Skate JXN partnership brings new momentum to Midtown skate park effort

The new skate feature on the corner of Wightman and Wesley opens opportunities for skaters and helps prevent public dumping.

Photo: Peter Kelly

On a corner lot at Wesley Avenue and Wightman Street in Midtown, a small concrete skate ramp now stands where piles of dumped furniture once collected.

Not long ago, the lot was known mostly for the trash that accumulated around a dumpster used by nearby properties. Mattresses, broken furniture and other debris often ended up scattered across the ground. Midtown Partners had considered installing a fence to stop the problem.

Instead, they built something people could use.

Working with Skate JXN and local partners, Midtown Partners helped install a skateable concrete feature along the edge of the lot. The project is part of a broader effort to bring dedicated skate spaces back to Jackson.

For members of Skate JXN, the ramp represents more than a single skate feature. The grassroots group has spent years building Jackson’s skate community despite the absence of a permanent skate park. That work includes organizing gear drops, distributing helmets and boards to young skaters and working with neighborhood groups to create safe places to ride. Grace Stafford, known in the skate community as “Gi,” said the organization chose to keep building momentum even when larger projects stalled. When Gi and her friends noticed a gap for skating in Jackson they decided to create a skate community. “We’ve kept doing gear drops, putting helmets and skateboards in kids’ hands and showing up.”

A Rendering of the new skate feature on Wightman and Wesley provided by Jina Daniels with Midtown Partners.

Skate JXN’s partnership with Midtown Partners has helped translate that energy into physical spaces. When Midtown leaders began looking for ways to address illegal dumping at the Wesley and Wightman lot, Skate JXN worked with them to design a skateable feature instead of installing a fence. With donated concrete from Delta Industries and volunteer labor from the community, the ramp took shape earlier this year. Stafford said projects like the Midtown ramp show how skaters can help activate underused spaces while continuing to push toward the long-term goal of a larger skate park in Jackson.

Jina Daniels, who works with Midtown Partners and owns Jax-Zen Healing Arts Center nearby, said the idea of a skatepark in Midtown has been circulating for years.

“This actually started about 14 or 15 years ago,” Daniels said. “There was an MOU with the city and everything.”

Earlier plans called for expanding Benjamin Brown Park on Mill Street into a larger public space that included skate features, splash pads and public art. Midtown Partners and local skaters began working toward the project and even started raising money.

After a short stall in momentum, local skaters created a do-it-yourself skate spot along Mill Street. The site became a gathering place for the skating community before it was eventually removed after the property owner asked that it be taken down.

That closure helped revive conversations about building something permanent.

A rendering of the Art Park & Skate Garden that is currently in the process of raising funds for development.

Provided by Midtown Partners.

Midtown Partners later secured an Amazon ChangeX grant for planning, and began meeting with neighborhood residents again to revisit the idea. Daniels said the response was clear that people still wanted a skate park in the area.

The current plan, known as the Art Park and Skate Garden, would bring skate features, public art, trees and walking paths to the Mill Street area near Benjamin Brown Park. Daniels said the project could approach $1 million in total cost, but is designed to be built in phases.

“We don’t need the full million dollars to get it started,” Daniels said. “We can build it out piece by piece.”

Phase one of the multi phase art garden and skatepark kicked off the development with the planting of a fruit tree orchard, where lots of community members came out for a “plant a tree” day. The next phase will be the development of the skatepark features.

The ramp installed at Wesley and Wightman grew out of that incremental approach.

Midtown Partners had already planted fruit trees on the Wesley lot as part of a neighborhood orchard project, but illegal dumping around the dumpster remained a problem.

“What if instead of a fence we put up a skate element?” Daniels said. “Something people could use that would also deter people from dumping.”

She reached out to members of Skate JXN and longtime local skater Frank Henn to discuss the idea. With donated concrete from Delta Industries and help from volunteers, the ramp was installed earlier this year.

Grace Stafford with Skate JXN, who goes by “Gi” in the skate community, said the presence of people using the space has already begun to change how the corner is used.

“When people are in that space, it deters people from coming and dumping,” Stafford said.

She recalled one recent interaction when a vehicle pulled up with a trailer of trash. After a conversation with someone at the site, the driver used the dumpster appropriately and left with the rest of the debris.

Moments like that reinforce the group’s hopes to achieve future projects.

Stafford described skate communities as similar to what ecologists call a “pioneer plant,” the first species to return after disturbance and begin restoring the environment.

“We’re the ones who make the soil rich,” Stafford said. “We come back after a fire or a famine and show that a place is sustainable again.”

Skate JXN hopes to see more skateable spaces spread across Jackson rather than relying on a single destination park.

“We don’t want you to have to drive from all the way across the city for one spot,” Stafford said. “We want a spot here, a spot there; places that belong to the neighborhoods.”

For now, the ramp on Wesley Street offers a glimpse of what that broader vision might look like. A corner that once collected trash now draws skaters, families and curious passersby.

Organizers hope that momentum will help bring the larger Midtown skate park closer to reality, community members can support these efforts by donating to Midtown Partners.