HOT! Love Park Street Tour Ramp

• Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, showed no love to skaters when it banned skateboarding at LOVE park in 2002. LOVE was the place where street legends like Ricky Oyola, Stevie Williams, and Josh Kails, built their reputations, and any kid with a board could learn to kick flip on the park's smooth open spaces and wide granite steps. A magnet for skaters the world over since the 1980's LOVE no longer resonates with the clack of boards or cries of onlookers, despite a million-dollar offer from DC shoes to keep the park open to skaters. But there is hope. From LOVE comes Paine: Paine's Park, a new 2.5 acre skating mecca planned for Philadelphia near the Schuylkill RIver Trail.

Skateparks first emerged in the '70s, were primarily private, and were concrete with features such as pools, bowls, half pipes, and freestyle areas. None of those early parks remain but today's modern skateparks can be traced back to the '90s and possess rideable and harmonious adjacent skatepark features allowing skateboarders create endless "lines" of tricks and rides. It is estimated that in recent years a new skatepark opens every 3 days.