Bikes in a Ramp Park: 30 Years of DIY Place-Making and the Production of BMX Park Culture at Mullaly Bike Park in the Bronx, NYC

William Willoughby (Kent State University)

Aldo van Eyck wrote that, "Whatever space and time mean, place and occasion mean more." For van Eyck, space with a human face is defined as place, and time with a human face constitutes occasions. Meaningful good times take shape in appropriate places—for 30 years NYC's Mullaly Bike Park located next to Yankee Stadium, has been a celebrated center of BMX culture in the Bronx. The park serves as a case study par excellence for the way occasions transform places over time—constructing multigenerational memories and a broad 'sense of community' rooted to an evolving set of activities happening in a specific locale. Social media, graphic design, clothing, and other swag promote the particular identity of Mullaly Bike Park and the lifestyle of those who frequent it. Even phrases from the park have entered local street parlance: DIY PMA BMX, or "Do It Yourself Positive Mental Attitude BMX."

Mullaly Bike Park is a unique combination of public space (as an official part of NYC Parks) and a specific community-built place (through volunteer organizations, crowd sourcing, sponsored events, and grant funding)—expressed through a collection of the humble plywood ramps made through the community's sweat and basic power tools, and compounded through the good times shared, memories collected, and techniques learned between those performing BMX park tricks. When studied as an evolving act of environmental design, Mullaly Bike Park reflects and affirms the identity of its makers.

This presentation explores the legacy of Mullaly Bike Park as NYC’s longest running ramp park. The park has been built, rebuilt, and is supported by a multigenerational, multiethnic, and multiracial BMX community. The presentation employs observational and phenomenological methods to tease out the connecting threads that seam places to their making, occasions to their histories, and communities to their local identity.