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[CortJstr]

So this morning on the radio the topic was that the Baltimore zoo can't aford to stay open right now. One of the things they blame: the National Zoo and its tempting free admission. Also, its pandas.

Wombat, what do you have to say for yourself?

[AlohaDawg]

I'm all for free zoos. The Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago is incredible, and it's free. Of course, people who get in free have FAR less respect for the animals. Every time I went there I wanted to launch some kid into the Polar Bear pit.

The National Zoo should be free, because we are all already paying for it. But isn't the Baltimore Zoo one of the oldest (if not THE oldest) in the US? That should mean something, too.

Didn't Baltimore close down all of the public libraries recently, too? I would call the zoo being potentially closed as well a potential sign that your property taxes are about to get raised, even though the effect would be balanced out by plummeting property value.

Time to move.

[CortJstr]

The National Zoo is part of the Smithsonian which has free admission all around (except to movies and stuff). They only charge like $7 for parking (or you have to pay $3 or so per person to take the metro) plus overpriced food/trinkets.

Where as the Baltimore zoo chargers roughly $10/person and has no famous pandas. And the two cities are close enough together that they're frequently referred to as a single entity so travel isn't an issue.

Of course the funny part is that when discussing aquariums the reverse is true. Most area residents don't even know there's a National Aquarium in DC because we've only heard the one in Baltimore.

[jough]

Baltimore is a dying city.  It has been for some time.

This comes as no surprise.  I'm all for leveling the city, paving it over and making it a discount Washington DC parking garage.

I'd make some Joni Mitchell reference if I could stomach referring to Baltimore as "Paradise."

[wombat]

Please, don't get me started on pandas.  The rest of us who don't work with pandas are pretty tired of all the attention they get.  There is no evidence that they bring in a lot of money that then trickles down to the rest of us, or anything like that.  There's a lot of resentment.  It is clear that all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

I was all for free zoos before I worked here.  But we are so underfunded, and even if we just charged a little it would make such a big difference. It's not as bad as the Washington Post would like you to think, but it could be a whole lot better if we weren't understaffed and working with such a deteriorating physical plant.  Y'all may indeed pay for it with your tax dollars, but we're not getting enough of them.  

But, I don't think an admission charge will ever happen.  It was a huge controversy when they just wanted to put donation boxes at the museums downtown, because it was seen as a first step to charging admission.  Like when I was a kid in NYC, the Met really just took donations, and you could put down what one of my teachers called 'a polite quarter'.  But this gradually evolved into what is now a mandatory admission charge.

I didn't hear the NPR piece, I'll have to go look for it.

[jough]

Huh.  I've never understood the reluctance of people to donate to a museum or zoo they visited.  I mean, if everyone just gave like, $2, it would make a big difference.

I thought the donation at the Met was just that: a suggested donation.  When did that change?

In any case, if they put it up to a vote, I'll vote for it.  $3 admission to the national zoo.  Like that'll break anyone.

[wombat]

What NPR show was it?  I can't find it.

I found the AP piece on Google.  This reminds me that lately they threatened to close the zoos in the outer boroughs of NYC, and it was obviously just a bargaining tactic to get people up in arms so they'd get more funding.  And the zoos ultimately didn't close.  

I hope this is what happens, selgiraffely, because it occurs to me that since I'm still a temp, the last thing I need is a bunch of experienced suddenly unemployed zookeepers just up the road from here looking for jobs to apply for.  Eeek.

[wombat]

The signs at the Met may still say it's a suggested donation - I haven't been there recently - but for a long time the way it looks has been, it's just so clearly an admissions booth with a particular charge that you'd have to have a HUGE amount of nerve to put down the polite quarter of my youth.

[CortJstr]

Um, it wasn't NPR it was KML on 98 Rock. They said the Bawlmer is actually shipping a few animals (most notably the elephants) to other zoos.

As for the Met, the last time I was there they had the Suggested Donation booths. You have to get a little pin from them to enter the museum which ads to the guilt factor. But if you have the stones you can walk up and just ask for the pin and they will give it to you for free. When I went on a field strip in HS several kids did this but most of us paid the $3 suggested for students/seniors.

I don't think the donations will ever be done here because of the stigma/aura attached to the Smithsonian (even if most people do think it's a building). But if any place could get away with it, it's the zoo. Simply because even locals often don't realize that it's part of the SI.

I'm not so sure about Baltimore being a dying city. The zoo may be in a bad neighborhood but their music scene has be quite lively for the past 5 years or so.

[wombat]

Oh, I'm such a space cadet...it just seemed so obviously like a Morning Edition type of story.

Interestingly, the AP story says that the zoo does not know of a place to send the elephants yet, and acknowledges this could take quite a while, which is what makes me suspect it's a ploy that they hope will get them more funding.  It could take a long time to place an elephant elsewhere, so this doesn't sound like the announcement of a done deal.

Interesting point that locals don't realize the Zoo is part of the Smithsonian.  The Smithsonian has been trying to make this clearer in all kinds of ways (eg, the zoo uniforms now say Smithsonian, and they didn't used to) but too bad they didn't have your idea instead - take advantage of the confusion to have a different admission policy.

Another case I thought of is the Brooklyn Botanic Garden which was free for many years and some time in the past decade or so started to have an admissions charge.  My friend who lives in the neighgorhood said this was kind of sad - you no longer saw families picnicking there and obviously whole classes of people were now excluded.  And the charge wasn't much at least at first (I don't know what it is now).  2 or 3 dollars really does make a difference to some people.

[CortJstr]

Oh, I'm such a space cadet...it just seemed so obviously like a Morning Edition type of story.

Interestingly, the AP story says that the zoo does not know of a place to send the elephants yet, and acknowledges this could take quite a while, which is what makes me suspect it's a ploy that they hope will get them more funding.  It could take a long time to place an elephant elsewhere, so this doesn't sound like the announcement of a done deal.

Interesting point that locals don't realize the Zoo is part of the Smithsonian.  The Smithsonian has been trying to make this clearer in all kinds of ways (eg, the zoo uniforms now say Smithsonian, and they didn't used to) but too bad they didn't have your idea instead - take advantage of the confusion to have a different admission policy.

Yeah, I've never actually listened to NPR. I hadn't even heard of it until NewsRadio.

Apparently those elephants are their star attraction so if they are ploying that would be a good choice.

I did an informal poll at my office and nobody could say for sure if the Zoo was part of the SI or not. I think it's because most when hearing Smithsonian most think of Air & Space or American History, not the Zoo or Naturalist Center.

Most people weren't sure if the Zoo charged or not. The general answer was along the lines of, "I don't remember. Zoo's and aquariums usually charge admission but it is called 'National' so I guess it might be free. But if it's Smithsonian then it's definitely free." But hey, all the national parks charge a fee.

Of course we're the same ones who aren't sure if you're open in the winter.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Does/did the Baltimore zoo have a "Friends of" group, like FoNZ?  If so, what were the benefits?

FoNZ members get free parking, a discount at the gift shop and some food, a nice little magazine, a members-only night every summer, and some other stuff.  AND I get reciprocal privileges at a lot of other zoos--I've gotten into Atlanta, St. Louis and Philly's zoos for free with my FoNZ card (but not San Diego, those arrogant pigs).  Well worth the $49/year I pay for a family membership.  Perhaps Baltimore could have tempted people to pay for membership and thus generated additional funding with, say, a certain number of free admissions per year.

[CortJstr]

They do have a membership but it costs twice as much.

[side_show]

The Winnipeg Zoo was free for most of my life, but began to charge admission about 5 years ago.  As far as I can see it's much better to charge admission, not only because it gives the zoo much needed funds, but also because people have a different attitude when they're paying get in - while it doesn't totally improve everyone's attitude there's definitly a lot less people trying to agitate the animals.

In regard to pandas, we just had a baby red panda born at our zoo and it's one of only six ever born in captivity.  But it's not nessisarily the attention getting kind of black and white type panda that everyone here is talking about, infact these pands kind of look like raccoons with some sort of extra cuteness gene.

http://www.canada.com/national/story.asp?id=470A8575-AF9F-4FA4-9F45-0A1E9BDD0539

[slink]

In regard to pandas, we just had a baby red panda born at our zoo and it's one of only six ever born in captivity.  But it's not nessisarily the attention getting kind of black and white type panda that everyone here is talking about, infact these pands kind of look like raccoons with some sort of extra cuteness gene.

Yea, I'd rather sit and watch a red panda than a normal panda.
I used to love the red pandas at Edinburgh zoo.
That and the Otters were really good actually. They did a lot of sunbathing.