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Brother, Can You Save a Park?

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:35 AM CDT

(Newser) – Cash-strapped California parks are searching for private money to cope with the state's sweeping budget cuts, the Los Angeles Times reports. Up to 100 of California's 279 state parks and beaches could be forced to close after Labor Day. Just 13 of them make enough money to survive without state funds, and officials hope to find corporate sponsorship deals that won't destroy the parks' character.

"Maybe we can find agreements that don't alter, commercialize or degrade our state park system," said a parks department spokesman. "If Budweiser came forward with money for Malibu Beach State Park, we wouldn't change the name to Budweiser Beach. But why not put up a banner saying, 'This park is kept open by Budweiser?'"

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Visitation at Bodie State Park "is seasonal and it does not generate enough revenues to fully fund the cost of keeping it open," officials say. (©Ekke Vasli)

California's Bodie State Park, one of the best-preserved ghost towns in the country, is classed as vulnerable under budget cuts. (©mandj98)

The Save Our State Parks Campaign holds a demonstration outside the California State Capitol last month. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

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We're reaching out to all possible partners—cities, counties, nonprofits, banks, corporations, newspapers, individuals—who would be interested in helping us.
- Roy Stearns, spokesman for California's parks department

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 4 comments

armywife

Jul 30, 2009 10:16 AM CDT

yeah, all those new deal programs like the WPA, the TVA, the SEC, the FHA, the FDIC, the SEC, Social Security, the Emergency Banking Act, which restored faith in the banking industry, the Fed. Emergency Relief Admin and the Civilian Concentration Corps and the Civil Works Admin - which all gave people jobs and income to bring back their self-esteem, the Natl Labor act and the Fair Labor act which gave americans weekends and took children out of factories, and the PWA, which oversaw the distribution of funds for all these programs - complete and utter failures, every one. *insert sarcasm here* did some programs not work as planned? sure, like the Agricultural Adjustment and the Industrial recovery act. no one bats a home run every time. are we having trouble with some of these programs now? yes, but you can't say they "didnt work" because they worked quite fine for over 60 years, which is pretty good. and some of them would still be working fine if we hadnt been acting like idiots with our money for the past 20 years.

bewilderbeast

Jul 30, 2009 9:42 AM CDT

Where are the filthy rich who made their fortunes from Greed Capitalism? Gates? Buffet? Murdoch? Trump? etc Why don't you guys do something that actually will leave a decent legacy?

Mad

Jul 30, 2009 8:10 AM CDT

OMG, Fox spewed that lie, didn't they? I mean, no legitimate agency would dare breathe such a damn lie. Cite your source for such nonsense

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