Pipes and Rails is no more.
After 10 years of operation inside the Duncan McIntosh Community Centre, Cambridge’s only indoor skate park closed up earlier this summer.
Reg Weber, the city’s director of recreation, says that’s because the skating equipment used at Pipes and Rails was no longer safe.
“It got to the point where repairs could no longer be done on the equipment,” he says.
To quench Cambridge teens’ thirst for skating, a new skate park is being planned for Churchill Park.
But that park, like the one on the other side of the city at Riverside Park, is outdoor-only – and that has some of Cambridge’s most avid skaters concerned.
“Skateboarding, to me and all my friends, is extremely important,” says Ryan Carney.
“It’s something that I’ve been doing for over seven years, and it’s never been a weather-permitting sport.”
Carney has launched a petition urging city councillors to reopen Pipes and Rails.
“I don’t understand why they can put thousands and thousands of dollars into hockey arenas and soccer fields … but not into a skate park,” he says.
If they want to skate indoors, they’ll have to head to Kitchener or Guelph or Hamilton – not always easy for skaters looking to kill a few hours in their own neighbourhood.
