Paines Park is Officially Opening Today

Back in 2005 I worked in oversized color printing and finishing where I had the opportunity to print and mount Anthony Bracali‘s original renderings of Paine’s Park to be featured in a magazine. I was also given permission to keep the print. I have since hung it in every apartment I have lived in for the past 8 years. I have consistently stuck up for the poster and project despite how quickly and easily it was to be made fun of for. Today is the ceremonial ribbon cutting but if you are on social media and follow anyone remotely close to this project (or even people who’ve had nothing to do with it) you’ll already be in the know that this place has been skated for at least the past week. I had been told that final touches would be happening pretty much up until the ribbon cutting. So much for that. Nocturnal got an invite to skate last week, Monday was a closing celebration for everyone involved in the project, and yesterday was a VIP event that I only found out about yesterday a few hours before it happened. Sorry I couldn’t have been there to cover what went down yesterday. Quartersnacks got an invite and they just published a post about the park with tons of great photos. Leave it to QS to remind everyone that skatenerd is an OG in all of this! Right now I’m be heading down to the ribbon cutting ceremony to get my first in person glimpse of the park. The place looks amazing and regardless of all the complaining about little nuances of some of the obstacles we are truly lucky to have this in Philadelphia. A lot of people said that they didn’t think it would ever happen (I have plenty of comment archives to prove it) and I tried my best to convince them otherwise for over a decade. I’ve had my negative moments regarding the project as well but it’s finally here. Time to go skate. Here’s another Nocturnal clip shot at yesterday’s VIP event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nFvswaPxRM