Things are looking up for city residents living around Golden Gate Park, who have been grumbling about the prospect of having to pay to use the Strybing Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.
After much pressure from community members, the Recreation and Park Department is moving away from a proposal to charge locals a $5 entrance fee to the arboretum and gardens.
The decision, which came Thursday afternoon, will be presented to the Recreation and Park Commission later next month for a final vote, department spokeswoman Lisa Seitz Gruwell said.
“It was something we were considering, but we’ve backed away from it,” she said of the plan to charge residents.
The arboretum and botanical gardens have been free to visitors since opening in the 1940s, but an entrance fee was considered as one of many measures to help the department bridge a $11.4 million budget deficit.
The new proposal would still ask non-residents to pay a $7 entrance fee, according to the proposal. Officials say they plan to separate out San Franciscans from out-of-towners by checking IDs. sfexaminer.com
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes money for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Muir Woods National Monument, Point Reyes National Seashore and the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area will receive $16.1 million for 14 projects. SFGate.com
The Open Space Fund (Charter sec. 16.107) is one of the four tax-based set-asides in the City Charter. Meaning, this money has to be set aside. In FY 2008-09, the City gave $36 million to the Open Space Fund. Meaning, $36 million of our tax dollars.
“The City doesn’t have enough money to take care of our parks and recreation programs. We need to come up with creative ways … to keep us afloat,” — Ross Mirkarimi
Filed under: San Francisco Budget, What's Going On? | Tagged: Golden Gate Park, Lisa Seitz Gruwell, Open Space Fund, Recreation and Park Commission, Recreation and Park Department, Ross Mirkarimi, San Francisco Budget, San Francisco Budget Crisis, SF waste 2.0, Strybing Arboretum, Strybing Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi
No fees should be charged at all because:
a) Gates do not make financial sense (the costs are high: $1.3 million according to Park and Rec documents)
b) It will be discriminatory and unwelcoming to charge some people and not others
c) Some of the gates will be closed permanently (limiting our access)
d) We will be charged in the future (when they get the opportunity
The Rec and Park Commission needs to ask some hard questions about what they are planning. They are replacing the footpaths at the rear of the facility with wide roads ($3 million of taxpayer money!) that would allow jitneys to come in. I think that the plan is to fundamentally alter the character of the garden.
The new greenhouse’s plans need to be revised as well. It apparently has some nasty environmental impacts which its being labeled a “Center for Sustainable Development” does nothing to hide!
This was not the City’s idea. Garden director Michael M. has been planning this for years. He had the City hire Brent Dennis who was immediately roped into supporting this. It enhances his power as well as that of the membership and society director. The elite love nothing so much as gated communities!
Meanwhile, publicity for the meeting was nonexistent (we opponents publicized it!) and the Society’s membership was not informed
The reasons they have put forward for this do not jibe with reality. Charging admission will not make money. I don’t understand why the Arboretum closes so early during the Spring and Summer. It should be open until 7 or later. I don’t see the costs in keeping the gates open.
Nothing the City does seems to make any sense. From the $7 “Culture Bus” to the doubling-in-a-decade of MUNi fares to the invasive parking garage in the Park to this undemocratic attempt to charge for our taxpayer-subsidized facilities (the City provides all but one gardender and the State is putting $3 million into “pathways”), little thought appears to be going into the decision making process.
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