Why does our Strybing Arboretum (aka San Francisco Botanical Garden) need to become “world-class?”
Nobody’s ever explained that one to me. But that’s the rationale for charging admission these days (after six decades of free admission.)
Now, why isn’t our Strybing Arboretum called Strybing Arboretum anymore?
So it can become “world-class.” (Apparently, naming an arboretum after the woman who gave the money to start things up is considered provincial Back East. Plus Founder Helene Strybing made the mistake of becoming old and dying so nobody gives a ROMEO ALPHA about her anymore.)
Anyway, they started charging admission so the place turned into a ghost town, a “museum of plants and trees.”
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Oh well.
They said if things didn’t work out, they’d stop charging admission.
And here’s what they look like. Yes, there’s a bathroom in there:
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Myself, I haven’t been back into Strybing (except to poke my head in to see how few people are there) since they started charging admission.
Maybe I’ll visit again when they stop charging…
But these booths need hawkers, you know, just like the strip clubs in North Beach. Why don’t you sign up?
You’ll need sales skills of course. Check out the job posting below.
BTW, your pay as a “Garden Ambassador”will be $9.92 below minimum wage (aka nothing) and your commission will be zero (0) percent. (Can you imagine what hawkers would do on slow days if they got paid a commish of one dollar per entry ticket? OMG,
“Description
Greet visitors at the North Gate of the Botanical Garden and encourage them to visit this outstanding garden. Many visitors approach the admissions kiosk and don’t know about the amazing garden that lies just beyond the gates.
Skills
Public Speaking, Sales
Requirements
Willingness to approach the public. Ability to communicate effectively and persuasively. Sincere desire to share basic knowledge about the Garden. Genuine love and appreciation for the SF Botanical Garden.”
[UPDATE: And cabbies, you can just forget about your proposed strike right now, as nobody takes that seriously. What would your union-type slogan be, "Every Man For Himself?" I'm telling you, MUNI is constantly hiring bus drivers, so you all should switch rides and, you know, drive a bus. And then you could, with impugnity, call your passengers r-tards or whatever you want. Hurray!]
I’ll tell you, those poor melon farmers out there in the West Bay trying to scratch a living from the infertile sandy soils of the Outer Avenues, well, not only is their MUNI bus and streetcar service bad, taxi service is bad as well.
Now, your hack might not actually want to take you to 42nd and Ortega or whatever, but s/he is required by law to take you there because, technically, the Outer Sunset in within the limits of San Francisco County.* So maybe that’s OK, but what about the times when you want to get picked up at home and you live Way Out There? Well, there’s no onus on any particular driver to come and pick you up, so that’s part of the reason why you have to wait a long, long time sometimes.
Comes now the staffers of the SFMTA with a solution: A $5 “Peak-Time Radio Dispatch Fee,” but not just for Parksiders of the Great San Wastes and the like, it’s supposed to be for everybody calling for a cab. That means that you will owe the driver over $8 before you even get into the taxi. Hurray!
“Implement a $5 dispatch surcharge during peak periods
Implement a $2 surcharge during non-peak periods.”
This will make the hacks happy as well the hack bureaucracy. It’s a win-win, baby!
But check it, the SFMTA is, once again, working on (or at least pretending to be working on) Peak-Time Permits, which would accomplish the goals that the SFMTA says it wants to accomplish.
Sometimes, when all the buses you see are going to the wrong way, a taxi’s the only way to get to your destination in time, right?
Radio dispatch fee: $2 flat fee during nonpeak hours; $5 flat fee during peak hours
Gas surcharge fee: $0.10 per one-fifth mile, $0.10 per minute of wait time
Wait time and mileage fare: From $0.45 per one-fifth mile ($2.25/mile) to $0.55 per one-fifth mile ($2.75/mile), and $0.45 per minute ($27/hour) to $0.55 per minute ($33/hour).
(Hey cabbies, why don’t you just try to become MUNI drivers? They’re always hiring, right? You’ll end up with health care and a bunch more money in the end, right? Just saying. Oh, since you’re not going to listen to me and I’m already telling you what to do, why not get a free Wordpress and post your issues up there? It’ll take like two minutes to get started. Just saying…)
Last time I was at a City Hall taxi protest, it was taken over by this driver, a mother of three from Brazil:
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All the deets:
“Tariq, a cab driver for many years is organizing a protest at City Hall on Tuesday May 3rd. Expected are over 100 drivers at this protest – meet us on the Polk street side of city hall at 12:00 noon.”
“PROTEST Tuesday May 3rd, 12 PM, City Hall, room 400
SHOW UP EVEN IF YOU COULD MAKE $100,000 IN THAT 2-3 HOURS
SAY: NO %5.
SAY WE CAN PAY LESS THAN HALF TO ROCESS CREDIT/DEBIT CARD.
SAY: IF DRIVERS ARE SELF-EMPLOYED, RUNNING THEIR OWN BUSINESS, THEN THEY SHOULD CHOOSE THEIR OWN SERVICE PROVIDER.
SAY: NO GPS ELECTORNIC WAYBILL.
SAY: IF SFMTA WANTS TO TREAT US LIKE AN EMPLOYEE, THEN THEY SHOULD PAY US LIKE MUNI DRIVERS.
SAY: SFMTA CAN NOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS.
SAY: NO STORAGE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION (DRIVER OR PASSENGER).
SAY: IT HAS BEEN PROVEN THAT PERSONAL INFORMATION HAS, AND CAN BE, BROKEN INTO.
SAY: HOW MUCH, PER HOUR, IT COSTS SFMTA TO PAY AN ENTRY-LEVEL MUNI DRIVER?
SAY: THE FIRST $15 OF EVERY HOUR IS NOT OURS. SAY: WITH THE LEFT OVER WE PAY FOR TICKET, ASSAULT, ACCIDENT, RETIREMENT, MEDICAL, SICK-LEAVE AND MORE.
SAY: COMPARE THIS LEFT OVER WITH YOUR COST FOR AN ENTRY-LEVEL MUNI DRIVER.
SAY: SOME OF US ARE DRIVING MORE THAN 20 YEARS. SAY: WE DO NOT DESERVE THIS.
Doesn’t San Francisco already pay seven figures a year to run the San Francisco Botanical Garden? So why should people have to pay to get into the thing? Oh, it costs money to run, a whole lot? Well, then why don’t we just shut it down?
One might wonder.
Jim Lazarus, past president of the Recreation and Park Commission, gets it wrong here:
Well actually, Jimbo, why not let’s do nothing and then the fee would go away by itself, right? No repeal is necessary, actually, as you already know, huh Jimbo?
Now here comes simple-minded Randy Shaw of Beyond Chron, who doesn’t seem to understand that the purported quarter-million a year that’s “expected” (by whom, some wildly optimistic person, obviously) to be generated by the fee will for pay three “extra” unionized gardeners at the Arboretum. There’s no way on Gaia’s Green Earth that the fee at Strybing will pay for social services.
SF Crime Examiner Thomas Pendergrast has pretty much all you need to know about the plan to make permanent the access fees at the San Francisco Botanical Garden.
And looky here, here’s a pdf from Budget and Legislative Analyst Harvey M. Rose, CPA:
When an accountant calls your forecasts “highly optimistic,” what’s he really saying?
Oh well.
I guess the BOS will soon vote to make the temporary boycott of the San Francisco Botanical Garden a permanent boycott.
Oh well.
As seen last Saturday:
Oh, and look what else is coming up:
“Thursday, April 7, 2011 2:00 p.m. City Hall, Room 416 11a. GOLDEN GATE PARK ACCESS PASS Discussion and possible action to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve an ordinance amending Park Code Article 12 authorizing the Commission to discount admission fees for the Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Tea Garden and the San Francisco Botanical Garden as part of a Golden Gate Park Access Pass. (ACTION ITEM) Staff: Brent Dennis.
Hey. what’s a GOLDEN GATE PARK ACCESS PASS? We’ll find out soon enough…
Quintin Mecke was on hand representing Assemblymember Tom Ammiano’s office and somebody else spoke for Supervisor John Avalos. Noticed Aaron Peskin in the audience as well.
All the while, there was absolutely nobody on or near the Main Lawn just inside the admission gate. Presenting your empty Strybing Arboretum:
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But that’s the way the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society likes it.
Saturday April 2nd, 2011
1:00PM – 2:00PM
Arboretum Main Gate
(9th Avenue & Lincoln)
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED NOW
On April 6th, 2011, the Budget Committee of the Board of Supervisors will be making a crucial decision on the future of the fee, either free admissions for all or a permanent non-resident fee.
SUPPORT- Ordinance 110113 sponsored by Supervisors Avalos, Campos, Kim, Mar and Mirkarimi to use Prop N tax revenues as a sustainable solution to support a free public garden.
OPPOSE- Ordinance 110225 sponsored by the Mayor for a permanent fee.
After 7 months the fee has been a failure. Only $54,800 out of a promised $250,000 has been collected. Attendance, based on Rec & Park figures, has declined sharply with non-resident visitors down 70% vs. estimates and resident visitors down 36%. RPD’s strategy is to market Strybing Arboretum as the new Japanese Tea Garden.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP THIS HARMFUL FEE:
Attend the Budget Committee Hearing on Wed. April 6 (time TBA)
Boy, if there’s anything I hate it’s got to be all them foreigners what come to my City and County of San Francisco to empty their pockets and then leave. You know? I’m talking about the hordes from Belgium and Sicily and Marin County and the goddam East Bay coming here and just sucking up all the oxygen and walking around like they own the place.
So I was overjoyed when RPD started charging admission at the San Francisco Botanical Garden (fka Helene Strybing Arboretum, but she got old and died so nobody cares about her anymore, you know, the lady what paid for the place) cause I live here in the 415 so I can walk in just by showing my ID. I love that, it makes me feel special, I just walk past those loosers and I say something like, “Suck-eeeeers!” Or, “I’m a Neighbor, I’m a Res-I-Dent, bi-atches. Respect!” You know, something clever like that.
So imagine my shock when I first saw this GroupOn-style deal. See that? The SFBG is now half-off for auslanders!
I don’t know, but won’t this encourage visits? I mean, aren’t we trying to empty the arbo of people and starve out the squirrels and the Canada Geese in order to become “world-class” ‘n stuff?
And won’t this cut into revenue? Aren’t there some days already when the total gross doesn’t even cover expenses to charge people to get in? You know, talking about those $11-an-hour-no-benefits toll-takers. (Hey, shouldn’t the people who sell tickets in those boxes be in a union too? Couldn’t they have a vote, you know, get the NLRB in here to monitor a little election? Why not?)
