Although it didn't receive a ton of public attention, Des Moines and Polk County demonstrated that government sometimes does work.
It looks like we are beginning a well deserved expansion of the Blank Park Zoo. Des Moines has a good zoo, but we could have a great zoo. We sit right in the middle of a very interesting ecosphere and there is no reason that we couldn't build a zoo about the wildlife of Iowa and North America that would rival St. Paul. Congratulations and thank you to everyone involved.
A great zoo benefits everyone in Polk County, and central Iowa for that matter. Growing urbanization has deprived generations of Iowans of the opportunity to actually see a coyote or a bobcat, much less our new moutain lion neighbors. Imagine the sight of children who are seeing musk ox from Canada or Greenland, big horn sheep from Utah or Montana, or moose from Minnesota for the first time?
Restaurants and stores in the neighborhood benefit from Zoo traffic. Our area becomes a better place to live, hence more young people may wish to live here. Polk County has developed several new and interesting events and attractions over the last several years and a large 21st Century zoo would be a tremendous addition.
Maybe the Real Sporer is just talking a flight of fancy but Zoo development is surely a bipartisan public/private project we could all get behind. If Omaha can do it, we can too!
4 comments:
Sounds like Sporer likes zoos. Do you know how much tax $ is being used for this? I suspect some public cash will be involved, especially since Polk County Conservation Board is involved in the deal. Even as a fairly liberal D, these types of issues are difficult for me. When is it ok to use public money for projects like this? In the case of the Des Moines Zoo, I tend to agree with Sporer that this is a good thing. After all, we are talking about the zoo in the state’s capital city. On the other hand, Earthpark rainforest seems like real waste of tax money.
Outside of the young-people-will-want-to-stay-because-we-have-a-zoo comment, I agree that this is a good deal, although I am concerned about how much it will cost. With the state poised to redistribute the wealth by taking over our local option sales tax, expenditures like this are temptation to raise local taxes to make up what Polk Co. stands to lose in sales tax revenue...
I like the DSM Zoo which is why I keep buying the family pass. I am not sure we need to finance it with city or county money since I think we can do with usership.
Hey, how about John McCain's gaffe yesterday? Too bad the media only focuses on his reference to "Tar Babies" since the real gaffe was his complete failure to deal with the question. The question involved what he would do about courts giving absolute preference to women (contrary to the law and the health of our society) in divorce court.
Not a bad question considering it was a Federal issue to end Slavery and even promote abortion right? What defines a legitimate Federal Issue if not our destroyed families?
Whoa, Sporer and I agree on something. Someone want to make sure hell hasn't frozen over? ;-)
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