two guys who would beg to differ.

So thank you Wild Country and thank you Mayor Kleis as well. That was a noble and generous thing to do.

And hopefully, the next time someone asks for your help with a fundraiser, you won't need a wet suit to participate.

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My View: Skateboarders Are Not Bad Kids

It seems this story on Good Morning America (about the skateboarder who was shoved by the cop) has raised quite a stir these last few days. Apparently, the sentiment against public skateboarding is an issue that has been quietly brewing under the covers in communities all over the nation. And this incident was just the spark needed to ignite public opinion. It's also an incident that is especially relevant to our community and our son Austin.

As all of my longterm readers are aware, my son has gained national attention himself for leading a large project to bring a skateboard plaza to our city (follow the related links at the bottom for the history of his story).

This incident in South Carolina is the exact reason why what Austin is doing is so important. Absolutely that guy should not have been skating on city benches, but in almost every town where illegal skateboarding is a problem, there is no other place for them to skate legally.

What's so interesting to me about this story is how polarized the public has become over whether the cop was right or wrong for what she did (I tried to link to the hundreds of comments on the ABC News message board but they don't keep a static forum history). To me that's a non-issue. Police (or anyone for that matter) are simply not allowed to shove someone unless they are trying to protect themselves in the name of self defense. And obviously, this guy was not attacking the police officer as he skated past her on a bench going 2 mph.

Unfortunately, this controversy stems from a couple of huge stereotypes against skaters:
1 - They destroy public property. The problem is, the only places that have the kinds of "features" (such as large cement stairs, rails and ledges) where skateboarders can execute their craft - are at business buildings on public property.

2. They are all disrespectful smart-asses. Well, over the last 6 months I've been working very closely with a large group of skateboarders in the planning of St. Cloud's new skate plaza, and I'm thrilled to say that this stereotype couldn't be any further from the truth. These young men have been coming to meetings, helping with designs and encouraging public support. In fact, on Friday night a group of local skateboarders held a huge fundraiser that brought in over 200 people and netted $600 in donations. Another fundraiser planned by the same group will be held in April with more to follow over the summer.

Actually, I can see how skateboarders can cop an attitude. In towns without skate parks, the only thing these kids ever here is "You can't skate here!" or "You're destroying public property!" Yeah, if that's the only thing I ever heard I would probably get a little defensive myself.


Unlike what is happening in South Carolina and towns all over America, our situation is demonstrating how the youth, parents and the city can effectively work together through mutual respect. The skaters have been attending all of the planning meetings and learning how they can help, and city officials have been attending the fundraisers and offering their support every step of the way. Now, instead of having a group of frustrated skaters doing whatever they feel is necessary to make a point, we now have a group of inspired skaters doing everything they can to make a skate park. It really is amazing.

And that's the difference. In most towns, the skaters are simply demanding that the city build them a skate park. In our town, the skaters are helping to build the skate park. That's a big difference.

And so my point is this - instead of jumping to conclusions that all skateboarders are delinquents who have no respect for authority or public property, take a minute and try to see it from their perspective. These are just kids who want to be left alone to engage in a healthy and creative sport, but everyone is telling them to go away.

Instead, let's tell them how to get involved so they can have a place to go.

Next up: Update on the St. Cloud Skate Plaza project - including the plans!
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Related Reads - follow these links to read related posts about Austin and his project:

Dude With a Dream
Dizzy
Special Report - Skateboard Plaza Update
The story behind the story - ABC News Person of the Week
Picking up steam!

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Picking up steam!

I originally wasn't going to mention this because it feels like I talk about it too much already. But then Jennine was all... "what you talkin about Willis!" and, well - maybe I should just print what she said:

Come on Jeff...if my kid was making headlines as much as Austin is, believe me, I would be writing about it in my blog daily....hourly!! Give your blogging family some credit...we WANT to know this kind of stuff.

Ok, you win! But I'll keep it short.

On November 28, Austin is going to be presenting a huge meeting about his skate plaza at St. Cloud City Hall. This is the first opportunity for the public to come and hear the official plans, progress and next steps. Besides the city government folks, he'll be joined by Site Design Group, the nation's largest skatepark design and construction firm. Austin hired these guys to consult for this project because they are the experts who know all the specific "ins and outs" of skatepark design.


Our local newspaper published this story about it yesterday.

As if that's not enough, the Mayor called today and asked Austin to come down and be videotaped for our city's time capsule they're going to bury next week. They thought it would be cool to have his story in it since he'll still be around 50 years from now when they open it at our Bi-Centennial anniversary - and hopefully so will the skatepark!

Besides all that, he's also being asked to give speeches at both his elementary and middle schools.

Whew! Ok, I'm done now.

But I guarantee Austin isn't.

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The story behind the story

As you can imagine, we've had quite the exciting ride the last few days.

It all started innocently enough Wednesday evening as we were preparing for our little vacation trip to Kentucky to attend my nephew's wedding. It was around 9:30 p.m., my wife was out buying last minute supplies, and I was finishing up my packing so I could go to bed at 10:00 and get enough sleep to begin our 5 a.m. adventure.

The rest of the story goes like this:

9:30 p.m. The phone rings. It's the mayor and he asks for Austin, which isn't unusual these days so I think nothing of it. After about 2 minutes I hear Austin say, "Really? That's pretty cool." - but that we were going to be going on vacation tomorrow morning so he probably wasn't going to be able to do it.

I ask Austin what that was all about and he says, "The mayor said some news people want to do another interview with me. I told him that we weren't going to be around but he said this was pretty important and we should probably consider changing our plans.

Why, is ABC News pretty important?"

After I changed my pants I explained that ABC News was the national news and yes, they were VERY important. "Oh," he said. "Well then you should probably talk to them, because they're going to call here in a few minutes."

9:40 p.m. The phone rings again. This time it's ABC News producer Bob Haberl from New York City. He proceeds to tell me that they are interested in featuring Austin as the "Person of the Week" and would like to send a crew out tomorrow for the interview.

This time I didn't have time to change my pants. After discussing our various options for the next half hour, we finally settled on the plan where ABC would meet us in Chicago at 1:00 p.m. for our segment of the story, and they would send another crew to St. Cloud for the local portion. Bob spoke with me for nearly 45 minutes and then with Austin for about 30 more minutes after that.

One thing Bob wanted to make very clear at the end of our conversation was that these types of stories can sometimes get tossed if there's another more important story in the headlines that day - such as the announcement of a Nobel Peace Prize winner or something. He just wanted to make sure we were completely aware of all the possibilities, so Austin wasn't disappointed if his story didn't air for some reason.

By the time we finished the phone calls, jumping up and down and slapping ourselves to make sure we weren't dreaming - it was midnight. And, because we now had an actual deadline to be in Chicago by 1:00, we decided to move our departure time for our 7-hour trip up to 3 a.m. instead of 5, just to be on the safe side. This would give us a full 2 hours to find the skatepark, have some lunch and let Austin warm up before the camera crew arrived.

Thursday 2:30 a.m. I wake up after a refreshing 2 1/2 hours of sleep, take my shower and load the car with the luggage my wife had been packing until 1:00.

3:00 a.m. Because we're all going to be on national television, we can't just simply crawl into the car with bedhead - so all three kids are woken up and dumped into the showers. Amazingly, no one was killed.

3:30 a.m. As unlikely as it seems, we pull out of the driveway and head for Chicago!

12:00 p.m. After battling snow showers in Rockford, traffic jams in Elgin and bad directions from Yahoo, we find ourselves right smack in the middle of downtown Chicago on Lake and Michigan - when we were actually supposed to be on Lakeshore Drive and Wilson. (Watch for future spin-off story: Minnesota Driver Eaten Alive and Spit Back Out by Local Chicago Drivers)

12:45 p.m. After requesting help and receiving a police escort from one of Chicago's very finest, we finally arrive at the skatepark - a full 15 minutes ahead of our deadline! ABC Sports cameramen Mark and Gary are already waiting for us and begin filming the kids as they skate around the park.

ABC News cameramen Mark (l) and Gary (r)

Austin live

1:30 p.m. Sandy, the ABC News Chicago bureau producer, arrives and begins the interview process. Bob Haberl feeds Sandy the questions over her cell phone. Mark and Gary stop the taping dozens of times because of environmental distractions such as snow, clouds, airplanes, garbage trucks and wayward onlookers.

The grillings

4:30 p.m. After a full 3 hours in 28-degree temperature, we finally finish taping. Mark and Sandy discuss whether they will overnight the tape or send it over the "bird," which is tech-speak for "transmit it over the satellite." Mark recommends that the tape be sent overnight because footage is usually trimmed for satellite transmission due to the cost, and he would prefer that the editors in New York had all the raw material to work from.

Meanwhile in St. Cloud, camera crews are also interviewing the mayor, filming skateboarders on the street and requesting tapes from City Hall of the last three Park and Rec meetings so they can use footage of Austin from those as well.

Friday, 3:00 p.m. Bob Haberl calls me and asks me to send a fax of Austin's signature to overlay on the final frame of the story. I ask him if it still looks like it's going to air and he says "Yes, it looks promising - unless something more important happens like the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize winner."

5:45 p.m. Arrive in our hotel in Lexington, turn to the television in the lobby and notice that CNN is broadcasting the Nobel Peace Prize winner. My heart sinks for Austin. I call Bob to try to find out if his story will still air at 6:30 but only get voice mail. I assume he's probably doing something more important - like PRODUCING THE NEWS!

6:30 p.m. Turn on ABC News in our hotel room. They lead with the Nobel Prize winner. Still no mention of Austin's story.

6:40 p.m. We see first preview of a kid's feet on a skateboard for a "still to come" story. Our entire room erupts into one giant cheer.


6:56 p.m. Austin is featured as "Person of the Week." Here is the clip thanks to my friend Schnozz:



I am completely blown away by how these people in New York can take 3 hours of footage from Chicago, 2 hours of footage from St. Cloud and several hours of video from the Park and Rec meetings and edit them down to one cohesive and accurate 3-minute story - ALL IN LESS THAN 30 HOURS!!!

To say I am impressed would be an understatement. I now have a new respect for the professionals of the news industry and a deep appreciation for the effort and dedication they apply to their craft. But I like what Bob Haberl had to say about it in his email to me after the story aired:

"I always say there are two things people shouldn't see being made. One is sausage, of course. The other is television."

He's probably right about the sausage thing - but I couldn't be more fascinated by the television process.

So thank you Bob, Mark, Gary, Sandy and all the people in St. Cloud and New York we didn't get the chance to meet, Charles Gibson included. You've made a huge difference to the future of Austin's project and have changed Austin's life forever.

www.stcloudskatepark.com

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Special Report - Skateboard Plaza Update

For those of you who have been following my son's story of bringing a skateboard plaza to St. Cloud, Austin had an exciting day yesterday.

My wife received a call from Kare 11 News (the Mpls NBC affiliate) at 2:00 yesterday afternoon asking if they could come up and do a story on Austin - in 2 hours! Sure enough, at 4:00 there they were on my deck interviewing the guy while my wife and I watched from the kitchen window.


Needless to say, Austin is very excited about this press. Click here to see the story and video.

I was amazed at how much time and effort Amy and Monica put into producing this story. They had to drive one hour to St. Cloud, interview the mayor and Austin for over 2 hours and then drive back an hour again so they could edit the story for the 10:00 news. They didn't even leave town until after 5:00. That's like 6 hours of work for a 2-minute spot!

So thanks Kare 11, this story will help a lot. We're already receiving inquiries as to where people can donate. Right now we have this web site up and in progress.

One thing's for sure, Austin sure doesn't mind all the attention. Especially when it comes from such wonderful people as these!

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Dizzy

You'll have to excuse me if you don't see me around here for a few days. We're a little busy at the Lee household.

As I noted in this story, my son Austin (I guess I won't have to use his nickname anymore after what has transpired in the press) was appointed to the St. Cloud Park and Rec board last week. What has followed since has been... well, a little crazy.

Monday Evening: Austin attends City Council meeting to be approved unanimously as the newest member of the Park and Rec Board.

Tuesday a.m.: Announcement appears in the St. Cloud Times.

9:00 a.m.: Austin appears as guest on the "Meet The Mayor" radio show.

11:30 a.m.: Austin is interviewed over the phone by WCCO radio.

This afternoon: Austin (and family) to be interviewed by Minneapolis KSTP Channel 5 news for 10:00 broadcast tonight.

So you can see why I don't have time to write an official story about this right now.

I have to do my hair.

*Wed Evening Update: We did the interview (and my hair looked fantastic btw) but they couldn't get the story on tonight. So, for those of you who will be watching, it will be broadcast tomorrow night (Thu) at 10:00 CST instead.

Next up, more radio interviews tomorrow. I think I need to get this guy an agent!

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Dude With a Dream

My son AJ is a skateboard fanatic.

I'm intrigued by this whole skateboarding craze because I don't remember even seeing a skateboard when I was a kid. Back then, I used to think skateboards were just a dumb '50s thing for poor kids who couldn't afford cool bikes. I had no idea you could develop complex skills and perform acrobatic tricks on them.

It stands to reason why I was not exposed to this sport as a youngster. Besides the fact that I lived on a gravel road, Duluth at that time had no skateboard shops, no skateboard parks and no skateboard advocates. It's much different now.

The Twin Cities have several indoor/outdoor skate parks and dozens of specialty shops. In fact, for AJ's 14th birthday, we bought him a full week of skateboard camp to the 3rd Lair where he skated hard for 5 hours a day and came home with a whole new set of skills.

AJ at the 3rd Lair

However, in St. Cloud we only have one skate park, which is a small indoor-only business that the kids have to pay for. This, of course, is better than nothing but not good enough for my son. Ever since he's been to other towns with public (city owned) skate parks, he has been on a mission... to get a public skate park here in St. Cloud.

To that end, my son will stop at nothing to see his dream come true. In fact, just the other day at our city's 150th birthday/4th of July celebration, AJ spotted the mayor dressed in his ceremonial garb just getting ready to step up on the stage and give his speech. Before I could figure out what he was up to, he had already dashed over to him and began stating his case.

"See, it'll be like this..."

Surprisingly, the mayor was very respectful of AJ's concern, and even handed him a business card and asked him to make an appointment to discuss it further.

That was all he needed.

This entire past week, AJ has spent every waking minute in front of the computer compiling statistics on skatepark square footage, designs, costs, and grant foundations. Never before have I seen a 14 year old so focused on a mission. Every detail had been considered. Every reference had been noted. Every picture had been printed - and as of last night at midnight the final proposal was in hand.

Then today at 1:30, AJ headed down the hallway of our own City Hall, all by himself, to meet with the mayor.

At 2:30 AJ called me on the phone - so excited I could barely understand him.

"Dad! You're never gonna believe this! The mayor LOVED my proposal!"

It was true. Not only did the mayor love his ideas, but by the time he was finished, the mayor had actually asked him to become of member of the St. Cloud Park and Rec Board and begin immediately by attending the next board meeting tomorrow night. He then summoned in the city photographer for this publicity shot.

A few hours later this email arrived in his mailbox (actual names edited for privacy):

----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Nxxxxx" To: "Axxxxx Lee" Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:41 PM Subject: Mayor pictures Axxxxx, Here ya go! Congratulations on your appointment to the Park & Rec Board! Joe Nxxxxx Media Services Supervisor City of St. Cloud 320 6xx-xxxx jnxxxxx@ci.stcloud.mn.us

Now, I'm not saying that this whole thing is a slam dunk. There's a lot of hard work yet to be done, a lot of doors to knock on and a ton of obstacles to overcome. But I can't help but have faith in a kid with a dream.

And trust me on this one - nobody dreams bigger than AJ.

*****

Update: Since Austin was featured as Person of the Week on ABC World News Tonight, many people have found their way to this post through internet searches. Please click here to learn more about the St. Cloud Skatepark Project or to make a donation. Thank you!

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