Local skater Adam Eichorn turned toward two police cars guarding the entrance to the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Evanston’s new skate park, took out his phone and snapped a picture.

He laughed to himself, eyes crinkling behind sunglasses and a white trucker hat.

“That’s a great picture,” Eichorn said.

Many of the older skaters have stories of ducking police to skate in Evanston parking lots or on street curbs. Now, they watched police cars guard a collection of concrete hills and metal rails at the tip of Twiggs Park.

Saturday marked the grand opening of the Evanston Skate Park — a $1.7 million project soft launched in December — and the endorsement of skateboarding by a city that, according to some, hasn’t always been the most hospitable to its participants in the past.

The ceremony brought upwards of 200 people to Twiggs Park — skaters lining the tops of the smooth concrete slopes and observers eating from food trucks.

At some points during the event, the skate park became so crowded that it led to several near collisions and deterred Prospect Heights skater Robert Breton from skateboarding altogether. 

However, Breton said Saturday was an example of what skate parks represent. He said they were places where the skating community merged — where skaters could see and be seen by others in their community.

“This is home,” he said.

Skate parks offer kids permission to skate, said Ald. Juan Geracaris (9th), who is active on the Evanston skate scene. Kids that don’t have access to local parks either don’t have an outlet or are forced to duck police to skate the streets, skaters at the event said. 

Growing up without many skate parks nearby, Breton said he was arrested for street skating.

In contrast, the constant availability of a skate park makes it a better foundation on which to form a stable community, according to Eichorn.

“There’s no barriers (here),” he said. “It brings people together. It forces people to see each other.”

Many skaters at the Evanston Skate Park — while grateful for the park and its support from the city — hold the freeform street skating in higher regard than the more organized version found in parks.

Completing kickflips and grinds on urban obstacles not necessarily created for skating is what builds “street cred,” Eichorn said.

“Part of the art of skating is finding the things that aren’t meant to be skated,” said Jon Schmoldt, a vendor selling skateboards during the ceremony.

There isn’t a rigid separation between street and park skating, though. A corner of the Evanston Skate Park is a replica of a legendary Chicago skate spot outside of the Chase Tower. Several skaters at the opening ceremony said Evanston’s version will be relegated to just practice for those who want to prove their chops on the original.

It’s part of what Schmoldt describes as “self-expression.” Skating the same lines at the same parks as everyone else doesn’t give the satisfaction or confidence that riding unique urban terrain does, Breton said.

But for Breton and Schmoldt, Evanston’s new skate park signals the growing acceptance of their sport.

Just after noon on Saturday, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss led a caravan of city employees to the center of the park, skaters whizzing past them. There, they cut the big blue ribbon that officially opened the park. Just a handful of skaters listened to Biss’ speech that preceded the ribbon-cutting. Most were already behind him, standing atop the concrete slopes, sliding along the metal rails.

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