[RTC List] Off-topic: Brew at the Zoo is coming soon - your Zooneeds you!

[Sunni Scrivner]

Robert and William,

I don't know if either of you have children, or if you've been the stay-at-home parent of small children, if not I might have a different perspective for you. I wrote to each of the City Council members, the Mayor and City Manager when the Zoo was in danger of losing its funding recently, saying essentially the following: not only do I believe that the zoo is an important local resource worth saving but  I would love to see it go back to being free admission.  

There are very few resources available locally to parents with young children that are either free or low cost.  I can't tell you how many times the zoo was a sanity saver for me when my daughter was between the ages of 1 - 3 years old. It was
incredibly helpful as a parent to have a free and safe place to take my
children where they could learn about the animals, run around, get some fresh air and
participate in the petting-zoo.  There are gymnastic classes, dance and music
 classes available in our area but they can be expensive and for many local families they are out of reach.  The local parks are great for children 4 and older but when your
children are under 3, they aren't always the safest or easiest places
to spend time.

That's my 2-cents and I'm happy to spend it and more on the Zoo.

Sunni Scrivner




--- On Thu, 5/14/09, William Van Hefner <vantek at humboldtonline.com> wrote:
From: William Van Hefner <vantek at humboldtonline.com>
Subject: Re: [RTC List] Off-topic: Brew
 at the Zoo is coming soon - your Zooneeds you!
To: list at redwoodtech.org
Date: Thursday, May 14, 2009, 3:17 PM

Robert,

Personally, whenever I want to see an ugly display of human domination
over animals, I just go to The Sizzler.

At one point in time, I recall that the City Zoo used
 to account for 40%
of the city's entire yearly budget. Now, due mostly to increased spending
in other departments, it "only" uses up about 10% of the city's
annual
budget. A large percentage of those who live in Humboldt County don't even
know that there is a zoo in Eureka, from what I can tell.

As much as I love having a zoo, the concept of 1/10th of my tax money
going to pay for something that I have to pay admission to get into seems
a bit much in these troubled, financial times. At the very least, I think
that the cost should be shared by the rest of the county's taxpayers,
since those in Eureka

 derive no special benefit from it that those living
just outside the city limits don't get. In fact, the zoo/park itself is
less than two blocks from the city limits. I live less than a mile away
from it, but people in Cutten are much closer to it than I am.


-- 
William Van Hefner - President
Vantek
 Communications, Inc.
e-mail: editor at humboldtonline.com
http://www.humboldtonline.com


On Wed, May 13, 2009 6:57 pm, M Welch wrote:
> I've been to the Eureka zoo three times in my 37 years in Humboldt
> County, the last time about 4 years ago (I guess I forget, or I hope
> things have changed). To me, the animals seem miserable.
>
> As much as I love both good, local beer and Kulica, I'd be
hard-pressed
> to support such an ugly display of human dominion over animals.
>
> robert beckerdite wrote at 05:44 PM

 5/13/2009:



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