Here are some selected readers comments regarding the news of the ice rink cancellation taken from Facebook.
Mary Ewart: We wouldn’t be in shopping and eating around the Holidays in downtown Martinez if it weren’t for the rink! We got season passes and ate at the Starbucks, Thai food, the BBQ place, and so on after skating. -Vallejo residents
Robin Webb: Guess we’ll go to Veranda or WC. My son was super excited about the rink opening back up. Went regularly and shopped downtown afterward.
Karla Hill: This is disappointing. I’m pretty sure the ice rink brought a lot of people from outside of Martinez who likely shopped, ate, and brought revenue to the city. This is a bad decision. More money for Walnut Creek!
Julee Johnson: This is a huge disappointment. My kid has been talking about it since it closed last season.
Michelle Fisher: This is VERY DISAPPOINTING!! This is the best part of the winter season for us Locals. Our families hang out there and we have a great time. Guess we have to leave Martinez to have fun..
Andria Shafer: Always in pursuit of the almighty dollar instead of encouraging these types of family activities. This rink has brought business to downtown for years. This is so shortsighted and disappointing.
Donna Hoover: Who can we complain to regarding this? Is this set in stone?
The ice rink is a great place for the students of Martinez to do something, work or play, after school. There are a few areas at the marina where it would work and not impact parking.
Donica Katayanagi: This is extremely disappointing. It takes out half a parking lot, but it brings tons of people to the downtown to peruse our shops and eat in our restaurants. So now people will go to the brand new veranda for ice skating and see the stores and restaurants available there. My family spent a few weekends last year in the downtown because of that rink. It made for a lovely winter afternoon/evening. These special events and festivals help bring people to the downtown. Seems short sighted to cancel something that breaths life into our city. I’m not sure how this will help keep the downtown “alive after 5pm”.
Ashley Hermann: This is ridiculous. And parking is the issue. Give me a break! Tell them to get over it! Open up that locked lot by the courthouse? There are solutions – the powers that be just aren’t working hard enough to make it work.
Sandra Lewis Muller: This is so disappointing. What’s going to get taken away or cancelled next? We look forward to the Martinez skating rink every year. It’s such a great venue for bringing our community together during the winter. I guess we will be taking our business to Walnut Creek.
Anna Brennan Land: Lost revenue for businesses, people out of a job for the holidays, no family friendly activities for the kids downtown to keep them out of trouble….and all over half a parking lot. Sounds like a bad business decision by Martinez! This is the kind of stuff that sends people out of this city. Bye bye revenue.
Allison Arnold Johnson: This is the wrong decision for Martinez and it’s so-called “revitalization”. The rink brought families downtown, who otherwise have no need to be there. They skated and then went out for food, shopped in the stores and otherwise developed great feelings about the downtown area. We never had problems parking over the weekend down there when the rink was open, and in the mornings, we were the only people downtown at all. This is short-sighted and unnecessary and will result in less business downtown through the “holiday rush”. Now what will you do with all those empty spaces? Please explore other options – like the Marina? or other properties that this could be placed, or just change your mind, since it seems that was just decided recently. Listen to your residents and fix this please.
Debbie Riley: Regardless of whatever the reasons being, this is CLEARLY a huge disappointment for Martinez residents, along with other neighboring cities. I’m sure there could have been a resolution if the “parking” issue was really the reason (doubt it). I will continue to support downtown businesses and wish Kara every bit of luck to turn her first few months around. I love our family activities!
Steve McGuire: The rink will be missed this year, but I’m sure MSM will bring it back next year, once the construction projects wrap up, especially since PGE already upgraded the power system to accommodate the rink. I imagine the marina area does not have the power infrastructure to handle keeping an ice rink frozen 24/7. Maybe they could use a non-ice rink in the waterfront but who knows how expensive that would be, likely way more than one season of skating revenue could provide. Martinez is really starting to shine and this is just growing pains.
Julie Perry: This is ridiculous. Get creative and find some extra parking. It’s easy enough to park at the marina or bocce area and WALK. Not a good move!!! The ice rink DRIVES business to Martinez. People will go to skate, have lunch, maybe do a little local shopping. Now families will go elsewhere like Walnut Creek or the veranda and spend their money there instead of in Martinez. Interesting how this info wasn’t released until the day after the election. Very disappointed.
Emilia Rosales: So disappointing! Second thing Martinez has cancelled that I’ve been so excited for. First the Blues Festival and now this? Come on Martinez! This rink has become a family holiday tradition!
Michele Green DeMartini: This is really sad. This was such a great event that many families looked forward to. It also brought a lot of traffic and business to the downtown area. Please reconsider!
Andrey George: This is ridiculous! My son loved going there to hang out with his friends & there’s not too many places to do that in MTZ…once again, we will being going outside of MTZ to enjoy family time…parking? Lame.
Ken Freeze: Actually – If you read between the lines it’s being canceled due to complaints from downtown merchants that the rink is taking up too much parking.
