Although votes are still being counted, there is as of now no mathematical or practical possibility that the pro-A1 side could get enough votes to achieve the needed 2/3 majority. They would now need more than 100% of the remaining votes to be yes. So, thanks to all the tremendous effort put forth by so many people, the zoo’s million-dollar campaign did not succeed – just as we hoped, the public sorted this one out for themselves after they read the measure and realized they weren’t being told the full story by Measure A1 proponents.
Tag Archives | Ruth’s Ruminations
FollowMeasure A1 Defeated!
UNBELIEVABLE! We actually pulled it off. Our underdog, ragtag, come-from-behind campaign defeated Measure A1. The zoo will not have more than $100 million of our tax dollars to destroy our beautiful Knowland Park. And that’s a good thing, because the creatures that already live there depend on that habitat. (More about them in a bit.)
Support Swells for Saving Park, Voting down Measure A1
Our booth at the Solano Stroll
WOW! The outpouring of encouragement and support this last week has been AMAZING. If you’re following us on Twitter @KnowlandPark, you know we were at the Solano Stroll last Sunday, where literally thousands of people came by the CNPS booth and we talked to SO many people about why Measure A1 is NOT a good idea. People love their parks, and when they saw the gorgeous photos of Knowland Park that we displayed, they “got it” right away. Thanks so much to the volunteers who worked the booth—and got energized and inspired by the positive responses to our message!
Who Knew? Zoo Board Members Are Knowland Park Supporters!
A warm welcome to our Zoo Board Member supporters! As many of you know, we have had such a flurry of people joining us that we have hardly had time to do more than keep adding the email addresses to our database. But recently, going through the list in preparation for our campaign, we discovered that zoo Board President Steve Kane and Board Member B. Reid Settlemier, among others, had signed up as Friends of Knowland Park supporters! Mr. Settlemier had signed up with an email address that didn’t happen to include his last name, but an automatic vacation message let us know who he was. What a great development! Maybe this indicates a change of heart? Fortunately, there is room for ALL the members of the zoo board and its foundation board to join up—room even for the zoo CEO, Dr. Joel Parrott, to sign on and help save the Park–because we have always run a completely transparent campaign.
The tomb of the unknown bobcat: How named captive animals displace unnamed wild ones
California Bobcat. Photo by U.S.FishandWildlifeService
The zoo’s planned development onto Knowland Park habitat currently used by multiple wild animals will include exhibits featuring captive animals that no longer are native to the area–due to loss of habitat and other human activities. It will also include exhibits displaying captive specimens of animals that are still around here in the wild and currently using Knowland Park for hunting, raising their young, and migration between habitat zones. The irony of this seems so obvious that it is sometimes hard for environmentally active folks to understand how zoo patrons can possibly support such a destructive project. One explanation may lie in the fact that zoo animals become personal to people, particularly those who visit often: they are given names like Molly, Milou, Ginger and Grace, the tigers rescued last year from a private zoo in Texas, and people begin the process of identifying with them.
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