Skating Rink Set To Close For Winter

I, too, am sad to see it go but wish they would tear it down and place the rink more centrally so more of us could skate. The Corsair, which has it's grand opening Thurs. nite (tomorrow), offers 3 views to the new tenants---I-91, the inner courtyard, or the old rink (not attractive). The tenants would prefer a park or trees or anything better looking I'm sure

Walker Rink Notes:

Agree with others. Close the facility for winter? Is this a joke? Parks is throwing in the towel. Where are we, Pawnee, Indiana?

How about we close the trails for spring and fall and open a splash pad in January?

So asinine.

A pump starter is a negligible cost btw even if it was a more complex variable one and highly doubt the chillers are actually failing. Nothing a minor capex investment could not solve. Feels like a budget maneuver.

Make purchasing buy a replacement starter in like and kind and order up manufacturer service for the chillers in October and be open by Thanksgiving.

Cost of the consultant NHI? I get it, not as chew worthy as Garth, but where are your follow on questions?

It is a shame the city is not opening the rink this year. I have many fond memories of the rink from public skating to playing hockey at the Bart Guida league. This is a place that many people have enjoyed and provides a safe environment for all of the people that attend the programs there. Rink Mangement Solutions has run the rink very well it was always clean and they should be able to continue their good work for the New Haven people. Finally, the rink has been there since the late 60's. So, Wendy1 the residents of New Haven t like the location of the rink. Why would think it is okay for you to make the statement about moving the rink. I do not like the apartments there so let's move them instead.

I love the rink but please consider spending 300,000 on the skateboard park in Edgewood instead. The skatepark is more inclusive and accessible to the New Haven community. It requires nearly zero maintenance, read does not lose money, and is useable for a substantially longer part of the year. At the same time the potential is greatly under realized do to its poor design and it's slow decay after 15 years of no attention. I skateboard in Edgewood with kids from Woodbridge, The Jungle and Yale University. If we don't prioritize the future success of Edgewood Skate Park, we lose our city's only chance of those three locations ever being used in a sentence harmoniously together again.

Ben:

This rink is very accessible and moreover, it's abundantly safe to go there with family and friends. It's on the bus line; cops always drive by, many times, there's one in the parking lot - it's on a main thoroughfare and it draws people from all over the city by car, walking or taking public transit.

But your point about the skate park, frankly, should be expanded to a discussion about all our parks and recreational facilities in this city. Almost without exception, they are in poor to mediocre condition. The soccer fields on Ella Grasso are locked 99% of the time; there is one portable toilet and sometimes, the water doesn't even work. The parking lot is not paved or even graded well. Lighthouse Park? Not much better and the grass at it and other parks is routinely overgrown, not trimmed and the parking lots are a mess.

Bombero's answer to all this is status quo - except to ask for more supervisors - which was approved in the budget. More bosses as if the answer to these sorry conditions is more management. With all the fat in the budget in other departments, some should be diverted for an across the board strategic, multi-year improvement plan.

Note about the rink losing $50 - $60K this year: If your accounting is good, you know right down to the penny how much money you made or lost. That it is a range speaks directly to the problem both with the city's accounting of Walker Rink revenue and Bombero's oversight of that facility. It is highly suspect. A source also said that some of the fiscal problems with the rink also stem from an error where rink revenue was diverted to cover a bonding mistake.

Bottom line: This whole thing stinks.

The Parks Dept. needs NEW management. I recommend Sabrina Bruno for the job.

The rink currently is a very long way from the Hill and Dixwell. If any minority kids have access, they require a car. I suspect this is a pretty segregated (de facto) facility.

I agree this stinks from top to bottom. This is a great facility providing a great service . The city has known it needed repairs for years and has done nothing to fix it. Now they need to close it, just weeks before they should be opening it -ridiculous.

Wendy:

It is not a segregated facility at all - there are people of color who live all over the city and frankly, it draws people from all income brackets as well. It is not that far from Dixwell community which can cross over Whitney easy enough and come through Wilbur Cross on foot, bike or car. A block away is Fair Haven and those who live downtown or across 34 - can get there even easier. If people want to access the rink, they can and do.

A response to Wendy's comment: I grew up downtown and never knew there was an ice skating rink until I moved to East Rock in '99; on the other hand, my parents would be basically the last people in the world to ever think of taking a kid ice skating. I now have a kid, and she loves to go skating, and her father and I take her to Ralph Walker pretty frequently in the winter (usually walking there; it's about half a mile from our place, I guess?). It's been a good- enough facility, I suppose -- I really wouldn't know because I can't compare it to anything -- but it clearly needed work. The rest rooms have never been operational in my experience, nor the water fountain, which is just depressing.
But when we go, the place is alive: people obviously come from all over the city to skate. What's more, we have taken the M bus to get there, occasionally, and the M bus route -- which serves the Hill -- goes right by it, essentially letting you off at the corner north of the rink. It seems wrong to me to say that the rink is inaccessible from the Hill; it's a bit of a ride, but on the other hand, we've ridden the M to go to the Wilson Library and it's not a big deal.
From Dixwell, I admit it might be a more complicated process to take the bus to the rink. As I think on it, the Q line goes quite nearby to the rink, though not as close as the M, if memory serves. Basically, there are two not-bad bus lines that can get you to the rink if you're determined to get there by bus; since there's no space downtown I can think of that's just crying out to have a rink built on it, why don't we focus on improving the rink we have -- which needs it, for god's sake -- and wonder why the hell it was allowed to become so decrepit, rather than bicker about relocating the whole shebang downtown? I'd rather see a decent playground get built downtown, frankly. I've lived here nearly 50 years, and cannot recall a playground downtown. A fact which sucks even more than CT Transit.

How does the photovoltaic roof installation fit into the picture?

@noteworthy

Good point on transit accessibility. I was referring to the accessibility of the sport which requires you to attended free skate sessions at a specific and limited time of day.

The skatepark, similar to an outdoor gym or running, is an unstructured public space where people can learn and be creative at their own speed.

I agree on the fields needing maintenance as well, but I isolate the skatepark conversation as it has had zero money put into maintaining it. all of the repairs have been done by skateboarders volunteering their time and materials. That's just not sustainable and the park will become unusable if not repaired. The park has also diverted many of us from skating on public property where folks would rather not have us jumping off stairs and riding down handrails. I'm not claiming that I would still rip on public property as an adult, but I can understand why kids do when their skatepark has become neglected.

Come on - closing a skating rink in the winter?!? Bombero should be embarrassed. She got her the job from DeStefano but if she can't perform, we should find someone who can.

@BenBerkowitz, "I love the rink but please consider spending 300,000 on the skateboard park in Edgewood instead. The skatepark is more inclusive and accessible to the New Haven community."

Wow. You know what Ben? Why's it have to be like that? A zero sum game? Suggesting sacrificing one for the other is totally pretentious.

Would also like to take dead aim at your comment about "inclusivity". Being both a frequent guest at the facility and having also grown up closer to the rink than your future office on James Street will be, makes me feel qualified.

Back then I could walk by myself to the rink from my folk's place with all my gear from age six. At night. No fear.

Learned to play in the Bart Guida League which was run by real, old-school, born-in-the-womb, burnt-pizza-crust New Haveners like Bill Seward and Coach Bob Ferguson:
http://www.theday.com/article/20130925/NWS11/130929809
http://www.beecherandbennett.com/obituary/Robert-F.-Ferguson/New-Haven-CT/934852

At the rink the players on my teams over the years were polish, guatemalan, irish, african american, italian and puerto rican. Some, a mix of more than one of these. Girls and boys competed on the same teams.

When I bring my kids these days what I enjoy about the rink, aside from the obvious skating, is how it remains such an honest reflection of New Haven. These free skates are populated with every demographic and walk of life imaginable. For me it's metaphoric with people figure skating in the center of the ice who are amazing, others hanging on the boards for dear life, with little kids leaning on milk crates all trying to learn. It's relaxed, enjoyable and completely accessible. Sure, ice times are limited, but mercifully, so is winter. Also agree Rink Management Solutions has done a good job, too. Likely this will be the first year in close to a century where NH doesn't have Ice.

This is heartbreaking.

The rink is one of New Haven's greatest treasures. It is the one of the very, very few places in town where you can take your kids after dark on a Saturday night and see New Haven at its best -- people of all ages, races, and parts of town coming together to share inclusive safe space, interact, and have fun. There is everything from little kids pushing crates, to high school dates, to grandmas whirling figure eights. I am all for any needed renovations, but please do not shut it down in the winter.

elmcitymom, your comments nail what Walker Rink is all about. The rink has a very diverse skating population and attracts skaters of all ages. Let's wait till April to begin the work? Lets have a winter place where people can get exercise and fun during the winter.

Consider leasing the roof for PV arrays to offset costs.

https://www.google.com/get/sunroof#a=1080 State St, New Haven, CT 06511, USA&b=150&f=lease&np=25&p=1

No surprise here. All Park and Rec facilities suffer from neglect and mismanagement, why would the skating rink be any different from the skate park, soccer fields, playgrounds? Grass is never cut, litter is everywhere, maintenance is never performed. Bombero is unresponsive. Our parks and facilities can be the jewels of our city, yet the folks in charge would rather take home hefty salaries.

I am outraged by this decision the close the rink during the only time of year it is used. Why on earth weren't the renovations completed over the summer? It seems to me that it is common sense to do necessary repairs or upgrades during the off season. Someone please explain how this decision was made. This is yet another decision made by city officials while wearing blinders. All I can do is shake my head.

Seriously, you had ALL SUMMER to do the repairs, and now they decide to close the rink, just in time for winter? Bombero and Carter can explain their reasons to me until their blue in the face, and it still wouldn't make any sense to me.

One thing I've always wanted to know is why the rink isn't fully enclosed? That never made sense to me, and it seems like a weird design choice. Given it's close proximity to Wilbur Cross, it could have served as their home ice all these years when they did have a hockey team.

Seriously? Poor planning. Can it wait till the spring???