And it SMELLS!!!
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Governor Patrick On Safari
Governor Patrick Misfires at Massachusetts Zoo
Globe is Governor's Attack Dog
Can't we go somewhere else?
"Caged by financial woes, Boston-area zoos struggle; Visit to R.I. facility offers a study in contrasts" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | July 19, 2009
PROVIDENCE - They were down from Medfield, a suburb of a city with two zoos of its own. Never once did they consider heading to Franklin Park Zoo, just 16 miles from home.
“It wasn’t even a question where we were going,’’ said Kevin Ryder, program coordinator for Medfield Parks and Recreation, who brought the group down Thursday. “Roger Williams Park was, by far, a better option than the ones in Mass....’’
How is it that Boston, a city that considers itself such a cultural mecca - the “Hub of the Universe’’ - can have two zoos that pale in comparison not just to the country’s famous zoos but also to the one in Providence, a city less than one-third its size?
Yeah, WHERE DID ALL THAT LOOT COLLECTED OVER THE YEARS GO?
Zoo officials acknowledge they are at a crossroads. The next few months, they say, will determine whether they close for good - and turn their 1,559-animal collection over to the state - or whether they can chart a path toward financial self-reliance and embark on an ambitious improvement plan.
John Linehan, president and chief executive of Zoo New England, which runs both zoos wants to finish writing the plan within the next two months, would cost about $53 million to implement. The Legislature has signed off on $30 million in state bond money, but that would only be spent if the governor decides to.
Gee, whose gonna benefit there?
Plenty of people say they like, even love, Boston’s main zoo, in Franklin Park. It employs dozens of teenagers from nearby neighborhoods. Yet Franklin Park can feel as though it hasn’t changed much from the 1980s, when it was twice named among the worst in the country by Parade magazine.
On a recent afternoon, mothers pushed strollers and fathers hoisted up children for a closer look at premier exhibits, namely the gorillas inside the Tropical Forest. But some of the exhibit displays look tired, the habitats are often uninspiring, and in places animals are visible only through a chain-link fence.
The poster-board for some of the displays is falling apart; letters on some signs have faded. Some enclosures are smudged to the point that the animals are hard to see.
The San Diego Zoo, often cited as the country’s best, had a budget of $175 million in 2007. The Columbus Zoo in Ohio has more than 7,000 animals, along with a water park, amusement park, and a golf resort. Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle had a $28.3 million budget last year and recently opened a new, $6.5 million Humboldt Penguin exhibit.
At Franklin Park, some improvements are in the works, but they are just temporary: The producers of the movie “Zookeeper,’’ starring Kevin James, are building a fake zoo inside the real zoo.
Oh, this is the SUCCESS!
A FAKE ZOO as we TOSS AWAY TAX DOLLARS at Hollywood?
And then they have the NERVE to COMPLAIN?
Now THAT'S CHUTZPAH!
“I wish they could make it real, and just leave it,’’ said one onlooker.
Translation: I'm a shit-munching fool.
Linehan said the movie producers had to reconstruct the zoo to meet specifications in the movie script. When asked whether animals from Franklin Park would be in the movie, he said, “I probably shouldn’t say. I think our animals will be some of the background, anyways.’’
Still, many visitors to Franklin Park are satisfied with what they get.
Mmmmmm, yumm-dideley-iscious! I 's gots a big bowls of shit!
Gabriel Freed, a 21-year-old college student. “But it’s fine. It has everything I wanted to see.’’
Meanwhile, at the zoo in Providence, display cases are clean and well-lit. Animals look to be in more inviting habitats, with lots of room to maneuver. Walls are made of low-lying bamboo or glass, making the animals easy to see.
The differences between Boston and Providence are perhaps best illustrated by a single animal that both zoos feature on the cover of their brochures....
