By Rosalie Tirella

IOU – Ice Oval Update…

Drove by the ice oval at 5 p.m. today. Roughly the same number of people skating as yesterday eve. Thankfully, the police cruiser was now parked off the grass/oval area and on cement walkway off to the side.

The real crime seems to be the cost to poor families and the $25 you have to put down as a kind of security deposit if you want to rent a pair of ice skates. And you are timed. You can only rent a pair for one session, whatever that is.

Here is what is so disheartening: I just read two news stories. One was about how nearly one in eight Americans is eligible for Food Stamps. Another news article was about how the USA is now the most downwardly mobile of the industrialized nations. In the 1950s we were #1 – the most upwardly mobile nation in the world! Poverty and social stratification in America were given as prime reasons for our country’s decline.

Nice to know City Manager Mike O’Brien is contributing to America’s decline via his new affordable housing policy and, yes, even his ice oval.