Following a decade-long grind, the Cushing Street Skate Park now seems to be on deck for the city, with a public groundbreaking ceremony that took place the evening of June 30.

The groundbreaking was located at the south end of the Cushing Street underpass, and featured pizza, live mariachi music and remarks by Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz and skate park founder Caleb Gutierrez. An afterparty was held at downtown’s BLX Skate Shop.

“Cushing Street Skate Park will be more than just a place to skate. It will be a symbol of community resilience, a celebration of our youth and a testament to what’s possible when investments are guided by grassroots advocates with the support of their mayor,” said Mayor Regina Romero in a City of Tucson press release, “Investing in youth is a core part of my work. That is why my office provided the necessary funds to complete this project.” 

Though Tucson might not come quickly to mind as a skateboarding city, it actually holds a little-known piece of skate history, being home to the first true skate park in the world. Surf City opened in 1965 on Speedway Boulevard, and featured a 138-foot concrete runway. The opening of the park was attended by Patti McGee, then world champion female skateboarder.

These days, the city’s skate scene is scattered around a handful of locations. While many list Picture Rocks, Randolph, and the indoor Premises Park among the better skate parks in town, locals have largely turned to street and DIY spots. The city’s washes, ditches and drainage areas have become de facto parks. Tucson’s skaters are an underserved bunch. New facilities are scarce, and some have even closed up. 

“The skate culture is really small, and I think it’s from the lack of parks,” said Caleb Gutierrez, skateboarder, artist, musician and founder of Cushing Street Skate Park, who grew up skating in the area.

 “It’s all the same spots and all the same skate parks,” Gutierrez said. “And I think the culture in Tucson gets a little burnt out.”

The most recent addition came in 2012, when the neighborhood of Midvale built the compact Christina-Taylor Green Park, sharing Mayor Romero’s youth-centered motivations, albeit more bluntly put: “If they’re not there, they’re off smoking dope or they’re finding other ways to maintain their time,” Neighborhood Association President Joe Miller philosophized in an interview with the Daily Wildcat. 

Safe to say, skaters are eager for a new place to skate, especially one that provides some much-needed heat relief. Located just west of downtown under the Interstate 10, the project will be the city’s first shaded outdoor skate park. Gutierrez said he dreamt up the idea while on his way to college in Seattle, where he saw shaded parks in both Oregon and Washington and thought of bringing the concept to Tucson. Residing in Barrio Viejo, he decided the underpass at Cushing Street would be the perfect spot.

After proposing the idea to the city in 2016, the first couple of years involved rigorous crowdfunding, with Gutierrez traveling between his home in Mexico City and Tucson for a slew of fundraising events. Though it garnered community support, the park became more and more expensive by the year, and when the pandemic hit, progress stalled out completely. 

The plan picked up steam again in 2022, and funding contributions eventually totaled over $2.6 million, including, according to the press release: $1.5 million  from City Framework and the City Investment Plan, $300,000 from the Tohono O’odham Nation grant, $250,000 each from the Mayor’s Office and the Ward 1 participatory budgeting process “Budget De La Gente,” $200,000 from Rio Nuevo, $100,000 from the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and $40,258.67 in donations. 

Over the next months, Durazo Construction will build the Cushing Street Skate Park, which was designed by Wheat, a J2 Design Studio, Grindline Skateparks, Psomas, and GLHN Architects & Engineers. Gutierrez describes the design as a street, plaza style park.

“It’s a rectangle park layout, so at each corner of the park we’ll have a turnaround transition, quarter pipes of all different sizes, we’ll have pyramids, rails, plaza ledges, kind of like ‘the blocks’ in Tucson. little bump-to-bump features and stuff like that. It’s kind of ‘flowy,’” Gutierrez said.

Construction on the Cushing Street Skate Park is slated to take six months, and the park is set to open around New Year’s.  

Cushing Street Skate Park
WHERE: 700 W Cushing St, on the south side of the underpass.
COST: Free.
INFO: Parking at 332 S. Freeway or MSA Annex. Sunlink stops #3 and #4. bit.ly/4wgkKWG