City Looking To Take Safe Space from Kids in South Omaha

Kids in South Omaha took ownership in their community park by cleaning up the trashed abandoned tennis courts so they could skateboard there.

Now 30-40 kids can be found each weekend, learning new tricks, helping each other out, and building friendships.



Unfortunately, some people that were not skateboarders, put graffiti on the ramps.

And now the city is looking to tear out the ramps, as if these skateboarders that worked so hard to clean up the place were the ones who put graffiti on it.

These are incredible kids making the best of their resources. Rather than complaining, they’re making things happen. That’s the type of people we want in our community." Brenton Gomez

Member of Nebraska Public Skateparks Council and Marketing Associate at Film Streams

The biggest concern we have is:

This is bigger than just tearing out a few obstacles.

This is tearing out future leaders and advocates of our city and telling them their efforts are not important.

Sure, the park may not look like a manicured sports complex that some might prefer, but we believe it is much better than an abandoned tennis court filled with trash and overgrown weeds.

If we’re quick to shut this down, then we are doing a huge disservice to these kids - the future leaders of this community." Dave Nelson

Member of Nebraska Public Skateparks Council and Principal at SecretPenguin

We are asking for the city to please rethink the future impact of tearing this out right now.

If new plans are taking place in this area of town then we’d like to see the city get these kids involved on timelines, how they can participate in the planning, and alternatives for where they can do what they love (since the closest skatepark is a 2.25 hour walk from where these children live).

This is an opportunity to get these kids involved and invested in this city.

Sign the petition:

Sign the petition to show your support of the kids, which will be presented at the Parks Department meeting on Tuesday, February 25, at 10:30am at City Hall.

Our hope is to convince the city: