SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Golden Gate Park’s Waller Street Skate Park is getting a new name after the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission unanimously approved renaming the space after late skateboarder and community advocate Zion Williams Gaines, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department announced today. The plaza, located in Golden Gate Park at Waller and Stanyan streets, will now be known as Zion Skate Plaza.

Zion, a Bayview resident, was a well-known figure in the San Francisco skate community, known for his commitment to the sport despite having lost sight in both eyes due to a gunshot wound he suffered when he was a teenager. Zion, 20, passed away in his sleep in June 2023.

The skate plaza’s new name will honor the profound impact Zion left on local skateboarding culture. Zion began skateboarding at age 11 and soon after joined the SF Skate Club’s afterschool program, where he eventually became a peer mentor. He also interned at local San Francisco skateboarding company DLX Distribution.

Zion was a founding member of the Friends of Waller group, which was instrumental in the 2022 renovation of Waller Street Skatepark. Just before Zion passed away, he applied for a recreation leader position with Rec and Park and was scheduled for an interview with the department’s Shred and Butter skateboarding program.

“Zion’s impact went far beyond the skateboarding community. He inspired anyone who has ever felt like the world was stacked against them,” said Zion’s mother Charmaine Williams. “It’s heartwarming to see that his legacy of inclusivity and determination will live on and remind everyone that the real power of skating isn’t about what we can see, but what we feel inside.”

“Zion was a catalyst for positive change in the community, encouraging young people to get involved in skateboarding despite any obstacles they might be facing,” said SF Rec and Park Department General Manager Phil Ginsburg. “This space exemplifies everything about him, and I’m happy to see his memory will be kept alive here.”

“Zion was a natural community leader, and everything he did was out of love for skateboarding. It only makes sense that his energy will forever live at Zion Skate Plaza,” said Justin Marks of Low Key Skate Shop.

“Zion was a beacon of light, radiating inclusion and warmth that made everyone around him feel special. His spirit and desire to uplift others—uplifted us all,” said Jim Thiebaud of DLX Distribution. “To have the City commemorate Waller, a space that was his home away from home, in his honor is more than a tribute—it’s a lasting message to the youth of San Francisco that when you follow your heart and lift others along the way, you can bring lasting positivity into the world.”

The skateboarding area on the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park has been beloved by skaters from all over the Bay Area since 2011, when it was first converted from an informal gathering spot to an officially sanctioned skate plaza, marking the first time in the nation that a city transformed a decommissioned street into a permitted skate space.

In 2022, the plaza received a $218,000 makeover that consisted of repaved asphalt topped with acrylic overlay to better facilitate skating, and the addition of nontraditional skate elements meant to mimic the urban skate environment such as k-rails, granite blocks and curbs donated from San Francisco Public Works. The renovation also added a new landscape strip that blends the area with the natural surrounding environment.

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PHOTO CAPTION: Zion Williams Gaines, center, at the Waller Street Skate Park ribbon cutting ceremony on Oct. 25, 2022.