Mobile skateparks another victim of Calgary budget cuts

Massive cuts to police, fire, public transit, affordable housing and city staffing levels made the headlines, but smaller, lesser-knownbelt-tightening initiatives are starting to come to the surface.

Calgary council voted 13-1 in favour of a package of $60 million in cuts to this year's budget with less than half a fiscal year to implement them, in part, to give business property owners a 10 per cent tax rollback.

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The optics could not have been worse, as just days later council voted in favour of giving $275 million in public funds toward a new arena for the Calgary Flames.

Now, a program that's been running since 1997 is coming to an end in just a few weeks.

Calgary launched community mobile skateparks 22 years ago, replacing just three skateboard ramps that operated on and off between the mid-1980s and 1990.

But as of early next month, that program is on ice.

Jeff Hanson grew up with the mobile parks, spending summers teaching lessons to young people.

He's now a member of the Calgary Association of Skateboarding Enthusiasts (CASE), a skateboarding advocacy group.

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"To me it's always served another purpose of creating local skateboarding spaces for people in neighbourhoods that don't have skateparks," Hanson told CBC News.

The ramps, and other obstacles, rotate through communities all summer.

Each location has staff on hand to supervise, along with scheduled lessons for little ones.

Tom Nelson, also with CASE,says the groupwillmeetwith the city this week.

"I think there are still opportunities to increase skateboarding and we really hope when budget comes back, skateboarding will be a priority because they will see how successful skateparks have been," Nelson said.

Donovan Armstrong took his daughter to one of mobile skateparks.

He says while it's nice to have, he understands if the city has to claw back on these types of things.

"If it's gone forever that really does suck. It would be nice if maybe a private organization could bring it back. But it would make sense that the city would have to cut it back, because there's a lot of people who have had to cut back and a lot of people are struggling to get by."

The program ends September 5.