So finding new ways to have funding. I think we’ve been actually very successful in that even since I’ve left Cleveland Metro Parks 12 years ago as director, they’ve done some incredible things. Built a nice party center, it provides the revenue, they have weddings there and everything and I… Read More
And, and I don’t have any, we may get into this, I don’t have any objection to rides as long as they don’t distract some zoos that the, the rides distract from the animal experience. In other words, you look at this beautiful giraffe exhibit behind them, you see, you… Read More
What do you feel are the issues you’d like to see zoos address?… Read More
The, the, the teamsters really didn’t have issues. But, you know, occasionally you had somebody, we had an alcoholic that wasn’t doing their job or whatever, we had to had to terminate ’em. So that employee issues are never easy. But I found out like anything, like any, I suppose… Read More
Well, I think they gotta keep doing what they’re doing. We have to keep increasing our funding to field conservation. We will always have, you know, an issue with, with, I don’t like to use the word surplus, but I don’t know how, what other term is good for, if… Read More
Could we always use twice as much funding? Sure. But again, both the zoos where I was director, we were able to greatly expand the zoological society’s ability to raise funding. And that that was one of the ways we could get some of the things we we wanted to… Read More
Was there ever enough funding?… Read More
You know, they kind of big guys and bad suits that would come in and be the big gorillas and, but I got along with them. Okay. Not because I was, I wasn’t really the head person. ’cause Metro Parks had their own labor attorneys that did a lot of… Read More
So those were always a concern and, and there’s a lot of people besides me that were involved. So, but you know, building zoo exhibits is not like building a home where you, you’ve got a lot of blueprints that are the same. Every zoo exhibit is different. So you… Read More
You know, we had stable funding. Did we have enough funding?… Read More
No. I always wished we could have had more funding. But over my years in Cleveland we increased that greatly and we increased admission fees. And even in, when I was in Sacramento, one of the ways we were able to increase the staff or get a better professional staff… Read More
Yeah, what, what caused you the most concern during your career?… Read More
I don’t know that there was something that caused me the most concern. Certainly, you know, you always have some issues with governance. You obviously have some instance for fundraising. You always have issues with construction. You know, I was involved in all the construction, but you know, we had… Read More
The most concerns, huh?… Read More
What issues caused you the most concern during your career and how do you see the future regarding those type of concerns?… Read More
Rest, obviously clean restrooms. One of my fame, claims of fame. I think one of the things I’m most proud of, I created six new restrooms in our zoo in Cleveland. So, you know, I can take some credit for guest services. But yeah, I think people see that and… Read More
Oh, I most certainly, you know, probably Disney and other places that, that did it well for way before zoos did it will probably effect that. Yeah, I think when they come to any quote attraction, which is zoo is an attraction, they expect better things and, and now we… Read More
That’s maybe a little extra for your question, but that’s some of it. Okay. You were talking about visitors and and attitudes. Read More
Do you think there’s a higher attitude for amenities with visitors that they’re demanding more?… Read More
But you, you have to explain, you can’t have everything. So I don’t think they have much more expectations around that. That’s the general public. There are people that are great zoo people. So when they come they wanna see specific things or they’ve heard about your zoo because you… Read More