Who says wishes don’t come true? After the long-running Downtown Ice rink in San Jose went on hiatus last year, the San Jose Downtown Association got the message that people considered it a vital part of their holiday season. So it’s back this year and will open in the Circle of Palms on Nov. 17.
Last year, the company operating the ice rink pulled out too late for the city to find a comparable replacement. The San Jose Downtown Association sprang into action, and Liz Ruiz, owner of Aloha Skate at Eastridge Center, stepped up to produce a tropical-themed roller rink on the site. It was fine as a replacement, but it was obvious people were hoping for something, well, cooler.
“People enjoyed roller skating, but we heard loud and clear that families and friends from all parts of Northern and Central California missed their tradition of coming to skate at our ice rink,” said Tricia Lee McNabb, who has managed rink operations since 1997.
Livermore-based Special Ice, which has been involved with rinks throughout the Bay Area and California, will operate and produce Downtown Ice. President Emery Lykins says the company’s excited to be part of the rink’s history and hopes to help usher in a revitalized future. Downtown Association CEO Alex Stettinski said he thinks the event is in good hands with the largest producer of seasonal ice rinks in the state running the show.
“I am thrilled to have our iconic ice rink back alongside all the many fun holiday-related activities in downtown San Jose that enrich families and people of all ages,” Stettinski said. That, of course, includes Christmas in the Park at Plaza de Cesar Chavez and the Winter Wonderland carnival rides.
The ice rink’s schedule and admission prices will be available at www.sjdowntownice.com as the opening date gets closer.
NATURAL TRANSITION: The annual Nature’s Inspiration fundraiser last Sunday in Saratoga raised more than $300,000 for the environmental nonprofit Green Foothills, but it was still a bittersweet celebration because it was also a farewell for Megan Fluke, who stepped down as its executive director after 10 years.
While Fluke worked on a lot of issues over the years with Green Foothills, the campaign to persuade the San Jose City Council and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to permanently protect Coyote Valley was clearly closest to her heart. How close? The San Jose resident gave her daughter, who was born during the yearslong effort, the middle name Coyote.
The crowd of more than 200 people at Sanborn County Park also welcomed Fluke’s successor Julie Hutcheson, who has worked for Green Foothills in various roles since 2008. Speakers at the event included Sempervirens Fund Executive Director Sara Barth and Andrea Mackenzie, general manager of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority.
And while its always risky to give a politician a microphone, Green Foothills made a good choice in giving the floor to Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian. With the fundraising total at $290,000 through sponsorships and ticket sales, he asked guests to raise their hands to donate more and brought in an additional $51,000 — aided by a $15,000 matching gift by Woodside resident Jim Wickett, a longtime Green Foothills supporter.
MAGIC MAN: It was a jaw-dropping night Thursday for the audience who saw mentalist and magician Jay Alexander’s “Secret Show” — performing old favorites and trying out a few new routines for his act — on Thursday night in San Jose. Alexander has regular shows at the Marrakech Magic Theater in San Francisco, so it’s a rare delight to see him amaze audiences here in Silicon Valley.
He’s performed a couple of times at Pruneyard Cinemas in Campbell, but the venue for Thursday night’s show was pretty magical itself. It was at the warehouse for event producer Method 42, a building filled with giant, colorful props in a light industrial part of San Jose. It set the right stage for Alexander’s entertaining trickery, or as he put it, “a mixture of magic, psychology and lies.”
SHERIFF’S BRUSH WITH THE FORCE: It’s funny to think that had Santa Clara County Sheriff Robert Jonsen had a better screen presence, he might never have gone into law enforcement. In a speech to the San Jose Rotary Club this week, Jonsen shared the story — which originally made the rounds in 2018 when he was Palo Alto’s police chief — that he played one of the speeder-riding Imperial scout troopers in 1983’s “Return of the Jedi,” who is knocked off his bike by Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker.
“And that’s where my career ended,” Jonsen said. “I was 19 years old and they put me in a helmet. This mug isn’t designed for the big screen.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com