Against all odds, the GR818ERS have fought 10 long years for Sheldon Skate Park in Sun Valley to be a space for empowering local youth. Through youth programming and engagement with the community, the nonprofit has been able to revitalize a space once abandoned by the city and left to fall into disrepair.
Last month’s second annual Shell City Skate Fest was a testament to just how far they’ve come. More than 350 people attended the event, which featured a skateboarding competition, musical performances, live art, dance battles, workshops, a resource fair and free food from local restaurants.
The premier skateboarding event was designed to elevate the region’s skate culture by providing a space for local skateboarders to compete, showcase their skills and gain exposure in front of industry brands and talent scouts.
Skaters from across the valley – including two 2020 Tokyo Olympics skateboarders, Mike Piwowar and Micky Papa – cruised to the 25,000 square foot street-style public skate park to compete in four events.
Over $2,000 worth of cash prizes were awarded to the winners – Papa, Kristion Jordan, Steven Vasquez, Elijah Gonzalez, Nick Lopez and Derra Reth – and approximately $5,000 worth of products from sponsors, including shirts, shoes, griptape and decks, were distributed in giveaways and raffles to the local youth.
“It was a vibe that surpassed all of our expectations,” said Pierre Arreola, co-founder of the GR818ERS. “It’s a big win that folks feel like, as an organization, we have the power to transform spaces that have had a bad rap into places of creativity and cultural renaissance.”
The event highlighted the potential of the skate park and how more investment from the city could make it a premier community hub, especially with international skateboarding talent visiting Los Angeles for the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games.
The Birth of Shell City
Nestled between two freeways on Sheldon Street in Sun Valley, Sheldon Skate Park, deemed “Shell City” by the local skaters, was established in 2014 by the city Department of Recreation & Parks in collaboration with California Skateparks.
It was the vision of Congressman Tony Cárdenas when he was the city councilmember for the district. He consulted with Rob Dyrdek, a famous skateboarder and entertainment star, to design a world-class street-style skate park containing all types of skate apparatuses.
Cárdenas was inspired to build the park because his son was arrested for skateboarding around the same time many youth were being penalized for skateboarding at the Kohl’s shopping center on Laurel Canyon Boulevard, noted the district’s current Councilwoman Imelda Padilla.
This was a means of giving youth a space to freely enjoy their hobby instead of criminalizing them.
“Oftentimes, young people aren’t given the tools for creation. They’re given tools for destruction, and we see them as nuisances,” said Arreola, “especially those young people who engage, embrace and are attracted to street culture.”
Creating a skatepark in Sun Valley, where there has historically been a lack of youth programming, was “a symbolic moment of the city embracing the subcultures of the youth, who were often marginalized and criminalized,” he continued.
Abandoned by the City
“A skate park can actually thrive pretty easily,” said Zane Valentino York, skate consultant for the GR818ERS. “They just have to be afforded the same opportunities.”
With a lack of investment in programming or the foresight to establish a recreation center from which park rangers could maintain it, after a few years, Sheldon Skate Park was falling into disrepair.
By 2016, during former Councilmember Nury Martinez’s term, the city viewed the park as a nuisance and decided to shut it down rather than invest in it.
“They physically brought dump trucks and dumped sand all over the entire park and skate apparatuses to prevent the skaters from being able to skate,” said Arreola. “But skate culture and street culture persist – they’re resilient cultures.”
The local young skaters got organized and, with shovels and brooms in hand, cleared all the dirt from the skate park. The visible mounds surrounding the park, now covered in mulch and some foliage, are the remnants of that effort.
The city also fenced off the entire park, which, instead of preventing people from entering the park, had the opposite effect, said Arreola, inviting them in without the fear of punitive measures.
“LAPD would tell us, ‘Well, there’s a fence there, so we’re not going to go in there. It’s too high risk for us,’” Arreola recalled. “The park rangers would say, ‘What do you expect us to do? We’re unarmed. We’re not going to go in there and clean up the park.’”
Meanwhile, the GR818ERS, a group of artists and cultural ambassadors, took it upon themselves to carve out a safe environment for the local youth. They developed Project S, a coalition of young folks and skaters, who established a pledge to 12 rules and commitments to keep the park a safe space. They also brought in elder skaters who could oversee the youth’s safety during the daytime.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the park took a turn for the worse. The city locked everything up, turned off all the water and welded shut the bathrooms. The copper was stolen from the lights, and sex workers and drug dealers were frequenting the park, said Arreola.
Because of their past efforts, Martinez contacted the GR818ERS in 2021 to offer them a contract to produce youth programming at Sheldon Skate Park. However, due to a controversy that led to the councilwoman stepping down from office in 2022, the organization was not able to truly get started until Padilla took office the following year.
Over the past two years, the GR818ERS have managed to turn around Sheldon Skate Park’s downward trajectory through community engagement and youth programming.
Youth Programming as Public Safety
“Youth development is public safety, and I think this project has shown that,” said Arreola. Investing in the skate park and street culture can “transform our communities into the places that we want them to be, places that are safe and secure for the young people and that give them the opportunities they need to be able to make a difference in their communities.”
York, who runs the GR818ERS skate mentorship program at Sheldon Skate Park, said it’s about helping the kids understand that the skate park is also for them.
“I just try to be their friend and teach them about respect, respecting your skateboard and respecting the ecosystem that is a skate park,” said York. “If any of these students can have remotely the type of love and bond that I have with my skateboard and skateboarding, that’s worth it to me.”
Once a week, he hosts a free skate class from 4-5:30 p.m. at Sheldon Skate Park. Providing skateboards for those who need them, kids can learn about skate park etiquette, how to skate and “expand their beliefs on what they think they can do on a skateboard.”
“It definitely feels like there’s a community here,” said Diego Centeno, a local 11-year-old skateboarder who has been participating in the program for the past year.
“[York’s] helped me overcome different challenges,” he said. “There’s this ramp that I really want to drop into … One day I’ll do it. I’ll overcome my fear.”
By showing up and creating safe spaces through programming for youth to skate, the negative aspects associated with the park – prostitution, drugs, drinking and homelessness – have been dissipating.
“It’s changing because of our presence there,” said York. “Ultimately, the skate park and the community there are becoming a self-policing force – it’s becoming its own ecosystem.”
Padilla added that “building out this community at a very grassroots level sets the tone for when we finally build out the roller derby and the rec center,” which the city plans to construct on the property next door to Sheldon Skate Park in the next couple of years. The proposed project would finally provide a space from which staff can run programming and manage the park.
With community and city investment, Sheldon Skate Park is increasingly becoming the community hub in the Northeast Valley it was designed to be.
“It’s gonna take a lot more work, but we’re on the right path,” said York.