Re: “Not a Happy Anniversary for Culver Rink”
With the second anniversary of the closing of the much-mourned Culver Ice Rink barely a week away, this may be the appropriate time for a signal announcement:
Virtually unnoticed at the time, the presumably dangerous chemicals and all accompanying equipment that led to the death of the rink safely were removed four months after the shutdown, Feb. 2, 2014.
“By June, the rink was an empty building,” said Vice Mayor Andy Weissman, who provided the timeline. “The ice had long since melted.
“To my knowledge, it has been determined that there is nothing toxic in the soil and the permafrost is long gone. It is nothing more than a building waiting to be remodeled on the interior to accommodate Harbor Freight Tool.”
Culver Ice Rink’s 50-year history and popularity did not quietly fade. Death was thunderingly sudden, thunderingly mystical, thunderingly loud.
For weeks that late winter and early spring, high-volume protests from skaters and their distraught families roared across Culver City, puzzled, then angry over why the recently prosperous rink was being abruptly shut down.
Two explanations were offered for the bumpy closure:
- Landlord Michael Karagozian could not find a suitable operator after long-running, and tired, John Jackson departed.
- The mysterious presence – heretofore undetected, unreported – of chemicals that, it was said, could/would blow the neighborhood into the next life unless promptly defused.
No one in the neighborhood was seen dashing for shelter.
Despite massive arm-waving by City Hall at the time, “prompt removal” did not amount to such an emergency once the ice rink was pronounced a corpse.
I often wonder why the City closed our rink. They seemed to have an arrogant confidence that was sorely misplaced that the Kings support of “a rink” translated into a financial commitment to operate another rink so close to their state of the art El Segundo complex. I often wonder about the small businesses close to the rink, did they suffer greatly when they closed the doors to our home away from home? I miss Green Peas & Tanner’s but not enough to drive to Culver City to eat there! I don’t have to wonder too much about the Culver Family, for the most part, we remain in touch and are bonded like survivors of ship wreck. We see each other at the various rinks scattered across Los Angeles and beyond (indeed one committed mother drives her skater to Anaheim from West LA BEFORE school). Some folks stop skating or playing hockey because the distance and traffic make it impossible to continue others spend hours on the 405 driving to Van Nuys, Torrance, Paramount and El Segundo. I feel sadly that Cathy Machado, native to Culver City and Olympian retired without any fan fare in the haste and sadness of the closing of the rink. I wonder about the little Olympians who may never be because they never got to experience the wonder of being on the ice as a small child, the cool breeze on their face, the sparkle of the ice like diamonds…I wonder just what did the City accomplish other then to make a lot of money for an old landlord who was never part of the Culver community.