[img]1549|right|Mr. Marcus Tiggs||no_popup[/img]Attorney/former city comissioner/community activist/onetime City Council candidate Marcus Tiggs was speaking with velvety softness, which is his way, before last evening’s City Council meeting on saving the venerable Culver City Ice Arena.
Largely because he is a background type of person, he did not join the rush to the barricades, in this instant the podium, to protest the looming disappearance of the Arena.
Saying it in private is more the style of Mr. Tiggs.
“I have really good memories of the Ice Arena,” he said, evenly, talking about his student days. “It was like a second home.
“I would get up at 4. Skate at 5 in the morning, going to school, coming back.
“Met a lot of good people there. Good sport. Clean sport. It’s really sad, if it goes,” he said.
Mr. Tiggs said he first heard last summer that John Jackson, owner of the skate business, “was having trouble with the (virtually doubled cost of the) lease. When I saw the sign was gone, I was hoping maybe they had figured it out.”
As a lawyer, Mr. Tiggs was asked if the transaction could be slowed or stopped?
“I would like to see that, but legally I don’t think that can be done,” Mr. Tiggs said. “I have a heavy heart. A lot of people do if the rink goes away. But it’s a private transaction.”
Looking Back
City Councilman Andy Weissman produced perhaps the most nostalgic line when he recalled how many Culver City institutions have vanished in his lifetime:
Jefferson Bowl, Meralta and Culver Theaters, Roller Rink, Studio Drive-In. Also, Fox Hills Golf Course, A&W drive-in, the riding stable on Sepulveda. Dolores Drive-In, Slam-O batting cages, MGM backlots (now Raintree and Studio Estates).
