Baker Bowl Skate Park

The front page and inside layout of the Middletown Journal story printed in conjuction with an online video component.

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Scott Sams jumps a stack of skateboards at Bakers Bowl at Smith Park in Middletown. Sams comes to the park almost every day during summer. Like many regulars, he stays most of the day spending time with friends and trying to get better.

Skaters rest and practice tricks is the shade. According the Middletown's Park and Recreation Department, the park is visited by 50 to 100 skaters a day during the summer.

Baker Bowl attracts skaters from around southwest Ohio. It was public skate park in Butler County, followed by one in Oxford and one in Hamilton's Joyce Park.

Although the park posted signs banning bikes from the park, after the Parks and Recreation Department met with skaters, they decided to the let bikers and skaters work out things themselves.

The Parks and Recreation Department only paints over graffiti that is vulgar or racist leaving most everything else with the understanding that it's part of the skateboarding culture.