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“We shouldn’t have lied,” says zoo board member

By admin on March 2, 2013 in Campaign Updates, Oakland Politics, Opinions & Editorials

Wow. Have you noticed how quiet things have gotten since the Measure A1 campaign? We have, and wondered whether it indicated some dissension within the zoo board ranks about how to proceed. The “anonymous” $1 million gift we heard they received seemed awfully convenient since they had just spent exactly that amount on a losing campaign. A way to reassure nervous donors, maybe?

Well, a zoo member who decided to attend the first zoo board meeting after the defeat of Measure A1 was interested to hear how the board responded after the defeat of a ballot measure on which so much money was spent. She contacted us later and told us that she was shocked to hear one of the zoo’s own board members calling out the untruth that characterized the whole campaign. According to this observer, the board member said (discussing zoo management’s denials that the money from the measure would fund the expansion):

“I don’t see why we didn’t acknowledge that this is about expansion. Of course it is. We shouldn’t have lied.”

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A Letter from a Changed Mind

By admin on December 14, 2012 in Campaign Updates, Opinions & Editorials, Personal Journals, Uncategorized

This letter came to us unsolicited, and with the author’s permission, we are publishing it as an example of one whose mind was changed by the truth.

Webmaster
KnowlandParkCoalition

Dear Friends of Knowland Park,

I was all set to vote for Measure A1, until I met a nice lady at the Lake Merritt farmer’s market. I fell hook-line-and-sinker for the Oakland Zoo’s A1 campaign and their spokescat, “Leonard the Lion.” I explained this to the nice lady who ultimately turned me against the zoo and their expansion project. She proceeded to tell me what I needed to know; that all kinds of critters were going to be displaced by the A1 project. Bunnies, bobcats, skunks, etc. all would be homeless! I skeptically thanked her for the info and snottily told her that my opinion was quite nuanced, thankyouverymuch, but I did have an open mind and would make up my mind before the election. Thank God she got to me when she did. I slept on it and woke up the next morning completely opposed to A1 and its horrible scheme to encroach on these awesome creatures’ rightful home.

So this is a note of gratitude and a sincere apology for my snotty attitude to that nice lady. But also, I hope you guys will do a PR campaign to educate people about Knowland Park. I had seen your “Save Knowland Park” signs and I totally scoffed at them. “Save Knowland Park” is not a good tagline, sadly. I envisioned a little kids playground with seesaws and swings. I dug my heels in and hoped you would be defeated (sorry L). I have since come around, but only because Nice Lady got to me at the Farmer’s Market. I am not alone; my friends who I spoke with about this also were clueless about Knowland Park.

When you’re up against Leonard the Lion, you really need to bring it. So if you find yourselves in this unsavory position again, I would suggest a new tagline that tells people like me what is really at stake. Something like, “Save the Knowland 500-acre wild animal habitat and nature preserve.” You may need to shorten it to, “Save Knowland Wildlife Preserve.”

Perhaps you should fight fire with fire and anthropomorphize that pretty little fox pictured on your mammals page:

“My name is Felicity Fox and I need your help! Please help me keep my home so my babies can thrive…”

“This is my baby Kip with his BFF Scooter the Skunk; please help them keep their home!”

A million thanks and my sincere apologies for almost voting for A1.

Your friend for life,
Mary Swift
Technical Writer

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Welcome Baby Knowland!

By admin on November 12, 2012 in Opinions & Editorials

We hear a baby was born in a car very near Knowland Park and the parents have named it Knowland (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-police-help-deliver-baby-in-car-4026459.php). Congratulations! We hope that in a few years, little Knowland will still be able to run, play and explore the beautiful natural park he or she is named after! And that decades hence, his children will be, too.

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Measure A1 Defeated!

By Ruth on November 7, 2012 in Campaign Updates, Opinions & Editorials

UNBELIEVABLE! We actually pulled it off. Our underdog, ragtag, come-from-behind campaign defeated Measure A1. The zoo will not have more than $100 million of our tax dollars to destroy our beautiful Knowland Park. And that’s a good thing, because the creatures that already live there depend on that habitat. (More about them in a bit.)

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[Guest Blog] Social Justice and Measure A1: “Changing the Face of Oakland”

By admin on October 24, 2012 in Oakland Politics, Opinions & Editorials, Uncategorized

“[The project] totally changes the face of the zoo, it changes the face of Oakland.”*

Those are the words of Zoo Director of Strategic Initiatives Nik Dehejia when speaking of the Oakland Zoo’s expansion plans for Knowland Park. What can it possibly mean to “change the face of Oakland”? To understand that, we have to take the expansion plans as well as ballot Measure A1 in their larger context. This includes the history of how taxes have changed over the years. Right after WW II, US corporate taxes equalled over 5% of the total economy (the GDP). By 2009, they had shrunk that to just 1%.
(source: http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=263)
In California, we have seen a similar process, as total corporate profits increased in the state by 485% from 2001 to 2010 but their tax liability only increased by 58.3%
(Source: http://www.cbp.org/pdfs/2012/120413_Who_Pays_Taxes.pdf)

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