I have a dream...

The Blue Falcon himself, Brian Foster, having fun at an indoor bike park.  A bike park like this is one part of the dream I've had for  years.

The dream started in 1987.  I was a hardcore, if not high caliber, BMX freestyler, and had stumbled into the BMX industry.  The American Freestyle Association had its spring and fall national contests at the Cal State Dominguez Velodrome back then, a venue built for the 1984 Olympics.  Riders from around the U.S., and the U.K. and Europe were in town for the final contest.   My friend Mike and I were hanging out with a group of English riders, when Mike got a call from a young woman we met in Reno, months earlier.  "Party at my house!" she told Mike.  She called a few girls, we brought a van load of BMXers, and we met at the guest house, behind her dad's house, in upscale Palos Verdes.  The typical drinking and fun ensued, and we had a good time.  We all passed out in the little guest house, spread out on couches or the floor.  

I was falling asleep on the floor, as our hostess screwed one of the English guys on the couch above me.  I thought, "Man, it would be cool to have a big house some day, with a backyard full of bike and skate ramps, and a guest house where friends from around the world could stay at while in town.  We could ride all day, party some at night.  It would be cool.  That was the beginning of this dream, back when I was a 21-year-old BMX freestyle guy.

In the 33 years since, BMX freestyle, and several other action sports, have grown, spread across the world, and turned into pretty large industries.  We've also had a few other things happen as well, like the internet, smartphones, YouTube, social media, and the rise of the Information Age economy.  

As we all know, thousands of retail stores, particularly in malls and shopping centers, have gone out of business, as online shopping has begun to rise and replace much of in store shopping.  The Retail Apocalypse, as it got tagged in late 2016, is the closing of about 20,000 stores in 2016-2019, close to another 20,000 in 2020 alone, and now this CNBC article, from last week, quoting UBS, predicts another 80,000 stores will close in the next 5 years, as well.  That's A LOT of empty business buildings.  What are we going to do with dead malls, dead shopping centers, and dead retail districts?  

Here's my idea, MY BIG DREAM, circa 2021.  I'd like to put all of these things below in one large area.  A dead mall could work.  A few warehouse buildings and some land could work.  Even the once thriving upscale shopping district I'm sitting in now could work.  OK, they probably wouldn't want that much new energy and creativity right here, but there are 6 or 7 empty storefronts on this block alone.  Even here, they need some new ideas.  But there are a lot of places in the country, and in California, where this idea could be tried out.  

The basic idea of my dream is: What if we put a bunch of high quality action sports places in the same place as art studios, galleries, video stages and equipment, and maybe music stages and small live theaters, as well.  Hey, this is Southern California, skateboarding, BMX, BMX freestyle, snowboarding, and freestyle motocross were born here.  Surfing was reborn in Waikiki, Hawaii around 1900, but rose to worldwide fame here in southern California.  This is the place to try crazy new ideas.  

What would happen if you put a bunch of highly creative action sports people, and a bunch of visual artists, photographers, video producers, content creators, and a few musicians and actors in one place?  Probably something pretty cool. At the very least, the place would become world famous in a year, and begin attracting lots of other creative people, I guarantee it.  

Here's what I'd like to include.  First, a BMX bike park like the one in the clip above of  a legendary BMX rider, and one of my former roommates, Brian Foster.  I'm an Old School BMX freestyle guy, so that has to be part of the mix.  Then we add these things:

-Indoor (and outdoor?) Mountain Bike Park (Like Ray's MTB in Cleveland).

-A high caliber pump track (outdoor, and maybe indoor as well)

-A great outdoor skatepark and indoor skatepark

-A high caliber indoor climbing gym.  OK, maybe not quite this big and crazy to start, but...

-CHEAP live work art studios 

-Indie art galleries, like this one (that I used to live in, where my Sharpie Scribble Style was born), or maybe this one, or maybe this one.   

-Cheap photo/video studios to rent for photographers, video producers, content creators, etc.  

-Conference type rooms to rent out cheap, by the hour, for workshops, groups working on creative projects, meetings, and whatever else.

-Hangout spots where all these different creative and athletic people can just hang out, goof around, and see what good ideas come out of these interactions.  Chill spots, basically.  

That's the basic idea of my dream.  In addition, we'd need some snacks, most people would want a coffee shop close by, I'd want a good pizza place and Mexican restaurant close by.  A tattoo/piercing shop is almost a given, with all these other groups of people.  Small stages for acoustic music, poetry, or spoken word performances would be cool.  Also, a cheap place for people traveling to the spot to stay.  Cheap motel rooms, dorms,  a hostel, something like that.  If possible, band rehearsal spaces and nearby clubs for local bands to play would be cool as well.  

OK, that's My Dream, something I'd like to see happen in the world.  A dead mall, dead shopping center, or dead shopping district would be a cool place to build something like this.  What do you readers think?

Blogger note- 10-23-2021- Just for the record, this dream was mostly what I imagined when I was stuck back East, in North Carolina, where there are a ton of abandoned factories and warehouses, and other buildings.  It was also a place really lacking in actions sports, but with small, but often vibrant art and music scenes.  Now that I'm back out in Southern California, all these things exist out here, they're just spread out.  This action sports/arts place in one location makes a lot more sense in run down parts of the country that have cheap buildings, and desperately need some place for creative people to get together.  In California it doesn't make as much sense, land is too expensive in the urban areas, where all of these things already exist.