Pasadena City Council balks on new ice rink -- again!!!!

It appears that the Pasadena City Council has mastered the art of making it appear they are doing something when, in fact, they are doing little or nothing when it comes to finding a temporary home for ice skating in Pasadena.

The Council met last night and after an hour of discussion unanimously passed something. "Something" is the key word in that sentence because few in the audience could be sure of what, if anything, the Council approved. In my book, it's called treating the public like they're idiots.

As best as I could understand, the Council voted for a motion that says: A) the Pasadena Convention Center can go forward on seeking a conditional use permit for a new ice rink to be located next door to the current one, and; B) but the Council wants to talk more about the finances, parking and public benefits program at the rink on Sept. 20 before deciding to loan the Convention Center $1.5 million to help build the rink.

In other words, the Council punted the issue another six weeks. Due diligence, you say? Wanting to know all the details before taking a vote?

You can interpret it that way. But I don't buy it.

As someone who covered the L.A. City Council for three years and saw all kinds of legislative shenanigans, I see it this way: With the exception of Councilman Steve Madison -- a serious supporter of ice skating -- these guys wouldn't know vision if they were sitting in a puddle of it. The Council basically did nothing last night and even their own attorney told them so, warning them that they couldn't make the motion appear to be pre-deciding a future vote on going forward with the temporary rink.

The other problem that came up was the question of how temporary this rink would be. The Convention Center, which owns the land, has made it clear that moving ice skating from the old ballroom building -- where it has been since the 1970s -- to the tent structure was a temporary move until a permanent home for skating could be found in the city.

There has been talk over the years of building a hotel on the site of the tent building, but no firm commitments from any developers or the city. And, after nearly a decade of discussion, the Council last year failed to summon enough votes to build a new rink in Eastern Pasadena that would have had two sheets of ice. They decided at the time to look into renovating the current rink.

Well, the Convention Center -- which owns the lease to the current rink -- hired a consultant that said the current facility is basically too crappy to even renovate. Instead, they recommended moving skating next door to the tent structure, which would allow a full NHL-sized rink to be built.

In the meantime -- and I can't emphasize this enough -- the city has been focused on a temporary solution and stopped looking for a location where a new facility could be built. A couple of the Council members even seem surprised that they were talking about spending money on a temporary structure -- even though everyone in the room who has been following the debate knew that. The Convention Center people made that point very clear at a heavily-attended public meeting about the rink in July.

In short, here's what happened last night: The Council failed to give its final approval to moving ice skating to a temporary structure next year at the Convention Center. They did this despite having no Plan B to move skating anywhere else when the current facility is scheduled to close in Sept. 2011. And they did this after squandering the past year and failing to look for a permanent home.

That's why talk about parking, revenue projections and public benefits is mostly nonsense. Let's say next month Convention Center officials come back with a parking plan the Council doesn't like because lack of parking could hurt business at the new rink (the current rink has no parking). Then what is the Council going to do? Kill the whole thing? And then what? When you don't have a Plan B, concerns over parking and selling discounted tickets to disadvantaged youth seem a little trite. At least to me.

And this much is clear to me: Despite some lip service from the Council, it's pretty clear that none except Steve Madison really cares that much about whether ice skating survives here. To them, it's a small sport with a passionate following -- a following, they are gambling, that can't muster enough votes to boot them from office if skating were to disappear from the city.

But I guess we'll have to see about that.

--S.H.

City Council likely to decide ice skating's future in Pasadena on Aug. 2

The above headline is not hyperbole. As of this writing, it appears that the Pasadena City Council will vote on Aug. 2 whether to relocate the current ice rink next door to the tent-structure on the grounds of the Pasadena Convention Center.

That's according to officials who briefed rink supporters at a meeting Wednesday night at the Pasadena Convention Center. Here's the Star-News' story on the meeting.

If the Council votes not to relocate, then the lease on the current rink will soon expire and operations will likely cease in Sept. 2011, allowoing Convention Center officials to convert the rink back to the ballroom it was prior to the 1970s. If ice skating in Pasadena ceases to exist, the next closest ice rink in Burbank -- Pickwick -- is a 12-mile drive away.

I think supporters of ice skating in Pasadena have ample reason to be worried. Attentive readers may recall that last year the Council couldn't muster enough votes to build a new ice rink in the eastern portion of the city that would have had two sheets of ice, plenty of parking and been funded largely by private interests.

Four members of the council voted for the new rink and three against -- including my representative, Terry Tornek. Five votes were needed for passage, but the potential fifth vote didn't bother to show up for the Council meeting. With city finances reeling from the recession, some members didn't want to spend the money even if construction costs were low and the money was to be repaid later.

It's a far different scenario this time around. Instead of building a new rink from scratch, the rink would be relocated to the tent structure that is currently standing (convention center officials said the tent would have to be lengthened by about 30 feet). The new rink would be a full NHL-sized rink at 200 feet by 85 feet, unlike the current rink that is only 150 feet long. The facility would have bleacher seating for 100, four locker rooms, a party room and concession stand.

The current rink has character -- thanks to its past as a ballroom -- but it's also a dump, there are problems with the quality of the ice and the Zamboni looks like it's personally trying to set some type of record for greenhouse gas emissions. 


The tent structure isn't exactly full of character. But in my view it will do. And it would be great to play on a regular size sheet of ice, which would allow for more room for skating and stickhandling. It's also worth noting the tent rink isn't intended to be permanent -- it would host the rink until a new facility is built, something that Convention Center officials suggested could happen once the recession ends and city finances bounce back. Hmm. 

Officials at the meeting last night said it would cost about $1.5 million for the new rink and they would like to have it up and running by August of 2011. The story in the Star News quoted the cost at $3 million. It sounds like the city's cost would be about $1.5 million.

Losing a rink in Pasadena would be, in my view, catastrophic to ice skating in the region. The Pasadena rink basically serves most of the San Gabriel Valley, as well as neighboring communities such as Glendale, La Canada-Flintridge, Montrose and La Crescenta. In terms of hockey, 10 teams play in adult leagues, the youth Maple Leaf team practices there and the rink hosts a variety of youth and adult clinics, four stick-time sessions each week and pickup games on three nights a week.

I have no idea if other rinks in the area have the capacity or inclination to absorb that kind of ice time for hockey. I don't want to find out.

What can you do? Write the City Council, whether you do or do not live in Pasadena. If you do live here, remind the Council that you like to vote. If you don't live here, remind the Council that you are among many people who spend their money in Pasadena.

Here's the email addresses for Mayor Bill Bogaard and the seven members of the Council -- write them all at once so that perhaps a couple of them actually listens: bbogaard@cityofpasadena.net, mfuller@cityofpasadena.net, jmcintyre@cityofpasadena.net, rstone@cityofpasadena.net, vdelacuba@cityofpasadena.net, smadison@cityofpasadena.net, ttornek@cityofpasadena.net