Image courtesy Cincinnati Skatepark Project
Evan Walker has always found commonality on wheels. He first picked up a skateboard in middle school in California, learning to skate but also to make friends and express himself. Later, working as an environmental sustainability advisor, he moved around to small towns and big cities, and one of his first acts in a new place became finding the closest skatepark. That’s where he could usually connect with a group of people who also wanted to challenge themselves physically and creatively.
Walker is now a co-founder of the Cincinnati Skatepark Project, which has been advocating for spaces to skate in the city for four years. On a recent April morning, he was among a group to lift shovels of dirt in Camp Washington and ceremoniously break ground on the city’s first full-scale public skatepark. Walker’s hope is that the park, expected to open by fall, will jumpstart a network of places to skate in Cincinnati.
“This has been an all-wheels effort,” he said to the crowd gathered at the groundbreaking, “and a long time coming.”
Photograph by Carrie Blackmore
Over the next several months, design and construction firm Hunger Skateparks will construct the 12,000-square-foot skatepark on a city-owned property at 1201 Stock Avenue. Adjacent to a public swimming pool, a new playground, and soon-to-be-repaved basketball courts, the Camp Washington Skatepark will become another asset within the Cincinnati Recreation Commission system, CRC Director Daniel Betts told the crowd.
“For many young people, skateparks are places to build confidence, friendships, discipline, and resilience,” said Betts. “But this is not just for skaters. We are also creating gathering spaces for families and spectators.”
Hunger Skateparks is a skateboarder-owned and operated firm co-founded by Bart Smith, who built his first ramps in Kokomo, Indiana, when he was 12 years old. To date, he’s constructed more than 60 skateparks, including two in Denmark.
“Skateboarder-built parks are always better,” Walker said, explaining that the Camp Washington Skatepark design will include a concrete bowl, rails, ramps, and ledges to challenge skaters at all skill levels. The design came together with input from neighborhood residents, skateboarders, roller skaters, roller bladers, quad skaters, and scooter and BMX riders, he said.
Signature features include a “cheese coney ramp,” and part of the design commemorates Shapes Park, a downtown sculpture park near the Cincinnati Convention Center that attracted skaters but was removed in 2023, Walker said. Altogether, the skatepark project costs $950,000, funded by a series of supporters: $550,000 from the city of Cincinnati and CRC, $300,000 from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, $50,000 from the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile Jr. Foundation, and $50,000 from the Devou Good Foundation.
Image courtesy Cincinnati Skatepark Project
The plan also includes environmental improvements to the site, Walker said. Camp Washington is a historically industrial neighborhood, with a low density of tree cover compared to other neighborhoods. Planners are working with Groundwork Ohio River Valley and the Common Orchard Project to complete landscaping, plant trees and flowers, and design the project to filter pollution and prevent flooding from stormwater runoff.
“This project is a symbol of what community-focused investments can achieve,” Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval said at the groundbreaking. “This kind of civic asset was not necessarily on my radar when we took office. But that’s exactly why it’s critically important for us to solicit input from all of you in the community, to get your ideas, and to empower your vision of what you think will make an impact in our community.”
Camp Washington is a great location for the first full-scale skatepark in the city, said Walker, whose group has been advocating for the park for more than three years. Not only will it be centrally located, but the skatepark is connected to other parts of the city by bike lanes, bus lines, and I-75’s Hopple Street exit. And the Camp Washington community has been welcoming of skate culture, Walker said.
“There’s a lot of interesting things happening in Camp Washington that’s a mix of hard work and creativity,” he said. “In my eyes, that’s skateboarding—people working hard at a creative endeavor.”
While full-sized skateparks exist in Hamilton County, in Delhi Township and Colerain Township, and further away in Florence, Lawrenceburg, and Batesville, not everyone can get in a car and drive to a skatepark, Walker said. Cincinnati Skatepark Project wants opportunities to skate closer to home in every city neighborhood, which is why the group (led by its other co-founders, Randy Browne and Gabrielle Larkin) is continuing with its mission to expand the network of places to skate. Cincinnati Skatepark Project’s master plan identifies five full-scale skateparks connected by smaller skate spots—referred sometimes as “skatedots”—throughout the city.
Fundraising continues for additional amenities at the Camp Washington site, including lighting and art, Walker said. “People are already talking about having the first Cincinnati Chili Bowl once this gets built,” he said. “We have a strong inclusive skating scene here in Cincinnati of all ages, nationalities, and genders, and we’re stoked to skate.”
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