By Steven Guzman, Editorial Intern
If the grand opening of a new skate park in Harbor City proves anything, it’s that persistence pays off and that anyone, at any age, can directly impact their community.
“Age is nothing but a number,” Richard “Richie” Ortiz said. “It just depends on your persistence.”
Ortiz is a member of the CA$H Skate Crew, a group of Harbor City youth skaters who led the effort to build a skate park in its community.
“As long as you stay persistent and you really stay consistent to achieve what you’ve got to achieve, nobody can deny you,” Ortiz said.
The idea for the skate park began germinating in the minds of these young adults while they were still in middle school.
“It’s been an idea for the longest,” Emilio Otero Jr. said.
Otero, 19, is one of the youngest members of the Harbor City Neighborhood Council.
“When we were young we were doing it; going to these meetings, [but] nothing was being done, you know?” Otero said.
As children, Ortiz, Otero and their friends would attend the Harbor City Neighborhood Council meetings religiously. They made direct requests for a skate park from their neighborhood council representatives. They created petitions, walked their neighborhoods and knocked on doors collecting signatures for a skate park, trying to convince anyone who would listen.
“When we were young we wanted it to be for ourselves, as little kids,” Ortiz said. “But [eventually,] we kinda look[ed] at it as, ‘This isn’t just for us; this is for our futures; this is for our community and with this skate park we can save a lot of lives.’”
However, their initial attempts to drum up support for a skatepark within city government failed. Their voices were disregarded or brushed aside.
“When you’re doing something as little kids, do you really expect someone of a high stature to really believe you or take you seriously?” Ortiz said. “They kinda push you off like, ‘Sure kid it’ll happen.’”
Nothing happened for six or seven years, but when Otero graduated from Sunburst Youth Academy, he was still itching to make his dream a reality.
“So, I got out of Sunburst and was like, ‘Fuck it, let’s do this again,’” Otero said. “I got all my friends together and we went out to the [neighborhood council] meeting and spoke up.”
It was at this meeting that they finally got the break they had needed. Tim Tucker and Howard Scott Jr., cofounder of the City Lights Gateway Foundation and respected music producer, happened to be in attendance.
“Mr. Scott was there…,” Otero said. “Later on … we were all outside that day chilling, skating, and then Howard Scott and Tim Tucker, they come up to us and they asked us, ‘You all really want a skate park?’ We tell them, ‘Yes, we do.’ [They’re] like, ‘Alright, it’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to do this.’”
From that moment on, the CA$H Skate Crew’s dream of a skate park in their community steamrolled. With help from Scott, Tucker and the City Lights Gateway Foundation, the city found money within its budget for the construction of the project. The total estimate for the construction of the skate park was around $650,000 and it would be designed, not by a third party, but by the CA$H skate crew itself. In total, $700,000 was available — $300,000 from the city, as well as from Quimby Act funds set aside for local park and recreation purposes. The final $400,000 was donated anonymously.
For Scott, who was born and reared in Harbor City, this was the exact opportunity he was looking for to give back to the community that saw him grow.
“I was looking for the same thing for young kids that the longshoremen Local 13 did for older guys in the community [who] didn’t get along,” Scott said. “They hated each other back in the day. But then they became longshoremen. How did all of that anger eradicate? What I found out was that it was more important for them to take care of their families and make money, and be part of Local 13, as opposed to be(ing) part of local bullshit.
“What we were looking for is the same thing with these young kids, to find them a Local 13, something that they were unified in, [where] it didn’t matter where they were from [and] that it would allow them to be ambassadors for the youth in that way…. Skating just happened to be their Local 13.”
During the time Scott and Tucker spent alongside the CA$H skate crew, Otero and another member, Armando Micro II, heard as an off-hand comment from their mentors that the Harbor City Neighborhood Council was about to have its elections and that seats would be open. From there, as Otero succinctly puts it, “We nominated ourselves for election.”
Not only did Otero and Micro run for the Harbor City Neighborhood Council, but they won. “We got over 200 votes,” Otero said. “For me and Mando, from a lot of people … everyone knew what we were doing. They were so psyched that we were actually doing it because of how young we are.”
“We were thinking about it, [about] how we wanted to have a say about what happens in our city,” Micro said. “It’s what we’ve been wanting for so long and now we had a chance to be able to do that. So, we took advantage of that.”
On June 21, Los Angeles District 15 Councilman Joe Buscaino and the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks joined Scott, Tucker and the CA$H Skate Crew at the grand opening of their dream skate park. During the celebration, Otero made a short speech in which he brought up the entire CA$H Skate Crew to bask in their achievement.
“What we’re doing is a reconstruction of the whole mindset of this youth base, if they’re out here doing positive things like this and nobody is dying, then our mission is complete, Tucker said.
Otero and Micro both run the Ad Hoc Committee on Homelessness and the Youth Committee. The CA$H Skate Crew is looking to build on its momentum. If you ask them why they do what they do for their community they’ll probably tell you it’s all about what CA$H stands for: “Cuz All Skaters Hustle.”