Posts Tagged ‘fee’
Friday, March 5th, 2010
That’s the news of last night from City Hall. Get up to speed on the issues here.
The next step is to see what happens at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. (How much lobbying do you get when you spend five figures on a lobbyist? We’ll soon see.)
This speaker was no fan of the new fees at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Certainly, he was outnumbered last night:
What if the fees get approved and things don’t work out? Then down will come the pay kiosks and then other options, possibly a ”tasteful sponsorship” (such as the “Chuck Schwab Co. Australia Garden*” or something) could generate a little money.
We’ll Find Out Soon Enough.
*Words from a Commissioner last night, they didn’t make the transcript.
Tags: 16, 2009, 2010, admission, Ann Cameron, Antietam, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, battle, beverage, Bill Gaede, board, board of supervisors, botanical, botanical garden, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, City Hall, civil war, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, directors, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, Family, fee, food, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, jared blumenfeld, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, save, secretary, Society, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, suggested, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, vendor, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
Posted in parks | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
[UPDATE: Let's see here, you can discover what some local celebrities think about this idea here at Manatease's YouTube Channel and, well, here's an uncredited single-panel comic on the subject discovered by LocalColorist, see comment.]
This was the scene the other day near Golden Gate Park’s Strybing Arboretum, aka San Francisco Botanical Garden. These protesters were politely picketing San Francisco’s semi-public, semi-photo-op Budget Town Hall at the County Fair Building when an elected official walked up and asked, “What kind of protest is this?”
Indeed. These picketers, called the “Society people” by their opponents, support the idea of charging non-residents $7 to get into Strybing. Why? So there’s enough money around such that three Strybing-dedicated gardeners won’t get laid off during our Great Recession.
This gaggle of self-described “plant people” certainly are timely, as the Board of the Recreation and Park Department (RPD) will decide this auslander admission issue on Thursday, March 4th at City Hall. The question after that would be how the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will react.
Now, unlike last year, RPD isn’t having any big meetings to air out public concerns, probably because RPD knows how they would go – 250 San Franciscans would show up and the bulk of them would be strongly opposed to the charging of any fee to any one at any time.
AFAIK, the 2010 plan is similar to the more recent of the two 2009 plans in that only people who reside outside of the City and County of San Francisco would be charged. The Big Question is how many nonresidents would show up to pony up some cash and how much the program would cost to implement. After this program is up and running, the Next Obvious Step would be to charge San Francisco residents as well. Would that next step come in a matter of weeks, months, or years? There are no promises from anyone on that score.
The Save the Botanical Garden people are saying that not charging $7 would amount to ”depriving community residents of a tranquil place to visit.” Does Strybing need to become a “world class arboretum” in order to remain a “tranquil place” to visit? It would be easy to argue with the Society on this point.
Now, let’s have a go at the official FAQ:
“Isn’t a non-resident fee the first step toward a fee for everyone?”
The answer is yes. Hells yes, obviously.
“Isn’t the fee taking the Botanical Garden a step closer to privatization?”
No. This is a red herring, from the Sierra Club, for one, I think.
“Won’t setting up the booths to collect the fee and bringing in new workers just cost more than you’ll collect? Won’t setting up the booths to collect the fee and bringing in new workers just cost more than you’ll collect?”
Almost certainly not. The older “Cadillac Plan” of spending vast sums on infrastructure to enable the charging of fees might have had that risk, but there’s no reason that a well-run program, particularly one that makes the use of volunteers, wouldn’t net at least a little money.
“Why doesn’t the SF Botanical Garden Society just do more?”
Good question. The Garden Society, and they’re by no means alone on this, want to spend Other People’s Money on their pet projects. Some of them figure that Strybing needs 16 dedicated gardeners to become “world-class” and that they’ll never ever get the funding for that many from the City of San Francisco, recession or no recession.
Here’s the thing – “saving the botanical garden” will have the effect of excluding hundreds of thousands of people from Strybing. If you are a “plant person” then this is a small price to pay. And actually, plant people might even prefer to keep out the riff-raff. So, charging admission is a double win – more plants and fewer people.
If you’re a people person, you might prefer the “Keep the Arboretum Free” point of view. I guarantee you that the average person motivated enough to attend the public meetings last year would strongly favor having fewer gardeners around if maintaining the current crew meant throwing up a pay wall by installing checkpoints Charlie.
We’ll see how it goes.
Now, was this a grass roots movement in front of the Budget Town Hall? You know, this group of Society people and the P.R. volk with their identical signs and their unsigned petitions
You Make The Call.
Tags: 2009, 2010, admission, Ann Cameron, Antietam, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, battle, beverage, Bill Gaede, board, board of supervisors, botanical, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, City Hall, civil war, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, directors, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, fee, food, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, jared blumenfeld, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, save, secretary, Society, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, suggested, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, vendor, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
Posted in parks | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
The civil war between those who call our Strybing Arboretum (home to orange hummingbirds, violet blue jays, purple flowers, red foxes, blue herons, pink berries and yellow poppies) ”Strybing Arboretum” and those who call it “San Francisco Botanical Garden” is hotting up again in 2010. Now, leave us travel all the way back to ought-nine, when the trial balloon of charging $7 admission to those residing outside of San Francsico County got shot down with extreme prejudice.
Well, maybe not prejudice extreme enough, ’cause the plan is back. There might be some differences, like having volunteers staffing the entrances to charge admission instead of hiring an expensive crew per last year’s proposal, but they’re similar ideas.
Check it out for yourself at this San Francisco Botanical Garden Society webpage, where you can also “sign” a petition to support the idea of charging yourself money to get in. They have a FAQ as well.
The next big meeting will be at City Hall on March 4th, 2010, and there’s also Mayor Gavin Newsom’s “in-person” town hall meeting at the County Fair Building near Ninth and Lincoln Saturday morning – the Charge $7 to Auslanders at Strybing crowd will be there starting at 8:30 AM to promote their cause.
I’ll tell you, the average person that goes to Strybing doesn’t care if it’s a “world class” facility or not so if a gardener or two or three or four were laid off, they wouldn’t really care. It’ll be interesting to see how this one works out.
Let’s ask a Strybing hummingbird what s/he thinks of the new proposal:
O.K., fair enough.
Tags: 2009, 2010, admission, Ann Cameron, Antietam, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, battle, beverage, Bill Gaede, board of supervisors, botanical, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, civil war, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, fee, food, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, jared blumenfeld, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, secretary, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, suggested, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, vendor, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
Posted in parks | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Here’s the thing about San Francisco and tourists – we want you to come here, but not really. Like sometimes, we’ll give you a discount if you come up from counties San Mateo and Santa Clara, down from Marin, Napa, and Sonoma, or over from Contra Costa, Alameda, and Solano.
But on the other hand, sometimes you gotta pay more if you’re an auslander. Like at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. Check out the new pricing scheme:
On other words, from a Yelper:
“I just LOVE the Japanese tea garden. It is really pretty, the drinks are good. But $7 for admission? Yikes.”
Yikes indeed.
And it looks like the idea for charging $7 to enter Strybing Arboretum is on the front burner again as well.
Oh well.
Tags: admission, Alameda, cashier, Contra Costa, department, dept., fee, fees, free, golden gate park, hours, Japanese tea garden, marin, Napa, new, parks and rec, price, rec and park, recreation and park, recreation and parks, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma., sucker, tourists, visitors
Posted in bay area, parks | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
The news of the day is bad for California’s lawyers – turns out that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ended up, after a lengthy delay, signing the bill that authorizes the State Bar to collect dues for 2010, so the shysters of the Golden State will now have to fork over big bucks by March 1st. Feel free to theorize about Arnold’s thinking here, but I think it’s safe to say that anyone having anything to do with the Bar Association will think twice before labeling any judicial nominee “unqualified” or “not qualified” or anything like that.
Or else otherwise, this Governor or the next will step on your oxygen tube with the implicit threat of a quick reorganization for your organization. Once you start turning blue, the only sure cure for this kind of political extortion is to get Capital “O” Obsequious but pronto:
“We are grateful to the governor for signing the State Bar 2010 fee bill. He has helped us to focus on issues and matters that are important to the State Bar,” said State Bar President Howard Miller. “We also want to thank the legislative leadership that has been so supportive and forthcoming. This entire period has strengthened the State Bar and given us important missions and goals that we now can actively achieve.”
Fair enough - go forth and sin no more. But speaking of extortion, what about Willie Brown and the California Highway Patrol? We’ll have to travel back four decades for that. See below.
Willie and an admirer in San Francisco’s State Building, from last year:
From UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004 (formerly eScholarship Editions), it’s
From four decades ago, Chapter 15, Mr. Chairman:
“One afternoon Brown briskly walked into a budget conference committee meeting late and looking angry. He immediately sat down next to [Senator] Collier and asked for a “point of personal privilege.” Collier granted him the courtesy, and Brown asked to return to an item in the budget to appropriate funds to purchase guns and other equipment for the California Highway Patrol. Brown then demanded that the funds be deleted from the budget. The trust between the two was so great that Collier asked no questions, immediately complied, and struck the CHP equipment appropriation.
At the end of the meeting, [aide Robert] Connelly asked his boss what was going on with the Highway Patrol. “He was so mad, he wouldn’t talk about it.” Finally, Brown told Connelly that he had been stopped not once but twice by CHP officers that day on his way to Sacramento from San Francisco along Interstate 80 in his bright red Porsche. Each time, the officers walked over to Brown and said, “Hey, boy, where’d you get this car?”
Connelly quickly found the CHP’s lobbyist and told him what had happened. “The guy’s eyeballs rolled clear back into his skull. He said, ‘We’ll fix it.’” By the next morning, the CHP was distributing photographs of Willie Brown to officers along the Interstate 80 corridor between San Francisco and Sacramento with orders to “memorize this face.” The CHP got its appropriation back—and more.
Brown championed pay raises for CHP officers by authoring a bill that tied their salaries to a formula based on the salaries of large municipal police forces. The measure gave Highway Patrol officers a windfall raise, and then an automatic pay raise every time one of the unionized city forces got a new contract.”
Don’t mess with Texas!
Back in the day when he was still on the road, you’d never see Willie Brown driving a Porsche or an Acura NSX Japanese Ferrari at a speed anything less than 80 on the 80. The respectful officers of the CHP just let him do whatever he wanted.
First the stick, then the carrot – that’s how it works in Sacramento….
Tags: 2009, 2010, 80, Arnold Schwarzenegger, assembly, association, attorneys, bill, california, california highway patrol, chp, fee, freeway, Governor, highway patrol, Howard Miller, i80, lawyers, Mayor, new, old, porsche, president, sacramento, San Francisco, speaker, State Bar, willie brown
Posted in politics | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
The thing about college administrators is that they love attention. So yesterday’s news of the somewhat ridiculous lawsuit fighting the non-discrimination policies for student clubs at the University of California, Hastings College of Law is nothing but a good thing for the oldest and largest law school west of the Mississippi.
If I were running the Christian Law Society (CLS), I wouldn’t ask my fellow students and/or the taxpayers to fund my little $250/year transportation fund, but that’s me. In any event, let’s expect the Supremes to smack down the CLS with finality next year, and thereby make this matter crystal clear for All. (I mean, they’re looking at this case for a reason, right?)
This was the scene last night, with the news vans parked betwixt the 200 McAllister Building and McAllister Tower (aka The Towers).
See you next year, when this all gets sorted out.
Fiat Justitia!
Tags: 2009, 2010, christian, christian law society, civic center, club, college, discrimination, fee, hastings, law, lawsuit, San Francisco, school, supreme court, transportation, UC, university of california
Posted in law | Comments Off
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Here’s the thing – you gotta have rules. One rule in San Francisco is that you gotta move your car out of many parking spaces by 3:00 PM in the Financial District, or else you’re going to get a hefty ticket and a memorable tow job. Why? Cause rush hour is coming and the Spice Must Flow.
But what if you come back to your car while the tow truck is hooking you up? I’ve seen cases where the tow truck operator will release the vehicle under the assumption that the driver immediately leave. All right. You still have to pay the parking ticket, but all right. But what if the truck makes it a block away and you, the car’s owner, hop on the tow truck to halt its progress?
As here. It’s well after 3:00 PM on Drumm Street between California and Sacramento, so you get a ticket and a tow. Just another day in paradise.
But what’s this? The owner grabbing onto the passenger door handle and hopping up on the tow truck’s running board after chasing it down for a block to Market Street? Yes!
Let’s everybody call the SFPD to clear things up. And let’s conversate about the situation.
Here’s the thing. The government has an interest in keeping the streets clear for traffic, so it can’t be Mr. Nice Guy. It’s got to enforce the rules or we’ll have chaos. (Although in this case, leaving the car there in that particular case wouldn’t have affected traffic a whit, in all probability) Conversely, the tow truck company has an interest in making money. (That’s why whenever I hear the phrase “public private partnership” the first thing I think is the potential for corruption.) The tow truck driver here has pretty much done all the work already, so what does he gain from releasing the vehicle? Nothing. In fact, he loses.
So, the tow truck operator focuses on the fact that it’s after 3:00 PM and the vehicle owner focuses on the fact that he’ll drive his offending vehicle out of the way just as soon as the truck driver lets him. The public interest would be satisfied by releasing the vehicle at the scene, but not the private.
Note the 101 California security officer monitoring the scene from the background. In his six years on the job, he’s never seen the cops tell a tow truck driver to let the driver and vehicle go. Also note the old-school, Oscar-the-Grouch-style mini trash can on the truck. What’s up with that?
Let’s leave this scene now as I left it, all involved waiting for the SFPD to show up.
On it goes…
Tags: 3:00 PM, Berkeley, Blue, california, department, dept., DPT, drumm, fee, financial district, flex, ford, man, market, mta, partnership, police, public private, sacramento, San Francisco, SFMTA, SFPD, street, suv, tow, towing, traffic, truck, UC
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Earlier this year, there was a plan afoot to charge admission at the San Francisco Botanical Garden (nee Strybing Arboretum). That ended up getting changed to a plan to charge admission only to foreigners, those unfortunates people residing outside of the sacred 46.7 square miles that make up the City and County of San Francisco.
This was a taste of the reaction from la raza to the plans to charge admission to auslanders:
Well guess what, that’s all out the window now. Read all about it right here from the General Manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department in this “dear friends” letter quoted on EEEK, A BLOG!:
“Dear Friends:
After a long and very lively conversation regarding fees for the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park, we will be recommending that NO fee be charged for this special natural space. Instead, we will be instituting a “suggested fee” schedule and are looking to bring in a vendor to offer food and beverages.
We thank you for your input and look forward to working with you on our shared goal of keeping the Botanical Garden beautiful for present and future generations.
Thank you,
Jared Blumenfeld, General Manager, San Francisco Recreation and Park Department”
And if that’s not good enough for you, all this was confirmed by Rec and Park higher ups yesterday.
So put a fork in it - the plan, she is dead.
Tags: 2009, admission, Ann Cameron, Antietam, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, battle, beverage, Bill Gaede, board of supervisors, botanical, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, civil war, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, fee, food, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, jared blumenfeld, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, secretary, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, suggested, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, vendor, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Not sure how many people were at last night’s ”workshop” to discuss the idea of charging admission at San Francisco Botanical Garden (aka Strybing Arboretum) in Golden Gate Park ’cause I left before it ended. But the hand-count totaled 225 souls, so let’s call that a gentleman’s 250 altogether for the crowd.
Here’s the thing - people on both sides all seem to know each other and care deeply about The Garden. This conflict seems a kind of civil war (hence the Antietam name check, yes it rhymes exactly), a family squabble. It’s plant-loving Brother against plant-loving-but-other-stuff-too Brother. Get up to speed on this dispute here.
Now, once more into the breach, dear friends.
The mise-en-scene last night. It’s Recreation and Park Commission President Jim Lazarus taking individual questions from a hostile crowd, split up unnecessarily, it turned out, into three sections. This is what the bulk of the meeting looked like. Click to expand:
But let’s start at the beginning. Below, it’s the organized neighbors! They taped up hundreds of small signs to draw attention to the meeting. Did workers from DPW spend a lot of time taking down the unofficial notices? Apparently. Were any official notices put up, like last time? Not that I could see.
Inside, the fellow on the left, (didn’t get his name, someone called him The Kid) tried to get things started, but vocal members of the crowd didn’t like the agenda that was handed out, particularly they didn’t like being split up into three groups.
The guy with the ponytail went off, and the Eli in the Yale jacket on the right pleaded for calm. Thank Gaia for Yalies:
After a couple go-arounds like that, The Kid threatened to cancel the meeting. (Arboretum staff appears to view hosting public meetings like these as doing a favor to Arboretum visitors, and truth be told, if San Francisco officials are dead-set on allowing the charging of admission, they can do it regardless of what regular Arboretum visitors want.) Here’s a ten-minute video of the action.
But after a brief huddle, redolent of a friendly car salesperson taking your low-ball offer to the Big Guy…
…out comes lawyer Jim Lazarus calling an audible to change the meeting’s format. He seemed every bit the experienced pol he is.
The new agenda that got worked out with leadership elements from the masses: an uninterupted 10-15 minute “general presentation” of the plan. “Then you can decide how much you want to beat us up after that,” said Jimbo. “You can shoot us all when it’s over.”
This Lazarus Effect resuscitated the meeting. So, let’s hear The Proposal.
The Arboretum would set up pre-fab ticket kiosks at the Main Gate and the Friend Gate (near the Japanese Tea Garden) for $65K and then hire four part-time cashiers, a manager(?), and also a part-time accountant for $148K per year. San Francisco residents would enter for free after showing some sort of ID. Those useless freeloading parasites known as Everybody Else in the World would pay $7, or $4 (students and seniors), or $2 (kids) each time they go in. They’d have the option of getting a $75 annual pass that would also allow entry at the Japanese Tea Garden and the Conservatory of Flowers – something like that.
The projected 100,000 in paid admissions would have a “blended average” of $5.50 per, resulting in a gross take of $550K. Take away $150K for expenses and you end up with an annual net of $400K, of which $100-150K would go into the Rec and Park kitty and the rest could go into whatever, like hiring more gardeners at $68K salary (plus 25% more in benefits).
The goal would be to eventually get up to a full complement of 16 gardeners, which will “never happen” without some new source of Arboretum-specific cashola.
That’s it.
“KEEP THE ARBORETUM FREE”
What about residents of neighboring counties in the Bay Area you say? It doesn’t matter, all auslanders gotta pay.
What about the rumoured $1.3 million cost of building the kiosks and other related expenses? That was just a “Cadillac proposal” dreamed up by somebody or other – the bare bones approach discussed last night would not be as nice, but it would get the job done.
This charismatic-messianic type got lots of applause for questioning the whole idea of charging anybody anything, regardless of the numbers:
Mr. Lazarus acknowledged the fear San Francisco residents have of being the next in line to be charged, the fear that admission prices would then increase after that. No promises on that front. Que sera sera.
But I’ll let the Keep the Arboretum Free people delve into these issues more. When I left, Lazarus was answering questions one by one, Phil Donahue-style.
“FREE means NO FEES, NO I.D.s”
Oh yes, the “next terrible meeting” promised by Jimbo will concern paid parking in Golden Gate Park. (Do people really plant their vehicle in the park for free and then run all over town all day? People do.)
Random observations:
The estimate of $148k annually to pay salaries for the paid admission scheme sounds low. Way low, particularly in light of what cashiers at the Japanese Tea Garden get paid.
Park and Rec knows how to notice a public meeting but, for whatever reason, it appears to have done a bush-league job of noticing last night’s workshop.
Next up next month in June: the action will move over to City Hall and the Board of Supervisors. When will our civil war end?
Public Workshop – Botanical Garden
When: May 28, 2009 – Thursday 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Where: County Fair Building, 9th Avenue and Lincoln Avenue, San Francisco
What: In response to the feedback received on the proposed admission program at Botanical Garden, the Rec & Park Department decided there will not be a fee for residents. The revised proposal does include a $7. fee for nonresident visitors. Public workshop is to take feedback regarding revised proposed admission fee and will be seeking topics including:
Implementation of the new fee for non-San Francisco residents.
Amenities at the Garden.
Potential new revenue sources.
To Be Continued…
Tags: 2009, admission, Ann Cameron, Antietam, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, battle, Bill Gaede, board of supervisors, botanical, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, civil war, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, fee, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, secretary, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
Posted in parks | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
Officials tried last month to float the idea of charging admission at Strybing Arboretum but, for whatever reason, that scheme died an early death and the scheduled follow-up meetings (five of them or something?) got cancelled. O.K. then.
Tomorrow will bring a new plan- levying $7 per capita admission only on tourists, you know, those unfortunate souls who don’t hang their hats in San Francisco, those melon farmers from San Mateo, and Marin and 3000 other counties, and all foreign countries as well of course. That means you, as a City resident, will merely need to present your credentials at Checkpoint Charlie or Checkpoint Delta every time you step foot into the place.
The problem with that is the same people who don’t like the concept of charging City residents don’t like the concept of charging out-of-City residents. Why? Read on.
You can’t miss this sign these days when entering the Main Gate near Ninth avenue and Lincoln. Click to expand:
The mise-en-scene:
Once the infrastructure is in place to charge the auslanders, the Others admission, then the decision to also charge San Francisco residents will then be seen as a no-brainer, right?
Here’s an interesting quote, allegedly from poobah Jared Blumenfeld:
“We will start by charging non-residents.”
Here’s more from Jared.
Now let’s hear from the Sierra Club Yodeler:
“In defending the fee, the Botanical Society points to several problems. Teenagers have entered the Garden to have a beer parties. Occasionally someone is found asleep in the Arboretum in the morning. Plants have been stolen.”
This is reminiscient of the rationale for a reduction in free admission hours at the Japanese Tea Garden. Oh well. Personally, I haven’t been to the Tea Garden in ages and if the Arboretum people want to start charging admission, I probably won’t go there either. If running the thing is so difficult, why not just fire the garderners and close the thing down?
Anyway, here’s the petition (with some awfully familiar-looking photos) and here’s the new website: KeepArboretumFree.org. It sure looks like more than a few people have signed their signatures to the petition that’s circulating.
Attention public officials: This L.Z. is hot. Repeat: Lima Zulu is Hotel Oscar Tango. The amount of money raised (which isn’t really knowable at this point – the new proposal, after expenses, could be revenue neutral, or even result in a loss) isn’t going to be worth the ensuing damage to your hide. JMO.
These people at the meetings are fired up, is what I’m saying.
And they can’t be brushed off as typical NIMBYs because NIMBYs actually like the idea of keeping auslanders out of their ‘hoods, they like the idea of keeping out the riff-raff, the hoi polloi. True NIMBYs would like the new proposal.
Oh and one more thing, those keeping vigil all day long at the gates of the San Franciso Botanical Garden reckon time by noting the passing of each bright yellow totally empty or nearly empty CultureBus - each hour like clockwork. Thusly:
Oh well. We’ll see how many folks will show up tomorrow.
Some allege that the people below, and others like them, are obsessed with the Arboretum attaining/maintaining “world class” status. Like there’s some big competition with Harvard and the like over who has the best garden. Is that true? No se, but the phrase “world class” might not be the best one to use on the “Save the Arboretum” crowd, just saying.
Trustees
OFFICERS
Wendy Tonkin, Chair
Don Baldocchi, Vice Chair
Phil Schlein, Vice Chair
Jennifer Bowles, Secretary
Bill Gaede, Treasurer
Ann Cameron, Member at large
Cynthia Anderson, Member at large
EX OFFICIO
Dr. Frank Almeda
Dr. James Kohn
Brent Dennis
Michael McKechnie
TRUSTEES
Cynthia Anderson
Don Baldocchi
Dr. Joseph C. Barbaccia
Jennifer Bowles
Arden Bucklin-Sporer
Ann Cameron
Chuck Davis
William G. Gaede
Margie Ellis
Tony Farrell
Cynthia Jamplis
Victoria “Honey” Johnson
Robert Leitstein
Kevin Leong
Monica A. Martin
Eva Monroe
Philip S. Schlein
Wendy Tonkin
Wally Wertsch
Isa Mary Ziegler
SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN SOCIETY STAFF
McKechnie, Michael Executive Director ext 415
Bourell, Mona Plant Collections Registrar ext 411
Davis, Randy Development Services Manager ext 300
Eckels, Dan Project Manager ext 405
Estey, Jay Membership Manager ext 303
Fisher, Kitty Education Coordinator ext 400
Glasby, Jane Associate Librarian ext 403
Glaub, Diane Nursery Assistant 661-3090, ext 429
Gutmann, Dennis Bookstore Manager ext 408
Huddle, Annette Associate Director of Youth Education ext 407
Julian, Vicky Bookstore Assistant ext 408
Kruse-Pickler, David Associate Curator ext 411
Kuhl, Brandy Associate Librarian ext 403
Laursen, Thomas Volunteer Services Manager ext 412
Mahoney, Don Curator 661-3090, ext 429
Marcy, Jean School Walks Coordinator ext 407
Peneyra, Sophie Finance Manager ext 306
Pitschel, Barbara Head Librarian ext 403
Prokupek, Judy Capital Campaign/Development Director ext 302
Segedy, Lesley Development Associate ext 301
Steger, Rick Receptionist ext 414
Thériault, Olivier Curatorial Assistant 661-3089
Wohlwend, Heidi Annual Giving Manager ext 304
Wolf, Patrick Executive Assistant/Office Manager ext 401
Wong, Shannon C. Accounting Associate ext 305
SAN FRANCISCO BOTANICAL GARDEN STAFF
Dennis, Brent Director 753-7271
Lee, Kern Building & Event Reservations Secretary 831-5500
Bonilla, Oscar Custodian
Favetti, Joe Gardener
Fiorello, Robert Gardener
Gamez, Dolores Gardener
Helmer, Russell Custodian
Hoffman, Gary Gardener
Lopez, Janet Gardener
Martinez, Jason Gardener
Nervo, Susan Supervisor 753-7092
O’Connor, Owen Gardener
Quinn, Patrick Gardener
Rich, Jeanne Nursery Specialist 753-7092
Schaumleffel, Diane Gardener
Seefeld, Terry Gardener
Sweeney, Shannon Gardener
See you there!
Public Workshop – Botanical Garden
When: May 28, 2009 – Thursday
6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Where: County Fair Building, 9th Avenue and Lincoln Avenue, San Francisco
What: In response to the feedback received on the proposed admission program at Botanical Garden, the Rec & Park Department decided there will not be a fee for residents. The revised proposal does include a $7. fee for nonresident visitors. Public workshop is to take feedback regarding revised proposed admission fee and will be seeking topics including:
Implementation of the new fee for non-San Francisco residents.
Amenities at the Garden.
Potential new revenue sources.
Tags: 2009, admission, Ann Cameron, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, Bill Gaede, board of supervisors, botanical, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, fee, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, secretary, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
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