I just got off the phone with Fresno City Manager Andy Souza, who said he agrees with critics who say the increased fee at Roedng Park will hurt the Chaffee Zoo. Souza said he will ask the City Council on Tuesday to suspend the new fee at Roeding Park for 30 days until the city finds a better way of implementing it.
The city had planned to charge non-city residents $5 to enter Roeding Park beginning Tuesday. The current $3 fee will be in effect until at least Aug. 1 to allow city and zoo officials time to figure out how best to fix the issue that has turned into a public relations nightmare for the city.
Souza said this change is only for Roeding Park. The two other regional parks in the city -- the Regional Sports Complex and Woodward Park -- will charge $5 to out-of-towners beginning Tuesday.
Souza admitted city officials messed up by not considering the impact that the extra fee at Roeding Park would have on the Chaffee Zoo. "You killed me in your blog," Souza said today. This is the blog posting the city manager was referring to in that comment.
The city already had been considering delaying the fee to give zoo patrons time to adjust. The City Council will be asked to formalize that delay at today's meeting. The problem is that Fresno County citizens are helping to pay for the zoo through a sales tax increase, and it appears that the city is sticking it to county residents just the same. Souza said that wasn't the intent of the fee, and the impact on the zoo was missed when it was developed.
Bee reporter Marc Benjamin laid the issue out nicely in this story that ran on Saturday.
Unfortunately, the folks at City Hall didn't realize the impact the out-of-town fee would have on people attending the zoo, especially those who already are helping to pay for the zoo improvements through the sales tax. They began scrambling to find a solution, and ran out of time. That's why the fee will need to be suspended at Roedng Park until a real solution is found.
I have repeatedly suggested a better solution to charging for parking at Roeding Park: Banning cars from the park. People could park in the old K-Mart parking lot across the street, and regular shuttles could drop them off at the zoo or other areas. There could be dropoff points for those having a birthday party and need to unload their party and picnic stuff. But five-minute zones could acommodate those folks, and then they'd drive back out and park across the street. There would have to be accommodations for the handicapped, but that could be worked out.
Wouldn't Roeding be a great park without cars?
I'm still not a fan of charging an extra parks fee to out-of-towners, even if they are from Bozeman, Montana. We want to encourage visitors to come to our community and spend their money at hotels. restaurants and stores. If we have good attractions, they'll generate plenty of money for government and businesses to pay for the services they use.
I understand that local governments are in tight budget times, but they need to find a better way of raising money than implementing a $2 parks fee that will be more trouble than it's worth.
It is good that the drawbridge had beeen let down. Walls against outsiders often have the tendency to become a lock-in for the insiders.
If Fresno County residents decided to stop shopping in the City of Fresno, far
more money would be lost to the city than would be gained by the 66% surcharge. And that is not
a "nuance" either, but a fact.
I've always felt that city/county residents should get a discount for subsidizing this loser.Thanks to our supervisors for sucking the county taxpayers into this.How generous of them.
Rumor has it the Mayor and city fathers are in negotitions with Donald J. Trump to take over. Should be on the Ray Appleton talk radio this afternoon. The animals are against this move.