Texorama Member Username: Texorama
Post Number: 354 Registered: 12-2006
| Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 5:37 pm: | |
http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2 009/01/where-wild-things-arent .html |
Leannam1989 Member Username: Leannam1989
Post Number: 188 Registered: 06-2008
| Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 6:22 pm: | |
Wow. Thanks for posting that. |
Gdub Member Username: Gdub
Post Number: 266 Registered: 10-2003
| Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 8:54 pm: | |
Now I know what a dead zoo looks like. Complete with empty 40 oz. |
Eastsideal Member Username: Eastsideal
Post Number: 326 Registered: 10-2007
| Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 9:00 pm: | |
Nice pictures. A total shame. |
Tripper Member Username: Tripper
Post Number: 5 Registered: 11-2006
| Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 9:11 pm: | |
Thanks for posting...although the part about the street dogs broke my heart. I live out of state now but still send an annual donation to the Michigan Humane Society...they are up against such incredible odds. |
Mallory Member Username: Mallory
Post Number: 323 Registered: 05-2006
| Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 9:44 am: | |
The writing was excellent, Texorama. It's just like the rest of Detroit's treasures, just left to rot. Sad. |
Woohoo_postingid Member Username: Woohoo_postingid
Post Number: 1 Registered: 01-2009
| Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 10:09 am: | |
Is that a Shitzu ? |
Hutt Member Username: Hutt
Post Number: 57 Registered: 10-2005
| Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 10:26 am: | |
Perfect Post. |
Bob Member Username: Bob
Post Number: 1247 Registered: 11-2003
| Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 11:42 am: | |
This area just looks so ugly to visitor on Belle Isle. Wish they would do something with it. At least knock everything down and return it to a natural state. |
Jjw Member Username: Jjw
Post Number: 550 Registered: 10-2005
| Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 12:09 pm: | |
Maybe they can knock it down and put up another parking pad. I mean, that seems to be the thing to do on the island. |
Daddeeo Member Username: Daddeeo
Post Number: 465 Registered: 09-2008
| Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 12:16 pm: | |
Look like the rest of the city...neglected. |
Bob Member Username: Bob
Post Number: 1249 Registered: 11-2003
| Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 12:17 pm: | |
Is reopening it out of the question? I mean there is talk of reopening the aquarium, why not the zoo? |
Davemarc Member Username: Davemarc
Post Number: 166 Registered: 06-2008
| Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 1:15 pm: | |
The turned the nature center,into a "nature zoo".My parents where docents(tour guides)for the Detroit Zoo.They where one of the few that would do tours at the BIZ.It was a great zoo back in the day. |
Eastsideal Member Username: Eastsideal
Post Number: 329 Registered: 10-2007
| Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 3:25 pm: | |
It was wonderful when I was a kid. I learned so much there and had such good times with my family and friends. It was still wonderful when I went several times to the "new" zoo with its high boardwalk over the large enclosures. I always saw fascinated kids enjoying the place and watching and learning about the animals. Just like our absolutely deplorable DPS, and, of course, the shuttering of the Belle Isle Aquarium, it's stuff like this that shows - despite all of the endless gabbing to the contrary - how little respect and care the people who run our city actually have for the children who live here. They're really the well-dressed equivalent of so many crackhead or alcoholic mommas. So addicted to their little hits of graft that they can almost completely ignore the effect their actions have on kids. |
Stikine Member Username: Stikine
Post Number: 7 Registered: 01-2009
| Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 3:52 pm: | |
Great story, sad pictures, even sadder history. THe continued line of bs from Kwame makes me still sick to my stomach. The Belle Island Zoo was pricey to maintain but should have been kept open. So should the Belle Isle Aquarium. It will never come back,....even the fountain is being vandalized. Is Bing the answer? Hendrix? This stranglehold that the council still wants on Cobo is non-sensical. Let other people have a say in our city. WE NEED Help! We have lost so much character and treasures,...whether it be buildings, institutions or people. It is time to let others make decisions,......sorry. Those pictures really made me want to rant! |
Wakeupdetroit Member Username: Wakeupdetroit
Post Number: 45 Registered: 02-2008
| Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 7:09 pm: | |
If memory serves correctly former mayor Kilpatrick closed the Belle Isle Zoo in 2002 citing the city's $75 million budget deficit as the reason.He did this despite city council insistnace that it remain open. City council overrode his veto and freed up $700,000 to reopen the zoo. In that year's November election 88 percent of Detroit voters approved a ballot initiative to reopen the zoo. Kilpatrick, ignoring both the council and the citizens, closed the zoo and shipped the animals off.He called the move 'temporary'. The city council then ordered,by resolution if I'm not mistaken,Detorit Zoo director Ron Kagan(sp?) to reopen the zoo with the money that had been set aside. Kagan decided to ignore the resolution. Kilpatrick,in his infinite 'wisdom',used money appropriated for the reopening of the zoo to fund a “Nature Center” on the most remote and unvisited part of the 982-acre island, including $1 million for a brand new enclosure for the island's dwindling herd of 20 fallow deer. |
1kielsondrive Member Username: 1kielsondrive
Post Number: 895 Registered: 08-2008
| Posted on Friday, February 20, 2009 - 1:13 am: | |
Tex, thanks for posting the story and photos. Very sad. I remember it being built and now I've seen it's demise. |
Gralr Member Username: Gralr
Post Number: 76 Registered: 12-2008
| Posted on Friday, February 20, 2009 - 11:40 pm: | |
my God another vision lost...shuttin Detroit down |
Silverbeauty Member Username: Silverbeauty
Post Number: 71 Registered: 11-2005
| Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2009 - 1:21 pm: | |
What a shame to see that once fine zoo left in ruins. It was a nice zoo, not that long ago. Sad. |
Elimarr Member Username: Elimarr
Post Number: 94 Registered: 09-2007
| Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2009 - 4:17 pm: | |
What happened to the crescent moon? Is it there forlorn and shedding it's paint? |
East_detroit Member Username: East_detroit
Post Number: 1968 Registered: 11-2003
| Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2009 - 5:15 pm: | |
Crocodile tears from inside Hondas driving home from Walmart. |
Detroitjim Member Username: Detroitjim
Post Number: 64 Registered: 02-2008
| Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2009 - 5:16 pm: | |
Until a few years ago the Belle Isle zoo was run by The Detroit Zoological Society(same as 10&woodward). When the Royal Oak zoo emancipated itself from the City of Detroit, the city folk made them swap the BI zoo for the BI Nature Center. |