If you are familiar with skateboarding history then you probably know all about the Santa Monica Courthouse which is also known as ‘West LA Courthouse Skate Plaza’. If not let me briefly explain.

The West LA Courthouse is likely the most iconic and first skate plaza in Los Angeles. In the 90’s it was illegal to ride a skateboard on courthouse property but skateboarders couldn’t resist the perfect ledges that were on offer here. Nike SB actually purchased the courthouse plaza in 2014 and now it’s a legal and legit skate spot. But this is all about to change.

Skateboarders Will Lose Iconic West L.A. Courthouse Skate Plaza

Rumor has it that the iconic West L.A. Courthouse skate spot might be no more. Skateboarder Dan Corrigan recently mentioned this in one of his YouTube videos and says it is coming from a reliable source. Corrigan said that the Courthouse building was being destroyed but he wasn’t sure how much of the skate plaza would be left if any. He said he also spoke to someone at Nike and it seems they won’t be doing anything about it. So I decided to do some digging myself and surely enough I found some alarming information.

Santa Monica Courthouse Skate Spot Is No More

I found a Capital Outlay Budget Change Proposal (COBCP) which is public information from a government website. Basically a COBCP is this: “Requests for Finance Letters to adjust an existing project proposal, whether for technical or policy reasons, or to add an urgent new proposal. Entering into a lease with purchase option” (source: dgs.ca.gov).

Technical stuff I know! I believe that the project has been in the works for some time and additional funding was needed or something along those lines. Don’t quote me on this stuff as I’m not a town planner.

Anyway the proposal states that the Los Angeles County has submitted a Master Plan to analyze and develop a plan for improving and modernizing Los Angeles court facilities. The Santa Monica Courthouse is one of the courthouses on a long list that are going to be improved and modernized around the city. It says the project will start August 2021 and be completed in August 2023.

Los Angeles To Lose Iconic Courthouse Skate Plaza

It’s all a bit of a mystery right now but I believe this is enough evidence to say something is going to happen to the courthouse in the near future. Who knows what will be left of the plaza in the end or if they will build new skateable obstacles in place of the old ones. We can only hope but the skateboarding community will have lost a piece of history if this happens.

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