{"id":12731,"date":"2025-08-13T11:58:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=12731"},"modified":"2025-08-13T11:58:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:58:52","slug":"grinding-through-data-economics-study-of-skateboarding-spaces","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/wwwtest.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/grinding-through-data-economics-study-of-skateboarding-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Grinding through data: Economics study of skateboarding spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Jennifer Shaw is a resident of the East Hill neighborhood in Eau Claire, across the street from the skateboard space within Boyd Park. Shaw says the addition of the skate park has improved the 100-year-old community park, despite what she has seen as somewhat of a historic community bias against skateboarding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was young here there was no place for skating \u2014 I think it was actually illegal at the time,\u201d Shaw says. \u201cNow that spaces like this exist, these skaters can show off their skills and build their own community within our community. I think it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Dr. Thomas Kemp, professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a lifelong skateboarder, that community connection between skate parks and their users posed a unique research opportunity for himself and some interested economics students.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo well-designed and constructed skate parks bring an overall community benefit?\u201d<\/h2>\n

That is the question Kemp\u2019s research group has been studying, a passion project that Kemp says is his way of giving back to a sport he has loved for 40 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready to give a little back to skateboarding, especially these community parks \u2014 it\u2019s been a good thing throughout my life,\u201d Kemp says.<\/p>\n

The research project, which examined 16 skate parks in Wisconsin and Minnesota, is in the results analysis phase. Anecdotal evidence from community members like Shaw indicates that Kemp\u2019s hypothesis is on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re finding that when parks are done right, they become places that are welcoming, where people feel safe \u2014 skaters and community members alike,\u201d Kemp says.<\/p>\n

See the following video for details about the current study and the lessons learned so far by the team of student researchers.<\/p>\n