QUEENS — Skaters just got another reason to hit the streets.
A 10,350-square-foot skate park opened recently in Woodhaven, and its features are already attracting skateboarders from around the city.
“It’s got a bunch of stuff you don’t really find in other parks,” said Jerome Moore II, 19, from Flatbush, pointing out numerous rails, flat bars and banks. “It’s a little park but it’s a fun park,” said Moore, who works in retail.
The park was created as part of a larger renovation at London Planetree Park, on Atlantic Avenue between 88th and 89th streets.
The skate park includes two-, three- and five-stair sections, grind rails, hubba ledges, a stamped-brick quarter pipe, and a series of banks and slopes, according to the Parks Department.
Andre Serrano, 15, who came to Woodhaven from Bushwick to skate there, said he has already visited the park at least 30 times. “It has a good selection of obstacles,” said Serrano, who has been skating for about five or six years. “It’s nice.”
There are also many skateboarders in the area, “but they didn’t have any place” to skate, said Ed Wendell, president of the Woodhaven Residents Block Association.
Wendell said in the past, local skateboarders would hang out at a nearby Pathmark parking lot two blocks from the park, or they would just skate in the street.
“Anything that you can put together for young people is a good thing,” Wendell said.
The newly renovated park also features two basketball courts, two fitness stations and sitting areas.
A number of new trees were planted in the park, which also has many sustainable elements, including fewer paved surfaces and new permeable areas that can absorb storm water, according to the Parks Department.
The offices of Queens Borough President Helen Marshall and City Councilman Eric Ulrich's provided $1.6 million for the project.
