{"id":1968,"date":"2019-06-13T10:47:50","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T14:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/?p=1968"},"modified":"2019-06-13T10:47:56","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T14:47:56","slug":"parkour-is-coming-to-alexandria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/parkour-is-coming-to-alexandria\/","title":{"rendered":"Parkour Is Coming to Alexandria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Senior Jonas Neidhardt Brings Beloved Sport to the City<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Abigail St. Jean and Leigh Welther<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alexandria will soon be home to the fourth outdoor parkour park in the United States, thanks to T.C. senior Jonas Neidhardt. Neidhardt presented his idea to add a parkour park\u00a0 to the city council in December 2017 and is currently awaiting construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\tNeidhardt has been doing parkour for nine years. \u201cI always liked climbing stuff and jumping around,\u201d Neidhardt said, \u201cI\u2019ve done basically every sport under the sun and nothing really stuck with me, until I found parkour\u201d Neidhardt says the sport has helped him destress and&nbsp; allowed him to make&nbsp; friends in the parkour community. Now he wants to bring parkour to Alexandria. \u201cI think giving [the community} an opportunity to exercise in a different and alternative way is very important not only for them but just for all of Alexandria.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\tEwald Park, which is located just off of Duke Street,was ready&nbsp; for renovations when Neidhardt presented his idea to City Council. The process included meetings with council members and with Ewald Park managers. Since the initial meeting, Neidhardt has gone through about six or seven designs before settling on the final draft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Park_Concept_5_papersize2.png?fit=960%2C742&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1970\" width=\"216\" height=\"166\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Park_Concept_5_papersize2.png 3300w, https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Park_Concept_5_papersize2-300x232.png 300w, https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Park_Concept_5_papersize2-768x593.png 768w, https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Park_Concept_5_papersize2-1024x791.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Park_Concept_5_papersize2-1140x881.png 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 216px) 100vw, 216px\" \/><figcaption>Neidhardt&#8217;s most recent design for the park.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\tEwald Park has \u201ca great central location,\u201d as Neidhardt describes it. However, the park has been abandoned as it is rarely used by the community. Neidhardt describes the park in a \u201cstate of disarray.\u201d Currently the park houses an abandoned pool and pool house, desecrated tennis courts, and a rusty playground. \u201cI\u2019m hoping this [parkour] park will bring change to [Ewald]&nbsp; Park and activate it again.\u201d Neidhardt expects the park to be a hit, \u201cThere is a rather large parkour community in the DC metro area. Regardless, they would all be drawn to this because it is the only one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\tAn open house was held in November with obstacles set up and information about the park to introduce people to the idea of opening a parkour park in Alexandria. About 50-60 people showed up. Neidhardt says lots of the parents that attended the open house expressed their support, \u201cA lot of parents come and say \u2018my kids would love to have something like this where they can come jump around on and climb.\u2019\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_2795.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1971\" width=\"275\" height=\"206\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_2795.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/IMG_2795-300x225.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><figcaption>Neidhardt at the park&#8217;s open house.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\tNeidhardt is currently in the process of working with contracting companies to build the parkour structures. \u201cI want to have everything to be put in place and built before I go off to college in August.\u201d Neidhardt will attend University of Colorado Boulder next year and plans on majoring in Health Sciences. Neidhardt doesn\u2019t plan on this being his only parkour park project. \u201cThis is something that I want to continue with &#8211;the spread of parkour parks and parks education when I am an adult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\tNeidhardt is currently in the process of working with contracting companies to build the parkour structures. \u201cI want to have everything to be put in place and built before I go off to college in August.\u201d Neidhardt will attend University of Colorado Boulder next year and plans on majoring in Health Sciences. Neidhardt doesn\u2019t plan on this being his only parkour park project. \u201cThis is something that I want to continue with &#8211;the spread of parkour parks and parks education when I am an adult.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alexandria will soon be home to the fourth outdoor parkour park in the United States, thanks to T.C. senior Jonas Neidhardt. Neidhardt presented his idea to add a parkour park  to the city council in December 2017 and is currently awaiting construction. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1972,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions\/1972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}