AN ORAL HISTORY OF TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK (Jenkem)

[Mandatory Reload]

https://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2024/05/13/an-oral-history-of-tompkins-square-park/

Pretty interesting piece on Tompkins from Jenkem. Cool to hear about all the different eras. Would make for a pretty good documentary

[Rick Trapasso]

I love shit like this.

I'm such a fucking dork.

[The real veganshawn]

Will watch

[Yonnycage]

Highly doubt Yaje was holding down that place by himself at any point lol

[Dimewithacannibal]

Slicky Boy TF

[europa1991]

Highly doubt Yaje was holding down that place by himself at any point lol

[Troubadour26]

man this is just a regular ass read with your eyes ass history

[HyperBeam]

not gonna read all that. is tompkins special or something? feels like there's always been a lukewarm desire to mythologize this place like love or emb...but it's a paved lot with wooden ramps?

[roba]

not gonna read all that. is tompkins special or something? feels like there's always been a lukewarm desire to mythologize this place like love or emb...but it's a paved lot with wooden ramps?

you’d know if you read the article

[parasocial skater]

cecil better

[HyperBeam]

Expand Quote

not gonna read all that. is tompkins special or something? feels like there's always been a lukewarm desire to mythologize this place like love or emb...but it's a paved lot with wooden ramps?

[close]

you’d know if you read the article

know that it is? or know that it isn't?

[Mandatory Reload]

not gonna read all that. is tompkins special or something? feels like there's always been a lukewarm desire to mythologize this place like love or emb...but it's a paved lot with wooden ramps?

i think the fact that nyc has never really had a proper plaza meetup spot like Love or EMB (other than maybe the Banks but that's a stretch considering how spotty its history of being skateable is) has meant that something like Tompkins that can't quite be considered a real street spot had to step up to the plate. considering how important nyc skateboarding is to the larger skate culture, i think it's reasonable that the main DIY warmup spot in the city is regarded to have some cultural impact, even if it is just a blacktop with some wooden obstacles. a lot of what made Love and EMB special was the culture of the people who skated and hung out there every day. the physical architecture of the space was important too but the lore that prevails is not strictly how buttery the ledges were but the community and the vibe. crews were formed there, companies grew out of those relationships that would go on to have important legacies in skateboarding, and if you read the article, the same can be said about Tompkins

[rawbertson.]

as an outsider at least to me it seems like the main difference is no one would travel to NYC just to skate there / film stuff, but its crucial as a meeting place in the middle of the city for the people that actually live there with good flat ground to warm up and work on new tricks. Toronto has a couple places similar to this like Dunbat and now Dufferin Grove, and in San Francisco they have "The Island" which is located close to pier 7 / EMB and is a stones throw from the major transit station.

[Bristol_Palin]

I never go to Tompkins whenever I skate New York but I kind of thought of it like NYC's version of Rizzo rink in South Philly.

I would spend all my days at Rizzo rink. The ground is awesome and it's under 95 so it's sort of covered from rain and snow and the sun on hot days (although from the rain a lake would normally build up at end and you wouldn't want your board rolling in it). It's behind a beer store, a dunkin donuts, and a Vietnamese restaurant. I would just go skate flat, or skate some garbage I found there, wallie the pillars and the drainage pipe. Wall ride the white wall that always smelled like urine. There was a broken piece of one of the massive steep slanted parking blocks and I'd wallie and switch wallie that thing all day long. You can play pick up games of basketball or watch some people play some intense games of soccer. Every once in a while there'd be a guy spinning around in a big ring and that was interesting.

I moved from South Philly to central Jersey about 15 minutes from the beach in November of 2016 and I missed Rizzo a ton and still do. Me and my buddies went there for my bachelor party back in 2019 which is very silly. Skated some flat and had some drinks. I did a couple wall rides on the pee pee wall, wallied the pillar and did a nice feeling switch backside flip. It was a nice day even though I don't think I skated too much.

Since then they actually turned it into a skatepark which I still find silly. The little quarter pipe looks so fun but I haven't skated there since 2019. Still have to make the trip sometime to go skate it again. It will always have a special place in my heart.

As a skater, I always felt it was really important to have a go-to place to skate flat. I didn't really have one when I first moved here. I ended up going to the skate park a decent amount after I moved into the initial apartment my wife and I first moved into, then we moved to a bigger apartment that had a parking lot in the back. The ground is kind of cruddy. I moved into an apartment into the house next door but I still skate in the old houses parking lot because it's all the same landlord. I have a little qp in the old houses furnace room still that I don't skate a lot because it's kind of weird going into a house I don't live in to pull out a heavy ramp

Some selfie Rizzo clips from 2016 right before I moved:

[funeral_tuxedo]

“Tompkins is pretty important. I don’t think there’s Yaje without Tompkins.” - Yaje Popson
LOL

[Ninj2]

Yaje live in the fart tent

[Stab n Kill]

I travel to NY fairly often, and try to get a session in at Tompkins for each visit.  I had some great convos on the benches. About 10 years ago, I spent many of summer days kicking it with Shawn Powers (prior to palace, when the reboot of Shut was still in business) and he was cool to chat/kick it with. Danny Garcia and Dylan showed up once to skate flat, and Dylan popped one of the biggest f/s heels that I had ever seen.  Although he was going fast, the board flicked pretty slowly.  It was really graceful.  Also, got to skate flat with PJ, when he lived close by. At 12th & A, Robbie Gangemi, Eli Reed, and Gino were all hanging there, but were just cruising around and didn't skate much.  Robbie popped a few proper nollie 180s.
Less is more.  I really don't care for all of the obstacles set up at Tompkins.  In the past coupe of years, the vibe of the place seems a bit off. I'll still drop by whenever I'm in the city.  Mostly out of habit.

[waffle]

This comment on the jenkem article also sums up my experience with Yaje:


‘
Met Yaje once and he literally said, “you don’t know who I am?”
Good to see he still loves talking about himself.
‘

[Lou Strux]

“Yaje is pretty important. I don’t think there’s Tompkins without Yaje.” - Yaje Popson

[Mandatory Reload]

I travel to NY fairly often, and try to get a session in at Tompkins for each visit.  I had some great convos on the benches. About 10 years ago, I spent many of summer days kicking it with Shawn Powers (prior to palace, when the reboot of Shut was still in business) and he was cool to chat/kick it with. Danny Garcia and Dylan showed up once to skate flat, and Dylan popped one of the biggest f/s heels that I had ever seen.  Although he was going fast, the board flicked pretty slowly.  It was really graceful.  Also, got to skate flat with PJ, when he lived close by. At 12th & A, Robbie Gangemi, Eli Reed, and Gino were all hanging there, but were just cruising around and didn't skate much.  Robbie popped a few proper nollie 180s.
Less is more.  I really don't care for all of the obstacles set up at Tompkins.  In the past coupe of years, the vibe of the place seems a bit off. I'll still drop by whenever I'm in the city.  Mostly out of habit.

PJ Ladd lived in NYC at some point? Or a different PJ?

[camel filters]

"I don't think there's Yaje without Tompkins."

He really is on that talking in third person tip aint he?

[Stab n Kill]

Expand Quote

I travel to NY fairly often, and try to get a session in at Tompkins for each visit.  I had some great convos on the benches. About 10 years ago, I spent many of summer days kicking it with Shawn Powers (prior to palace, when the reboot of Shut was still in business) and he was cool to chat/kick it with. Danny Garcia and Dylan showed up once to skate flat, and Dylan popped one of the biggest f/s heels that I had ever seen.  Although he was going fast, the board flicked pretty slowly.  It was really graceful.  Also, got to skate flat with PJ, when he lived close by. At 12th & A, Robbie Gangemi, Eli Reed, and Gino were all hanging there, but were just cruising around and didn't skate much.  Robbie popped a few proper nollie 180s.
Less is more.  I really don't care for all of the obstacles set up at Tompkins.  In the past coupe of years, the vibe of the place seems a bit off. I'll still drop by whenever I'm in the city.  Mostly out of habit.

[close]

PJ Ladd lived in NYC at some point? Or a different PJ?

For a short amount of time..Maybe a year or so...My buddy Gavin was skating with him a lot.  At the TF, I had met up with them both...Pj was just about to get on Adidas, and we talked about this one Adidas shoe for a long time...I forget the model but it was a cup that sort of looked like a soccer shoe. He was landing varies heels in his sleep, over and over again...Anyway, Gavin mentioned something about PJs partner doing something yoga related in NY, so I guess that's why he was there.