In "Parks and Recreation," the failed ice rink Ben Wyatt built as an 18-year-old mayor was called Ice Town.
Ben was elected mayor of the fictional Minnesota town of Partridge at age 18 after leading an anti-establishment voter rebellion. His signature project was a winter-sports complex named Ice Town, but the ambitious plan never came together and drove the town into bankruptcy.
Ben’s mayoral career lasted only two months before he was impeached. The project also became associated with Partridge’s unemployment rate reaching 30 percent. A newspaper summarized the disaster with the punning headline “Ice Town Costs Ice Clown His Town Crown.”
A common mix-up is confusing Ice Town with Pawnee, the Indiana town where much of the series takes place. Ice Town was part of Ben’s backstory, while Pawnee is where he later worked with Leslie Knope and the Parks Department. The fictional failure also explains why Ben became unusually cautious and skilled with public finances.