With the opening of the Lynch Family Skatepark in East Cambridge near the Museum of Science, skateboarders and BMX bikers have reason to rejoice after waiting for 10 years. The new skatepark features an awesome design. The atmosphere is cool, the setting in uniquely industrial, and the people using it are friendly.
However, unless children know how to shred on a skateboard, push their bike to the limits, or are particularly nimble on a scooter, they may be better off just watching.
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The Lynch Family Skatepark is a huge skating haven at 40,000 square feet – that's the size of three CVS stores, for a comparison. On a recent late Sunday morning, the park was hopping with more than 75 skateboarders and BMXers, with a typical age running from 16 to 22 years old. Energy drink cans and an occasional cigarette butt lined the tops of the bowls in which the youths performed their tricks.
There were a handful of middle school kids in the mix, too, who clearly knew what they were doing. Meanwhile, one little girl was gliding slowly around the park on her scooter, with an adult following closely behind—no doubt hoping neither of them would be accidentally run over. It was a real-life game of Crossy Road in action. To be fair, the skaters and bikers never clipped anyone navigating on foot around the ramps and rails.
From a spectator standpoint, the Lynch Family Skatepark is entertaining on many levels. There is the adrenaline rush of seeing someone complete a stunt well on a skateboard – and also of wincing as a poor skater takes a spill on the unforgiving concrete. From every direction people whiz by on bikes or boards, dropping into bowls or shooting down ramps. Kids on the sidelines will watch in wide-eyed awe at the whole attraction, and maybe a few of them will be inspired to pick up a skateboard.
The park, named after a family that served as one of the primary financial supporters of the project, resides in a strange spot: It's literally under the loop ramp that connects the City Square Tunnel to the Leverett Connector and Zakim Bridge. Readers who are longtime Greater Boston residents will immediately recognize this as a former no-man's land hidden among train tracks and highways, yet somehow the park and its visitors seem completely at home sharing space with the neighboring Boston Sand & Gravel company. Occasional Duck Tour vehicles go right by the park, no doubt intriguing riders just before they take the dip into the Charles River.
A note about the street parking: There isn't much. Parents will be lucky to find a legal spot, and most of those spaces are metered and have a two-hour limit. Many of the skaters and riders either hoof it from home on the sidewalks or take the Green Line to the Science Park or Lechmere stops (the skatepark is located halfway between those two stations). Visitors can also park in the garages of the Museum of Science or CambridgeSide Galleria and walk over.
Directions: Lynch Family Skatepark is at North Point Park in East Cambridge. From either direction of O'Brien Highway (Route 28), turn onto Museum Way (across from the Museum of Science), and then take a right onto Education Street and follow it for one-eighth of a mile.
Admission: Free
Hours: Dawn to dusk