re: Bottom line, BREC has no business running a zoo

Cortana isn't a bad idea.
Still relatively close to NBR. So, it removes the race-baiters.
It's relatively close to the I-12/Airline exit. (As opposed to a drive all the way up I-110 and into Baker).

Cortana is going to become another Astro dome... just rotting away.

Years ago I remember talk of Audubon taking over our zoo, and running it. BREC wouldn't go along with that.

As for building a new zoo and making a profit once it opens, that will never happen. All across the country zoos rely on tax dollars and private donations to make ends meet. If zoos were money makers wouldn't private companies be building zoos?

The BREC Commission just saved the taxpayers millions. If BREC is serious about revitalizing the current zoo, they can put together a plan and methodically go about fixing things up, renovating things, and adding things a year at a time like most zoos do now. That's what Audubon Zoo does. We should mimic their plan.

BREC collects a lot of taxes each year, they have a surplus, and they could put that surplus to good use by reinvesting in their current facilities like the zoo and keeping them up to speed.

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Was supposed to be a vote on zoo, and NAACP was going to grandstand outside city hall(?)

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The commission voted not to move the zoo.

I opposed the move for financial reasons, and in my mind it wasn't racial.

We can't afford to close the current zoo, build a brand new zoo, build a new park in Greenwood and replace the facilities currently at the Fairgrounds.

Yeah, because New Orleans city government is a bastion of integrity.

nm

Since it’s not moving, it should be closed. It won’t be. BREC will sink millions in to it as some sort of pseudo reparation. The locals won’t use the place but at least white people didn’t get it so we’ll call it a W.

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They’ve been trying this with schools but haven’t quite found that magic number. EBRPSS is at $10k/student and still blames their failures on funding.

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Maybe when they hit $15k/student it’ll finally work!

They just need more money!

everybody on that commission knows the Zoo will not work where it is at. I believe that there is something else up their sleeve. i think they will declare bankruptcy in the next year and sell the animals to a company that will end up building a new zoo in another location.

I went to the meeting and there was as many whites from Santa Maria area as blacks along with a lot of whites from Northern East Baton Rouge Parish. I did not remember seeing Gravy as I almost fell
asleep and left before 8 pm. They had 1 person for it and everyone else against it.

I saw the traffic plan, zoo layout, and flood plan. It was a joke I need to go into Govt studies. Traffic plan go right and use a u -turn to go back to BTR.
The company that tested the area when it was a landfill from 78-79 said it was safe to build parking lots over it. Zoo itself they wanted retail stores and restaurants in it where you can eat while watching animals. The flood plan was take the sides by the bayou and use the dirt to build up the land.

You can hear zoo animals for up to a mile and smell their combined poop for up to a mile. Santa Maria and a few subdivision on both sides of the parish line would be affected.

How they will pay for it was never really set in stone. I do remember a lot of fees to generate revenue on even non motorized boats. Just sounded like a scam to get more money out of the taxpayer.