Discuss Detroit » Archives - March 2009 » Photos of the abandoned Belle Isle Zoo « Previous Next »
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Texorama
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Username: Texorama

Post Number: 354
Registered: 12-2006
Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 5:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2 009/01/where-wild-things-arent .html
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Leannam1989
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Username: Leannam1989

Post Number: 188
Registered: 06-2008
Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 6:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow. Thanks for posting that.
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Gdub
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Username: Gdub

Post Number: 266
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 8:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Now I know what a dead zoo looks like. Complete with empty 40 oz.
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Eastsideal
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Username: Eastsideal

Post Number: 326
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 9:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Nice pictures. A total shame.
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Tripper
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Username: Tripper

Post Number: 5
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 - 9:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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Mallory
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Username: Mallory

Post Number: 323
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 9:44 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The writing was excellent, Texorama. It's just like the rest of Detroit's treasures, just left to rot. Sad.
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Woohoo_postingid
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Username: Woohoo_postingid

Post Number: 1
Registered: 01-2009
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 10:09 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Is that a Shitzu ?
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Hutt
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Username: Hutt

Post Number: 57
Registered: 10-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 10:26 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Perfect Post.
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Bob
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Username: Bob

Post Number: 1247
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 11:42 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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Jjw
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Username: Jjw

Post Number: 550
Registered: 10-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 12:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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Daddeeo
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Username: Daddeeo

Post Number: 465
Registered: 09-2008
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 12:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Look like the rest of the city...neglected.
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Bob
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Username: Bob

Post Number: 1249
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 12:17 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Is reopening it out of the question? I mean there is talk of reopening the aquarium, why not the zoo?
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Davemarc
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Username: Davemarc

Post Number: 166
Registered: 06-2008
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 1:15 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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Eastsideal
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Username: Eastsideal

Post Number: 329
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 3:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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Stikine
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Username: Stikine

Post Number: 7
Registered: 01-2009
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 3:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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!
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Wakeupdetroit
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Username: Wakeupdetroit

Post Number: 45
Registered: 02-2008
Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 7:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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1kielsondrive
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Username: 1kielsondrive

Post Number: 895
Registered: 08-2008
Posted on Friday, February 20, 2009 - 1:13 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Tex, thanks for posting the story and photos. Very sad. I remember it being built and now I've seen it's demise.
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Gralr
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Username: Gralr

Post Number: 76
Registered: 12-2008
Posted on Friday, February 20, 2009 - 11:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

my God another vision lost...shuttin Detroit down
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Silverbeauty
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Username: Silverbeauty

Post Number: 71
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2009 - 1:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What a shame to see that once fine zoo left in ruins. It was a nice zoo, not that long ago.
Sad.
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Elimarr
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Username: Elimarr

Post Number: 94
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2009 - 4:17 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What happened to the crescent moon? Is it there forlorn and shedding it's paint?
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East_detroit
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Username: East_detroit

Post Number: 1968
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2009 - 5:15 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Crocodile tears from inside Hondas driving home from Walmart.
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Detroitjim
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Username: Detroitjim

Post Number: 64
Registered: 02-2008
Posted on Saturday, February 21, 2009 - 5:16 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.

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