Re “Takahashi Seeks to Rally Rink Fans for Council Meeting”
[img]1694|right|Steve Rose||no_popup[/img]Opposition to the central item on this evening’s City Council agenda has risen and spoken out.
Contending that the shut down Culver City Ice Arena, wildly popular until recently, “no longer is an ice rink,” former Councilman Steve Rose declared this morning he disagrees with the recommendation to grant the building the city’s second highest historical status.
He would compromise with a lower ranking, downgrading it from the mid-level “Significant” to “Recognized,” the lowest of the three pondered by the advisory Cultural Affairs Commission.
He would prefer no label.
“Many other buildings in this city have had significant people doing significant things, and they never have come to this level,” said Mr. Rose.
At least an amateur historian if not one by avocation, Mr. Rose is a substantive personality in his hometown, President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.
“Let me give you a couple examples,” he said. “In one building, President Clinton held the first internet town hall. The building where Larry King was for many years. One where Dr. Demento and Dr. Laura Schlesinger both broadcast from.
“None of those places was granted historical status,” Mr. Rose said.
“From my understanding, the original design of the Ice Arena building was done by future architect. His work was signed off on by an architect, and his original designs never were incorporated on the building.”
Further, said Mr. Rose, the ice rink that has been closed down (temporarily?) for half the year, was Culver City’s second rink. The first, he said, operated in the early 1950s near the intersection of Sepulveda Boulevard and Jefferson, where the present FedEx store is.
