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
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
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
Yeah, what, what caused you the most concern during your career?… 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
The most concerns, huh?… 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
Do you think there’s a higher attitude for amenities with visitors that they’re demanding more?… 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
They, some people don’t. A big zoo has two problems or what has a a, it’s a good thing and a bad thing. A big zoo has a lot of space for animals. But some people don’t like to walk a lot. So sometimes you have to have public transportation… 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
When I got to Cleveland Metro Park Zoo, we had two carnies that ran. One ran the gifts and one ran the food. One was a, a very decent man and he, he would give, you know, inner city kids would kind of come in his shop and he’d give… Read More
And I think in, in, in, depending on how you market the zoo, if, if it’s a big zoo in it’s market, they will, they wanna see a lot of different animals. They might have their favorites, you know, where are the polar bears or whatever. So, you know, but… Read More
So where are the polar bears?… Read More
Oh, visitor attitudes. Well, I, I, they probably expect more. I mean, again, maybe the animal welfare community has something to do with that. They don’t expect to come to a zoo to see cages. If you ever watch the, the zoo, I love Jim Hanney and his zoo program… Read More
At least adults don’t expect that to see that anymore. So they, they wanna, they want, they wanna feel that the animals are well taken, taken care of. Now some people will just see, no matter how big the exhibit is or whatever, they’ll overreact. Oh, they don’t have, you… Read More