LOUISVILLE, Ky. — For the first time since its opening, Louisville’s Dave Armstrong Extreme Park now has a curfew — 11p.m. The change comes after more than a decade of the park being open 24/7.
Adam Winfield, one of the parks many patrons, has been coming to the park for a long time.
“When I got older, I came up here almost every day when I got a car,” Winfield told Spectrum News 1.
The 29-year-old has been skating at Louisville’s Extreme Park since it opened in 2002. “There wasn’t really much skate parks around here in Louisville and Kentucky, for real,” Winfield recalled.
As far back as Winfield remembers, the park has never had a curfew. It does now.
The Louisville Parks Department released a statement announcing the skatepark will now close nightly at 11 p.m.. We reached out to a representative of Louisville Parks to elaborate on the decision to reduce skatepark hours. In a statement, a Parks Department representative said, “The new operating hours bring the skate park into compliance with Metro Ordinance 42.32, which sets the hours of all city parks from 6 a.m.–11 p.m., seven days a week.”
Winfield has mixed feelings about the new rule.
“I mean, I hope they can come to an agreement with us skaters and maybe we can open it up 24 hours again,” he said.
Mobile security cameras, either new or old, are placed at every corner of the skate park. According to Louisville Police, several weeks ago, two teens were arrested at the park and in possession of two pistols. The Parks Department would not say if this arrest or any other incident influenced the decision to add a curfew.
Mark Stosberg is a new visitor to the extreme park. Coincidentally, the Bloomington resident once founded his own skatepark advocacy website.
“I was on the board of the Skatepark Association of the USA at the same time as Tony Hawk,” Stosberg told Spectrum News 1.
Once thought to be retired from skating, the 47-year-old is now teaching his 12-year-old son to board. In his experience, the topic of park safety was always considered and appreciated.
“You know it’s always tough when you punish the masses for the indiscretions of the few but I haven’t been, someone myself, a night skater. But I know people have different schedules and it’s great if you can use a park when it works for you,” Stosberg said.
Stosberg says he’s known about the park for several years but this is his first time skating it and he was impressed.
As a weekly visitor, Winfield says if other skaters are put out by the curfew, they should let the city know how they feel. “With cameras, I feel like we’re already meeting in the middle,” he said. But for now, the park will open and close according to the new schedule set by the Louisville Parks Department.