To the editor:

I’m no Sonja Henie, but when I was a kid I got the idea and learned how to ice skate. Push and glide, push and glide. It is the gliding part where the energy efficiency comes in. Plodding humans suddenly are flying with Condors. I never tried the triple axel, but skating was fun.

This winter it was sad to see our youngsters stumble and lurch their way around the city’s fake ice rink. It would be like trying to teach a kid to swim with lead flippers. As a skating surface it is an abject failure. It is not surprising that the numbers of users have dwindled year after year because no one comes back for a second try.

Rather than set this thing up somewhere else at a cost of $8,000 or more and inflict more harm to future skaters, it should be cut up into squares like the old Allen Fieldhouse floor and sold as a reminder of how not to spend our tax dollars.