BY SANDI CARPELLO
Staff Writer
Disappointed, disillusioned and broken-hearted. That’s how Greg Gerstler felt when he found out that the Red Bank Community YMCA brought its skate park project to a halt.
"In March 2000, when I was still a student at Red Bank Regional High School, the town passed a law saying that we couldn’t skateboard on the streets anymore — only in front of our houses," said Gerstler, 19, who is now in his second year at Brookdale Community College.
After he and his skating buddies went before the Borough Council and talked YMCA officials into building a skate park facility in town, Gerstler thought his mission was accomplished.
"I thought it would be built — I just thought with the construction and everything, it was taking a really long time."
But the Community YMCA announced last week that its $275,000 skate park project, which was approved as part of the organization’s Fahey Outdoor Complex in 2000, would be put on indefinite hold.
At the time, they noted that skate parks come with a heftier price tag now than they did three years ago, and that a number of skate parks have recently opened in Monmouth County, including one in Middletown.
YMCA officials also said they have been fielding several other financial burdens, including renovations to the YMCA fitness facility, the establishment of the Count Basie Achievement Branch, and a $2 million campaign for the Children’s Cultural Center — a Monmouth Street-based arts education facility for children.
But Gerstler, an avid skateboarder who often lays out $10 for three hours of skate time at the Eatontown Roller Rink, said the town refuses to give proper recognition to skateboarding.
"Skateboarding is not a hobby, it’s a lifestyle, bordering on art. It takes strength and agility, and hand-eye coordination. … It’s no easy feat," he said.
Gerstler also said the town is ignoring a problem that will never go away.
"When you’re a skateboarder, people treat you like an animal or a drug addict or a drop-out," he said. "There are 6-, 7- and 8-year-olds that are skateboarders, and it’s so cracked down upon that they might as well illegalize it. … But the town doesn’t want to fix the problem they’re complaining about."
Other local skateboarders, including some of the borough’s so-called "parkies," who usually spend their afternoons in Marine Park, often venture to the Middletown skate park to work on their ollies and heelflips.
"We can’t skate anywhere," said Michael Brash, 13, of Fair Haven. "They kick us out."
Joe Levy, 19, a self-proclaimed parkie who was a key force in the establishment of the Middletown skate park, said the YMCA skate park would give him and his friends another place to hang out.
Fearing his hometown will lose its entire character, Gerstler said he may continue to lobby for a town skate park.
"Now, Red Bank is so popular — but, in my opinion, it’s overrated. It’s like ‘yuppie town,’ " he said.