April 15, 2008
Editor,
Nice reporting on "The new zoo blues" (Guardian 4/9/08). An interesting question raised by G.W. Schulz's piece is why "every major figure in San Francisco with an ounce of political ambition" supported the zoo bonds. Could it be that only those political figures *without* any such ambitions can be trusted to do the right thing in such instances? Maybe something to take into consideration when making endorsements.
More amusing was the article's complaint that, "The 'private' [quote marks added] zoo didn't spend the money the way all of those giddy officials said it would." Gee, could this have ever happened before with bond measures funding any government agencies? The lack of quotes around "private" in the original article reflect its one glaring shortcoming, namely the failure to observe that in every meaningful sense the San Francisco Zoo is still a government facility. It sits on government-owned land. It's substantially subsidized by taxpayer bond money. There's a special government Joint Zoo Committee to provide oversight, along with the Recreation and Park Commission. The private Zoological Society only has a five-year contract to run the zoo, which expires in June. If the situation were reversed, and a private company made some facility available to a city government on such limited and temporary terms, would the Guardian consider that an example of municipalization?
As a de facto government agency, the Zoological Society's management of the zoo is simply following the bad example set by other government agencies -- the Community College District, the SF Unified School District, the Rec and Park Department, the airport, etc. Once again taxpayers have been deceived and their money misspent. Not because the zoo has been privatized, but rather because it has *not* been required to be as self-sufficient, self-governing, and subject to competition as a normal business would be in what passes for a free market in the United States. Just like the Guardian's favorite whipping boy PG&E (which, like the zoo, often deserves the whipping!), the San Francisco Zoo remains a heavily regulated, taxpayer-guaranteed monopoly. But I trust you will let us know when you find a *real* example of privatization gone awry.
Sincerely,
Starchild
Outreach Director,
Libertarian Party of San Francisco
3531 16th Street,
SF, CA 94114
(415) 621-7932