Don’t know where you hail from but this is an old thread and it amazes me you found it almost a year since the initial issue was raised here in Northfield. In the ensuing 8/9 months since the initial damage was done to the Library Plaza wall I’d say the assault on the downtown by SB youth has lessened here in N’Fld. Skateboarders have taken a new tact building relationships with the DT and the places they usually skate.

The Kids themselves led a campaign that was quite well put together last spring for a skateboard park. Design..budget… even worked with the Park Board on site selection. They showed real leadership in that. Unfortunately, the financial stress that plagues this community and perhaps the nation makes a lot of amenities such as the SB Park difficult to realize. Still the good sign is the rather mature attitude shown buy the kids in trying to find a solution… one for their goals and sporting pleasures and another for the entire town.

How long will the center hold?

How did your community manage two SB Parks - like, what were the associated costs?

There are some skaters that will continue to damage property no matter what else is being provided. The two skate parks are nice, they are two different kinds of designs - maybe dont fulfill every possible skating need, but it is ridiculous to say that the community has not tried to provide for skaters. It is ridiculous that the skaters that are damaging public places dont care about the costs of trying to repair it too. It isnt all the skaters by any means that is engaged in the damaging behavior, but it only takes a few to really ruin nice public spaces that were provided for the whole public at great expense. The ramps that are put in so that someone with a disability can access public spaces are constantly used by skaters whipping around so fast on them that the type of collisions that could result might actually give someone a disability from trying to use the ramps for the purpose they are constructed.

It is a frustrating issue to solve. Police have trouble catching them and sometimes the police are out on more serious calls at the time.

The question now is, I guess, with an interim Public Works/City Engineer, can this problem be tackled now by the Streets, Parks & Facilities Division?
http://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/cityhall/departments/publicworks/streetsparksfacilities

Or should some other entity take the lead? ‘Twould seem like winter would be a good time to work on the solving the problem so that something’s done immmediately in the spring.

There were metal “anti-skate” plates at each of the concrete joints. The damage comes from skaters [...] who essentially took a hammer and chipped the plates off the concrete.

Three things;

I didn’t know there were plates installed. So thanks for clarifying.

It’s too bad that some kids vandalized the wall, and removed the plates. That actually disappoints me quite a bit.

RE: Placing the plates at the joints…
Most decent masons should know that an object placed on or near a concrete expansion joint is the worst place to affix anything. It’s inherently the weakest part of concrete. See the pic where the plates were affixed more appropriately. The implementation of the precautionary mechanisms were poorly implemented, if you ask me.

Based on the discussion, I conclude that the answer to the query-like title of the parent article is, “All of the above.”

So, the design attempted to keep the skaters off and somebody took it as a challenge to make it skateable which is unfortunate because it not only looks bad, but the concrete will continue to chip and degrade.

In my younger days, I rather liked the “Skateboarding is not a crime” phrase that some friends of mine shared with me. I think that while it is true that skateboarding is not a crime, vandalism is a crime and it gives a bad name to skaters as well as destroys public property.

Is a solution a skate park and a heavier-duty Library corner? Maybe this will help.

As an overall addition to the Northfield streetscape, I think the Library corner is well done, however, it apparantly needs some tougher details.

In that link, you’ll see a picture of how concrete walls are retrofitted with anti-grind plates. A simple thing that should have been thought of (can still be done though).

Additionally, I agree with Tracy. I think there’s a problem with the construction; Note the expansion joint (the gap). There’s no homasote or bituminous filler in the joint. Without that padding, the joint slowly acts like a huge hammer, concrete smashing against concrete with temp. changes - eventually ruining edges and stress points.

It’s evident that the expansion joints were made by “cutting the gaps in” with a concrete saw, rather than being “formed” for the pour. Cutting the joints is the “quick and dirty” approach, and doesn’t properly allow for joint padding/filler. Crap work, if you ask me.

I’m Italian. Masonry is intrinsic.

This looks to me like a construction/materials problem. There’s no reason it should be crumbling four months after installation, skateboards or no.