Scantlebury Skate Park Celebrated, On Wheels

Teenage sisters Gia and Alana Ciuitello can now join in on the fun at Dixwell’s new Scantlebury Skate Park, after picking up free boards of their own at the park’s official ribbon cutting.

The sisters, who are 14 and 12 years old respectively, live down the street from the park.

When the project construction finished earlier in August, Gia and Alana would come by the park each day and watch the skateboarders ride. Gia said she was mesmerized the first day she visited the park.

One of the skateboarders at the park recently let Gia use his board and taught her a little about the basics of riding it. ​“Just watching was fun, but after that time riding I decided this is something I want to learn,” Gia said.

A skateboard clinic sponsored by Steve Roberts’s Push to Start program followed last Thursday’s ribbon cutting. The clinic was gifted free skatebaords, scooters, and helmets by NHPD Officer Bryan Phillips.

Phillips is a Dixwell cop who purchased the supplies with his own money after seeing how many community members come out daily to enjoy the park. The boards and scooters went quickly to youth as young as five years old.

Since the start of the pandemic, Alana said she hasn’t been able to visit her step-mom’s home to ride her scooter. ​“I don’t really have anything to do at home,” she said.

Local activist, skater, artist, and Beaver Hills resident Salwa Abdussabor, 21, taught Gia and Alana how to balance on their new boards. ​“You’ll get there. You got to trust your body,” she told Alana as she learned to steer the board.

New Haven natives Roberts and J. Joseph bonded over their passion for skateboarding and their shared dream to bring a skatepark to Dixwell.

Roberts and Joseph celebrated the year-and-a-half-long project’s culmination at the ribbon cutting Thursday with fellow skate park supporters Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, Elm City Innovation Collaborative Executive Director Mike Harris, city Chief Landscape Architect Katherine Jacobs, and former city Director of Parks, Recreation and Trees and current Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Rebecca Bombero, among others.

“No one would have ever thought in a million years we’d have a skate park in the middle of Ashmun Street, in the middle of the Tribe, in the middle of the Dixwell community. But this just goes to show whatever we want to do we can do, we’re not in a box,” said Morrison.

Morrison said the project is about 95 percent complete. All that is left is laying down grass over the currently exposed dirt. That’s is likely planned for September, she said.

Joseph said the project came out better than he and Roberts initially dreamed up. The two plan to host events and programming at the park in the near future, including an exhibit showing the history of skateboarding and hip-hop in New Haven.

“This is a project where kids literally put down their tablets, their phones. They come out. They sweat. They fall. They get bruised. They get up. They form relationships. They learn how to talk to one another,” Morrison said.

As youth skated just behind Morrison as she hosted the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the Dixwell alder recalled the park never being empty. People of all ages have been enjoying it since its completion, she said.

“We can skate right away because it’s a good social distance sport,” said Mayor Justin Elicker.

After the ceremony, Roberts and Joseph jumped on boards and skated on their dream come true.

Morrison said the park can provide a safe place for Dixwell kids to ride their boards and provides an opportunity for positive mentorship for youth in the neighborhood.

Dixwell resident Justin Sapeto shared his love and appreciation for the new park with the crowd. ​“The addition of a skate park will help provide my friends and I with a safe and legal alternative to the streets,” he said.

Morrison hopes the park will also give Dixwell youth the motivation to chase their dreams and ideas.

“I thought skateboarding was not for people of color,” said Morrison. ​“But then when I come out here every single day and that’s all you see, you see everybody, nothing goes by color, nothing goes by gender, or by religion.”