Knowland Park: Oakland’s Best Kept Secret
Speaker: Mack Casterman, East Bay CNPS Conservation Analyst
Wednesday, April 24, 7:30 pm
Location: Auditorium, Orinda Public Library (directions below)
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admin is the main administrative authority for this web and blog site. All generic items, such as press releases and newspaper articles will be published under this name.City finally commits to enforcing zoo’s management contract after years of questions, admits it never has done so
The reporting clauses of the management contract between the CIty of Oakland and the East Bay Zoological Society
As you know, for years we have been asking the city for copies of the documents the zoo is required to submit annually under its management contract with the city – namely, a “capital improvement budget, spending plan, actual expenses and schedule describing its projected development for the current budget year and for the next 2 following years.” The zoo has never produced any of these materials. Instead, it periodically produces retrospective feel-good reports couched in broad general terms, so it has been impossible for citizens to see how the zoo planned to or actually did spend its money - despite the fact that it gets a large amount of public funding every year from the city, the county, bond measures and the East Bay Regional Park District. And despite us raising this issue over and over, the city was apparently never willing to do anything about the fact that the zoo did not ever file the required annual reports and ignored its contractual obligation to do so.
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“We shouldn’t have lied,” says zoo board member
Wow. Have you noticed how quiet things have gotten since the Measure A1 campaign? We have, and wondered whether it indicated some dissension within the zoo board ranks about how to proceed. The “anonymous” $1 million gift we heard they received seemed awfully convenient since they had just spent exactly that amount on a losing campaign. A way to reassure nervous donors, maybe?
Well, a zoo member who decided to attend the first zoo board meeting after the defeat of Measure A1 was interested to hear how the board responded after the defeat of a ballot measure on which so much money was spent. She contacted us later and told us that she was shocked to hear one of the zoo’s own board members calling out the untruth that characterized the whole campaign. According to this observer, the board member said (discussing zoo management’s denials that the money from the measure would fund the expansion):
“I don’t see why we didn’t acknowledge that this is about expansion. Of course it is. We shouldn’t have lied.”
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Zoo Expands Its Expansion Plans
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A Letter from a Changed Mind
This letter came to us unsolicited, and with the author’s permission, we are publishing it as an example of one whose mind was changed by the truth.
Webmaster
KnowlandParkCoalition
Dear Friends of Knowland Park,
I was all set to vote for Measure A1, until I met a nice lady at the Lake Merritt farmer’s market. I fell hook-line-and-sinker for the Oakland Zoo’s A1 campaign and their spokescat, “Leonard the Lion.” I explained this to the nice lady who ultimately turned me against the zoo and their expansion project. She proceeded to tell me what I needed to know; that all kinds of critters were going to be displaced by the A1 project. Bunnies, bobcats, skunks, etc. all would be homeless! I skeptically thanked her for the info and snottily told her that my opinion was quite nuanced, thankyouverymuch, but I did have an open mind and would make up my mind before the election. Thank God she got to me when she did. I slept on it and woke up the next morning completely opposed to A1 and its horrible scheme to encroach on these awesome creatures’ rightful home.
So this is a note of gratitude and a sincere apology for my snotty attitude to that nice lady. But also, I hope you guys will do a PR campaign to educate people about Knowland Park. I had seen your “Save Knowland Park” signs and I totally scoffed at them. “Save Knowland Park” is not a good tagline, sadly. I envisioned a little kids playground with seesaws and swings. I dug my heels in and hoped you would be defeated (sorry L). I have since come around, but only because Nice Lady got to me at the Farmer’s Market. I am not alone; my friends who I spoke with about this also were clueless about Knowland Park.
When you’re up against Leonard the Lion, you really need to bring it. So if you find yourselves in this unsavory position again, I would suggest a new tagline that tells people like me what is really at stake. Something like, “Save the Knowland 500-acre wild animal habitat and nature preserve.” You may need to shorten it to, “Save Knowland Wildlife Preserve.”
Perhaps you should fight fire with fire and anthropomorphize that pretty little fox pictured on your mammals page:
“My name is Felicity Fox and I need your help! Please help me keep my home so my babies can thrive…”
“This is my baby Kip with his BFF Scooter the Skunk; please help them keep their home!”
A million thanks and my sincere apologies for almost voting for A1.
Your friend for life,
Mary Swift
Technical Writer
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