First of two parts. 

Two weeks away from the second anniversary of the permanent closing of the historic Culver Ice Rink, what feels like lifelong pain aches in the hearts of skating families.

“I still am incredibly sad about the rink going out of business,” a mourning mom said yesterday. “It feels more painful each day.  Our community ended up in rinks all over from Anaheim to Torrance to Burbank. Coaches lost students. Everybody lost.

“I wonder about the little girls who might never skate because there’s no rink.

“Some adult skaters and hockey players stopped altogether because they could not afford the time for the commute.”

After a half-century of history- making, the popular rink went out of business when the operator of the rink could not strike a deal with landlord Michael Karagozian, a Fresno attorney whose family had owned the rink from the start.

Families went into shock when Mr. Karagozian announced the rink was going out of business. No one representing skating interests could afford to make an agreement.

Potential negotiations were complicated by disputed reports of dangerous gases inside the rink.

As happens in messy divorces, skating families felt – and feel – abandoned by the rink.

The mother of a skating daughter who did not want to be identified said that because the rink is about to be converted into a retail site for Harbor Freight Tools, the lives of skating families have been flipped.

“I know skaters who spend 250 miles a week on the 405 Freeway. They are doing homework in cars while their weary moms drive back and forth. The roundtrip to Torrance, five times a week, is 48 miles for families.

“Others drive from Santa Monica to Paramount in morning rush hour traffic. They are trying to get their skaters to school on time — without success most days.”
 
(To be continued)