Interesting Article in the LA Times...Waterparks

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Mountainbuzz.com :: View topic - Interesting article in the LA times... waterparks. Page 2 of 5 A white -water park in Colorado along Golden's Clear Creek brings an estimated $1.4 million a year into the community through hotel, restaurant and other revenue, according to one consulting firm's study. And promoters say that the parks' advantages go beyond the bottom line by helping improve river duality and luring couch -bound residents outdoors. One of the country's first kayak parks was modeled after a water course built for the 1972 Munich Olympics. The Cast Race Waterway opened near the St. Joseph River in South Bend, Ind., in 1984, revitalizing a channel once packed with debris. Open only on weekends, the park draws as many as 10,980 visitors over the summer. The mayor of ski -happy Ogden, Utah, first encountered the possibilities when he knocked on the door of a kayaker while out campaigning. The boater badgered Matthew Godfrey about adding rocks and rapids to the Weber River. Since 2001, a white -water park has carved through the city's west side, carrying a daily flotilla of mainly squat, Kool -Aid colored boats past brick industrial buildings left over from Ogden's days as a Union Pacific railroad town. At first "you saw a lot of head - scratching and eye- rolling," Godfrey says. "The assumption was that people just don't kayak in our community." Amy Wicks, an Ogden councilwoman, says the park has catalyzed paddlers to de- gunk the Weber by hauling out debris. "If they weren't boating down it, they wouldn't care," she says. Now, planners intend to dot the area's other river, the Ogden, with play spots. In what may become the most extravagant project, the Charlotte, N.C., area has proposed a $25- million artificial white -water course, with movable boulders and rapids that can be changed to suit various levels of experience. Meant to emulate the 2000 Olympics run in Sydney, Australia, the waterway would anchor an outdoor adventure park with climbing walls, a ropes course, meeting rooms and a restaurant on 307 acres just a 10- minute drive from downtown. An economics professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte predicts that the park could generate $37 million annually. For - • is selling itself in outdoor magazines and on big banners • Adventure Place, and its 10-month-old Wingfield at linchpin. University of Nevada, Reno economist predicts park will draw several thousand fans to paddling events, while enticing locals a • out-of-towners alike to spend at least $1.9 million hotels. shops and • casinos and the city paid for the $1.5-million Reno park. The • MHEEHMEGEMM Engineers took charge of the Truckee River as it cleaves downtown, miles from where it squiggles out of the mountains below Lake Tahoe. A few pieces of the river's concrete corral are the only hints of the '60s, when city officials tried to tame the flood -prone Truckee by straightening and deepening it through http:// www. mountainbuzz .com/viewtopic.php ?t= 2826 &highlight =c +hole 9/15/2004