First in a series
On Day Five after the enforced closure of the Culver City Ice Arena, here is where matters stand at this hour:
“There is nothing for the city to do at this juncture,” says a City Hall source. “The only role the city has is to ensure that the ice rink is properly decommissioned. Unless and until somebody comes forward with something else, that is the extent of our role. If anybody is talking, it is Planet Granite (the new lessee) and the landlord. Nobody has come to the city or filed any variance requests. Nobody has suggested what Planet Granite will or won’t do. The property is in limbo. It will remain in an unopen-to-the-public state for an unknown period of time.”
Moments later, for the first time since serial rancor broke out across Culver City and the Westside about the deplorable news that the 52-year-old ice rink probably would go away for good, Mike Karagozian, the landlord, went on the record.
Pay Attention Fast
He shook the rafters of the now-empty old building, and his searing sentiments made the ground beneath him tremble.
What follows below, and over the next few days, is based on a 90-minute interview with the Culver City native whom all skating families hereabouts have been eager to hear from.
The telephone only rang once in criminal attorney Karagozian’s Fresno office, and a voice from Culver City was on the other end of the line.
We started out bumpily before reaching smooth waters.
His reputation for ferocity planted itself firmly at the outset, but receded before long and his true personality, one of genuine collegiality and joie de vivre soon emerged.
“Now how many times are you going to call me, Noonan?” was Mr. Karagozian’s gruff opening salvo.
“Until this is settled, I hope.”
“Go ahead,” he said. “What’s up?”
“You and I could be friends some day.”
“Probably,” said the landlord.
“I wanted to see if any changes have been made since we spoke a week ago regarding the use variance and its implications.”
“Look, I don’t know how familiar you are with this stuff, but there is a General Plan (for Culver City) that makes that whole thing C-3. The General Plan says that whole three acres should be commercial. It was designated R-1 years ago, but that was before the General Plan. From what I understand, the General Plan supercedes any kind of zoning. That’s as far as I know. Otherwise, nothing has been done,” Mr. Karagozian said.
“May I presume the uncovering of the use variance last week came as a surprise to you?” the reporter asked.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “We know what this is all about, Ari. You know as well as I do. I don’t like to talk to the press, Ari. I am giving you a little leeway here, but…”
“I appreciate that,” said the reporter.
“As far as I know, in any jurisdiction the General Plan supercedes zoning. So…”
“We should not be talking about the use variance then?” inquired the reporter. “That should be an irrelevant piece?”
“Well, it probably should be,” said Mr. Karagozian.
(To be continued)
