Concrete Law Film Screening – San Pedro
!Buᐧreaucᐧraᐧcy!
Hard to spell but even harder to wade through for 7 years!
Back in 2014 when Channel Street was closed during overhead construction on the 110 Harbor Freeway, it seemed like it would be a simple matter of waiting it out for a year. Let the work get done, and in the meantime get insured, get better organized and re-open the park in 2015 as a stronger organization…. Welllll, that didn’t happen.
The shutdown of Channel Street became an ongoing thing, the lawyers and the risk management types got their claws in it and we were stuck in a swamp of red tape.
We stuck with it though, and with help from friends, family, community, sponsors, and the local city council office, we raised funds and slowly but surely navigated the stormy seas of L.A. City Hall. In the end we spent well over 50K in permitting fees, insurance, and new construction requirements just to go Legit!
During this dark era of the Channel Street saga, April Jones entered the fold. Recently moved down from Portland and the Burnside park, this skateboarder/filmmaker/badass immediately looked for ways to help steer us through this process. She felt that documenting this permitting process was important and urgent to preserve the future of community-built skateparks, so as she jumped in the trenches with us to help navigate through all of the red tape, she also began putting the pieces together to form the bones of a solid documentary film about the whole process. Her advocacy, loyalty, and drive led her to become one of our board of directors of the San Pedro Skatepark Association (SPSA) and our good friend.
As most of you know, On August 21st, 2022, we did what many believed impossible by officially re-opening a fully permitted and legal Channel Street Skatepark.
April Jones’ feature length documentary is called Concrete Law: Saving the Channel Street Skatepark. We are organizing a Cast and Crew (friends and family) screening at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro, CA on June 16th. All are welcome! See you there.
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@dream_evil_pictures @concretelawfilm