Pieces Of Love Park Now Being Preserved In Malmo, Sweden
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A little piece of Philadelphia now resides in Sweden. Several large slabs of granite from Love Park have been sent to a Swedish city known for skateboarding.
The city of Malmo has a lot in common with Philadelphia, as a former manufacturing town, hard hit by a shifting economy.
Though, Malmo saw skateboarding as a resource, and Gustav Eden is the city's skateboarding coordinator.
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"We've learned that skateboarding is not detrimental to urban life but an actually be an asset in activating spaces, he said."
People move there to skate, says Eden, and leading sponsors, like Vans, hold major competitions there.
So there was a civic sense of mourning when it heard Love Park was closing.
"The skating world has lost something," he said.
Eden got in touch with Josh Nims, founder of Franklin's Skate Fund, custodians of the granite removed from Love Park and came to Philadelphia to request some, which Nims understood.
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"Well, of course, it's sacred and to share that with another city making a skate park that used that granite was very attractive to us," Nims said.
He says about half a million pounds of granite was moved from Love Park, so there was plenty to share.
Eden is very hush, hush about how Malmo plans to use the granite but says he thinks it will rock the skateboarding world.