Orange County Great Park

[wheels619]

Check this out, the city of Irvine is meeting to talk about parks. Bikers need to show up for this! Wouldn't it be cool to have a bike park in Irvine?
Here's some background info on the park: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County_Great_Park
There way too many soccer/basketball fields and nothing for bikes. Something like a pump track or a set of DIRT JUMPS would be awesome. Great for the kids too. So please show up so Irvine doesn't get another soccer field..

If you cannot show up, at least fill out the online form!

http://www.ocgp.org/

Make the Great Park Your Park! The City of Irvine and the Orange County Great Park Corporation invite you to attend a public open house at the Orange County Great Park Balloon site.

When: December 1st and 2nd, 2007 from 10 am to 2 pm
Where: Great Park Balloon Site (Directions)

Meet the Great Park Design Team and give us your feedback on programs related to:

* Sports and Recreation
* Festivals and Events
* Ecology and Nature
* Historic Preservation
* Cultural and Social Institutions and Activities

If you are unable to attend the open house you can still participate in the planning process by taking an online survey (link will be active beginning December 1st). The survey will be available from December 1st - 8th. For more information, please call (949) 724-7420. Read on...

[biglimey]

Originally Posted by wheels619

There way too many soccer/basketball fields and nothing for bikes. Something like a pump track or a set of DIRT JUMPS would be awesome. Great for the kids too.

Some of the more progressive city planners in Norcal have seen the benefits of pump tracks, trails and jumps, We need to help push them in that direction.

I for one will be filling out the survey as soon as it's up!!!

[northshore]

This is bad for us auto crossers and road racers. Another spot will be lost for us.

[queenwilhelmina]

I thought they had already decided exactly what the layout and amenities will be, but it sounds like they are still planning. That would be awesome to have a little track or jumps there. If not that, then at least a skate park-which could be a better idea. Any grassy area can be a soccer field, but I don't think kids have enough places to go skate where they aren't getting into trouble.

[kanga]

We're going through a similar process up here in Glendale. The local city council put in one of the best skate parks around some time ago, and now the same team is working on the Glendale Trails system, which we've managed to now include a Bike Park. A few of us have been heading to the city's public meetings, and there is expected to be a referendum at the Glendale City Council tentatively scheduled for December 11th, at which they'll vote on approving the new trails system, and hopefully, bike park.

Some of our ammo has been the recently opened Collonade project in Seattle, the Fresno bike park, the recently opened trails in New York City, and the growing interest in mountain biking.

So it can be done, and public support is the best way to make it happen. Go to the meeting, or at least share your opinions on the survey when it's available.

[queenwilhelmina]

There's a great article in the Sep/Oct version of BIKE magazine about those new singletrack and dirt jumps in NYC. Crime has decreased and the kids are loving it. That was huge for NYC since there has been so much anti-bike legislation up until now. So if it can happen there, it can happen here!!

That's awesome kanga. I'm glad Glendale and these other cities are realizing the value of these things.

[DISCO]

Too much litigation and insurance costs, Irvine's skate parks are deliberately sub-par to encourage mediocrity with a minimum risk of injury. If the example of the land trust sets any precedent Mr. Bren will not be making any hasty moves. You can just about scratch auto racing as the NIMBY's will have a fit and send it out to Fontana which is the closest thing to a usable (to this message board) facility in the area. If they could turn a blind eye to some of the slope areas up toward the dump we might be able to have a little fun. It will be better served as unincorporated use at your own risk zoning like "the whoops".

[Chewyeti]

Originally Posted by northshore

This is bad for us auto crossers and road racers. Another spot will be lost for us.

OT: who do you race with at el toro?

I do PCA there

[kanga]

The survey is online and open at http://ocgp.survey.sgizmo.com/. I went through it all and there are quite a few things being considered. One of the options is "bike trails and paths" on the first page.

But in the comments section, this is what I added. Feel free to copy and paste, or elaborate:

A Bike park with BMX track, pump track, mountain bike skills course, mountain bike specific trails and dirt jump section is sorely needed and lacking in the area. Look at what the City of Fresno is doing, NYC, Seattle, and many other towns who are realizing the benefits of having a bike park. Bicycles provide a healthy, fitness building activity to the youth and adults of the county, and provide a viable means of transport. The more we encourage people to use bicycles for both recreation and transport, the better for the health of the environment and for members of the community.

[Waldo]

Wheels and Kanga - thanks for posting this info and links. Seems like the slate is clean for a lot of the recreational areas of the park, and their definition of recreation could range anywhere from a 'natural' environment to a Disneyfied park with wave pools, etc. Hope everybody makes their priorities known.

[donkey]

One word: Velodrome.

B

[northshore]

Originally Posted by Chewyeti

OT: who do you race with at el toro?

I do PCA there

CSCC mainly.

[bighit8]

I gave my 2 cents, some good ideas and some worthless ideas!

[.8down]

I'd like to see a skate and bike park for the youngers of our society, I know when I was a kid skating kept me out of other kids of trouble but without a park I got into different kinds of trouble.

I found this snippet interesting:
he Great Park Plan focuses on the 1,347 public acres of the property and includes a 2.5 mile canyon, a 26 acre lake, botanical gardens, a cultural terrace, lawns, performing arts venues, a sports park, and a wildlife corridor connecting the Cleveland National Forest to the Laguna Coast Wilderness. At 1,347 acres, the Great Park will be larger than New York's Central Park, San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and San Diego's Balboa Park.

[wheels619]

Originally Posted by donkey

One word: Velodrome.

B

Thanks for filling it out everyone!

While I understand people like track riding, I think proposing a bike park(pump track, dirt jumps,etc) would be more likely because of it's appeal to kids.

Having a velodrome will make adult riders happier, but it seems that if we want to help kids get into the sport and stay away from trouble, bike parks are a better answer.

[kanga]

There's no reason not to ask for both.... better to have the interest registered and ignored than have no record of the interest at all. That goes for all the mountain bike facilities we're asking for as well as for a velodrome and bmx track. After all, they're all legit olympic sports.

[Smirnus]

Originally Posted by DISCO

Too much litigation and insurance costs, Irvine's skate parks are deliberately sub-par to encourage mediocrity with a minimum risk of injury.

Truth is spoken. When compared to RSM's, Etnies and Laguna Niguel, the Irvine park is a joke.

[DISCO]

Private versus public funding, besides nobody is thinking long term sustainability only how to maximize profit within their lifetimes.

[Smirnus]

DISCO! What happened to to volvo?

[Big Guy]

just look at what they did in Seattle, they had all that lost space under the highway 5. It was occupied by vagrants and drug addicts. They built a Mountain bike Park with all level obstacles. a friend of mine has been working on it for 2 years. he send me some pictures

http://home.comcast.net/~mwestra1/p20218/