New Southern Grant Park Renovation Plan Favors Skaters, Not Pedestrians

Rendering of Skate Park (via DNAinfo)

New plans revealed for southern area of Grant Park (via DNAinfo):

With an expected budget totaling at $2.5 million instead of the $3.5 million activists expected, the design of a skate park planned for the southern tip of Grant Park has been scaled back, newly-released renderings reveal.  

Initial plans for an artificially raised landscape with a stage and projection screen in the basin of a valley were scrapped, and the high-concept wheel-friendly surfaces were adapted to a more conventional skate park layout, with quarter pipes, grinding rails and other structures grouped together.  

While the initial design envisioned pedestrians and skaters sharing wheel-friendly pathways, the new design concentrates most of the skating features in a single area.

So let us get this straight - the plan has been altered to favor skaters instead of the general public?  Seems silly if you ask us.  Isn't there already a skate park just north of the tennis courts in Grant Park?  While we would love to see this area be improved, it seems silly to just build a skate park.

Maybe DNAinfo isn't reporting the entire plan, because if this is true it's disappointing.

What do you think?

(Hat tip: KM!)