The supreme incompetence that runs the city of Detroit has struck again, and this time I am so mad I fear what I might do:
City Council has rejected a proposed agreement to transfer daily operations of the Detroit Zoo to the Detroit Zoological Society, a private group that provides fundraising and program development.
The 7-2 vote came Saturday night following two days of City Council discussions, the mayor's office said in a statement. The plan was part of an effort by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to narrow a municipal budget deficit.
Detroit, as most of you know, is broke. One of the viable options is to "sell" off and otherwise get rid of it's assets. But, in the game of racial politics that is Detroit - this gets interpreted to mean "selling Detroit off to "whitey." It gets interpreted as "the suburb stealing the cities' assets." Now, one of the most ironic things about this, is that the Detroit Zoo isn't even in Detroit; it's in Royal Oak (a trendy suburb about 15 minuets from Downtown Detroit.)
And, to be perfectly honest with you - I have owned a zoo membership pretty much ever since I started my family. We go several times a year; weekends and weekdays. Excluding school trips, I hardly EVER see a black family at the Detroit (a city that is upwards of 80% black) Zoo. So, I don't expect to see an up-swell of anger from the city's population. It's also probably why our city council doesn't care.
At this point, I am too mad to tread softly on this issue. Detroit doesn't care about culture, or it's children. The schools SUCK, the parks are mostly a joke, and now we are on the brink of shipping our zoo off. In all the years of defending Detroit, the zoo has been on the top of the list as one of our jewels. With no, or very little, credit going to the City, since it is mostly run by the Detroit Zoological Society, which is responsible for all the improvements (and there have been many.)
Only Detroit could destroy a jewel. WHY do we run a city in this manner? We elect politicians with no experience and hope they can handle issues of finance. Obviously they cannot. Obviously they rule by ego and ignorance. It is of little comfort that I didn't vote for any of them.
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