the deuce: How many city officials does it take to fill a party bus?

Posted on Mon, Oct 5, 2009 : 12:40 p.m.

I don't know what you did this weekend, but I bet it didn't involve riding a party bus, powered by fryer grease, to a skatepark in Farmington Hills with a bunch of city officials.

Ha! I win.

On Saturday, the Ann Arbor Skatepark Action Committee (of which, in the interest of full disclosure, I am a member) took - among others - Park Advisory Commission vice-chair John Lawter, city park planner Amy Kuras, green building consultant John Barrie, and city council member Mike Anglin, D-5th Ward, on the BTB Party Bus to visit Riley Skatepark in Farmington Hills.

Coffee and cookies were also served.

I have to admit that I had this vision of the rowdy bunch of us really partying on that bus. Lil Wayne bumping, politicians raising the roof, Cristale poppin'. It would have been sweet. Oh well. It was really productive.

But we did get this:

And isn't that worth a thousand bottles of Cristale? Or at least four?

Plus, the Ann Arbor Skatepark had a good showing of skaters, identifiable both by their Ann Arbor Skatepark t-shirts and by their median age, which was three times that of most of the other skaters using the park.

The goal of the trip was to show people what a great skatepark, like the one the committee is raising funds to build in Ann Arbor, looks like. And to test the committment of our officials and city employees by making them stand around outside on a really cold, wet Saturday.

There was an impressive level of media coverage, both by myself (I rode on the bus and ate two cookies), and Dave Askins from The Ann Arbor Chronicle, who rode his bike there (remember, this was in Farmington Hills) in the rain and had a very fancy camera. Okay, I admit it, he totally out-bloggered me on this one.

This event was just a pre-cursor to the big one coming up: A free, public design session with nationally-known skatepark designer Wally Hollyday on October 18. The meeting will be a workshop format, with hands-on participation by local skaters, interested community members and city staff. Wally Hollyday will present a visual representation that includes images and illustrations of skate parks he has created. More info to come, or check out a2skatepark.org.