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There’s a new group in town trying to reacquaint Greater Pittsburgh with the sport and make it accessible for everyone I’m with Rico Rucker and Dana Bannon from the Pittsburgh skate collaborative talking about Pittsburgh’s Heyday their own skating Origins and their best tips for anyone looking to lace Up it’s Monday November 20th I’m Megan Harris and here’s what Pittsburgh is talking about I was 6 years old and we had moved to Wilkinsburg and there was this lady who was living next door to me and three five six times a week she’s running out the house and she has her skates in her hand and her skate bag and she’s like
Bye Mom I’ll see you later we’re going to Ohio we’re going to Detroit and I’m like where’s this lady going and it just looked at so fun so one day I was like where are you going with those skates she’s like oh I skate all over the place
And at six years old I was like mind blown and was so excited because I’ve heard of roller skating but I never like I would just see the skates in the store I never knew the bigger picture so one day miss it happened to be Mrs Donna and
Mrs Donna told my mom she said I need you to get him some roller skates I’ll start taking him skating he’s going to be amazing and 32 years later I have been skating with her ever since Dana I know you started skating a little later
In life what do you love about it the biggest thing is is that it brings me immense Joy my life is so stressful I run and own a business I have three children uh so roller skating has really fed this part of me that was was dormant
For a long time I always danced growing up I loved dancing and I don’t think I realized that part of me that was dead inside um until I started roller skating and I was like oh my God I can like be around people and listen to great music
And be free and do this thing that brings me complete Joy you know in researching this we found we didn’t realize this that cities kind of have their own distinct style of skating um signature moves and things we’ve been working does Pittsburgh have like a distinct style are there anything things
That you like any inside tracks you can share so there is this thing called the Pittsburgh dride and it originated in Homewood so all the elders who are like Miss Donna’s age a group of like 30 of them all moved to Atlanta so when I moved to Atlanta nine years ago I
Reconnected with all of them and they kept it alive they never stopped it and they have the whole Atlanta doing the pits bird home wood stride and it blows me away because they do it better than us but when we’re in Chicago Chicago has their own style of skating and it’s
Called the JB skating in honor of James Brown and you have to Google these things Megan because you’ll be able to see JB skating and you’re like so yes every city has their Niche yeah so now you two are trying to get more people excited about the culture the vibe and
Make it all more accessible than it’s been in years pasted tell me about your group the Pittsburgh skate collaborative that’s Sk8 how it got started and maybe what you were expecting at least at the beginning yeah I mean I think the biggest thing is is there is a very
Original group of people that are in Pittsburgh right and go to the rink and have a very strong presence right we just want to expand on that we want more options we want accessibility we want if you can’t drive you should be able to roller skate still right yeah I mean
It’s hard to get to the Neville Island roller drum which is I think the only one I’m aware of it’s the only one it’s impossible to get there if you’re not don’t have a ton of time for a bus or a car right and there’s only two rings
Left in alag County there’s Eden Park in mport and they don’t operate all the time um so Neville is really the only option that’s around 365 and it’s very inaccessible it’s very hard and we need something in Cindy limits so really the the Pittsburgh skate collaborative is
Just a group of people that started bitching right and essentially fell in love with Rico because Rico was already doing this R has been doing advocacy way before Pittsburgh skate existed but what the Pittsburgh skate collaborative did was kind of come together and be like well let’s make this an advocacy group
Let’s make this about getting people to give a about roller skating again because the more people that see it and care about it the better it’s going to be right if we come and bring the idea of a roller skating rink to somebody a developer the UR that’s the urban
Redevelopment Authority whoever city parks and they know about roller skating and know it’s cool and know it’s a worthwhile investment we’re more likely to get further than if they’re like well nobody does roller skating like that’s dumb so it really started out as just trying to Advocate and get more skating
And more communities with popups um that kind of became difficult because nobody wants to let you roller skate in their spaces yes Megan wait really like I mean I can imagine like you know basketball courts tennis courts if you can find one that doesn’t have a million cracks in it
Or weeds everywhere there is a huge issue with roller skaters being kicked off of multi-use courts and pickle ball courts tennis courts basketball courts publicly funded parks are putting signs up pickle ball only basketball only and to me that seems a little weird there is
No reason why if no one is on a tennis court I and my children should not be allowed to roller skate on It Rico I want to talk about some of your advocacy work that Dana alluded to a few years ago the urban Redevelopment Authority called for plans to redevelop the Homewood Coliseum and you were a finalist you wanted to restore the roller rank that used to be there but
Ultimately the UR rejected you and the other finalist and I know it’s not clear what’s going to happen next but I’m curious what it’s felt like from your experience you know just trying to do this kind of work in Pittsburgh so want to try to control my emotions
Megan because it has touched a very sensitive SP in my body because coming from an underprivileged Community like Homewood it has been very hard fighting against these systems that were designed to keep us suppressed and keep us poor and we have to begag and then we have
Neighborhoods like shady sad and E slty who are using our narrative to go build Hunt’s Armory the Armory of course has an IND ice rink it’s in Shady Side the UR recently sold it to the Penguins there’s some black people who play hockey I get it but black people roller
Skate it’s an urban thing and we have been shut out of places because like when our roller skating rinks are getting closed down or they’re putting in rules such as no headphones no baggy pants no shirts or no hats they’re doing everything in their power to basically
Just like shut us out and it’s so not fair we got this close Megan to getting the Coliseum we came down to one out of two and home’s the last Community to get gentrified and I’m sorry I have to be honest we’ve seen what happened on the
Hill we seen what happened in lmer and home was like oh hell no it ain’t happening here and I’m being very clear when it comes to how I feel about my community because they feel left out they feel like they don’t have a voice we need a blessing that is going to
Empower the residents to become community stakeholders and take back our community and want to feel like they’re a part of something again and I have been fighting tooth and nail and I have prayed for God to send me people to help me make this dream come true and when
God sent me Dana Ben and like it was such the right time and Dana has been such a blessing since she’s came in my life and she sees the vision she knows the dream and she busts her ass to make it happen and all we want to do is Prov
Safe spaces and change be a part of the change we want to see and a part of the healing process but if the UR does not utilize Homewood Community Advocates that project will not succeed it will be another August Wilson Center it’ll be another conglomerate ginormous waste of money that sits there empty
Because the community needs to feel involved they need to feel like they are a part of it they need to feel like it is going to benefit their children their grandchildren their future children or else they will not they it will not succeed here here so I guess we’re going
To keep watching for news on the Homewood Coliseum in the meantime since you’re both experienced skaters I’m wondering if maybe you have any pointers for folks who might want to try skating for the first time or maybe they’re like me and would be coming back for the
First time in like 20 years it’s like riding a bike Megan listen listen I didn’t roller skate as a child I went like three times maybe I was more of an ice skater because we didn’t have a roller skating rank where I grew up but I started roller skating almost only two
Years ago I’m 40 years old you know how scary it is to put get yourself on wheels at 40 look I do because I went recently for a friend’s birthday and I felt like a baby giraffe learning how to walk again for the first time and you
Show it and you can be awful at it still enjoy it I promise like I love you Megan it’s true it’s very awkward and weird come to skate class we’ll get you right Megan come to skate class Mondays and Tuesdays at youth places 7-Eleven West Commons in the former C Cardinal right
Elementary School um we’re in the gym 6:30 and uh we have everything from people that have never skated and are young to people that have never skated in our 80 we have people that are amazing skaters that will help you and it’s a really really great welcoming
It’s a loose environment so you can kind of just do whatever and be whatever and it’s great um so that’s like the first place I would suggest uh the second thing is is um they do offer lessons at Neville on Wednesdays and Saturdays and then we are starting up our winter skate
Nights at Vellum fermentation in Southside and we do 5 to 7:30 is all ages and then 7:30 to 10 is adult adults um and the adult skate is really just because they’re not looking for little kids so it’s not about being a good skater it’s just we’re playing adult
Music and it’s more of an adult environment you can also just like buy roller skates and skate in your house like it’s fine do whatever you got to do that’s what I love about it it can be an independent thing or it can be a group
Yeah it sounds like you all got a full roster of events um if you are interested you can find Rico Rucker and Dana Bannon on social and online at PGH skate that’s Sk8 dog Megan you’re awesome thank you for this platform in this opportunity we are so thankful to
Have you if you want to support Pittsburgh skate collaborative they’re actually raising money right now to buy a portable roller rank floor that they can take to parks to school gyms to streets all across the city and if you want to attend one of their skate nights
One of their skate schools then you’re in luck because the next open skate is actually tonight it’s a potluck at youth places on the north side that’s 6:30 to 8:30 come by a little bit early if you’ve got some extra food to share it’s all free and there will be line dancing
We’ll have a link to this to their fundraiser and to all their upcoming events in our show Notes that’s all for today here on City cast Pittsburgh if you’re liking the show please tell someone leave us a nice rating a good review and make sure you’re subscribed to that hey Pittsburgh newsletter remember you can find all of our content from the podcast the newsletter always on our website that’s
Pittsburgh. cc. FM we’ll be back tomorrow morning with more news from around the city talk to you soon I’m really hard on pickle ball and it’s like a running joke like they’re like my arch nemesis but I also kind of want to be like but teach me your ways I
Mean it is an excellent marketing campaign whatever they did they did it right whoever runs their their PR and marketing like Kudos and can we have you yeah like please because you’re the because however you did it it’s working and it’s successful
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