Detroit Zoo

Is anyone paying attention to the flap over control of the Detroit Zoo? Both the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News have been covering the story on a daily basis, and some of the posturing has become quite ugly.

Desiree Cooper today in the Free Press has some common sense observations about the city of Detroit and its current state.

On a personal note, I went to the Detroit Zoo four years ago with my chilren. It was not a good experience and we left very disappointed. We were treated rudely by the ticket taker, found the park dirty and smelly, and discovered that the park itself was laid out so poorly that many of the animals were obscured from view by topography and general layout. This was very disappointing because our previous zoo visit at the Fort Worth Zoo, though located in a much smaller city, was many times the Detroit zoo's superior. It was clean and friendly and had the added bonus that the animals could actually be seen!

That is not to say that the Detroit zoo didn't have its positives. The gardens were beautiful and there were a number of areas that we saw were being upgraded so we were hopeful that our next trip would be more enjoyable. Also, the Penguins rocked!

I guess I don't care who runs the zoo. The next time I go though I would like the park's employees to treat me like they want me to be there rather than treating me like I'm just another inconvenience standing in the way of their next paycheck.

The people of Detroit deserve better. The people of Michigan deserve better. My kids deserve better.