Skateboard park named after Lee Matasi vandalized
Posted January 24, 2014 11:07 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A lot of hard work by volunteers has gone up in flames at the Leeside Tunnel Skateboard Park.
Sometime on Wednesday night, vandals struck and damaged the park, located near the Cassiar Connector.
The park is dedicated after Lee Matasi, an aspiring artist and skateboarder who was tragically shot and killed in Gastown in 2005.
Facebook sites Vancouver Skateboard Coalition and Protest Skateboards feature dozens of comments by people angered by the vandalism.
Char Hunter is a local skateboarder and has seen photos of the damage.
“They were going to build a beautiful big quarter pipe there. All the framework for the wood was burned down. It damaged the wall pretty badly. It damaged a picture of Lee Matasi,” she explains.
However, she says they’re a resilient bunch.
“The community is strong and will get through this and rebuild it as beautiful as it was. It is really sad. People should respect memorial sites, and people should respect all public spaces.”
She says donations of wood and money are already coming in for the rebuilding.
