City budget crunch threatens free local jewel

By Liska Koenig
The Guardsman

The San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum has been open to the public since 1940. Known for its collection of about 100,000 plants, among them more than 300 of which are extinct or endangered in the wild, its special exhibits and individual theme gardens, it remains one of the city’s few free attractions.

Unlike Powell and Market Streets or Fisherman’s Wharf, the garden is not overrun by seedy con-artists or celebrity impersonators, riddled with drug addicts or teeming with mediocre street musicians trying to earn a quick buck.

This world famous garden is much more than a bunch of pretty plants. The arboretum serves as a resource for locals and tourists alike.

Spread out over 55 acres, the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society offers educational walks, teacher workshops, and special events for school children and the general public. More than 23 carefully planted gardens like the Redwood Grove, the Garden of Fragrance and the Japanese Moon-Viewing Garden awaken the interest of even the most casual visitor.

However, anyone who can’t prove residency within city limits might soon have to fork over up to $7 to enter this sanctuary. This is to help curb what could be a record budget deficit for San Francisco — up to $750 million for the 2011-12 fiscal year.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and his posse are channeling the spirits of greedy robber barons and cooking up new schemes to fill the disastrous hole in the city’s budget.

In a communal effort to shoulder the burden, all city departments are expected to contribute. Unfortunately, nature lovers are getting the short end of the stick.

City officials argue these measures are required to keep the area up to par. The annual budget for the garden is $3.2 million, with $1.4 million coming from the city and $1.8 million from the nonprofit Botanical Garden Society. City officials have even threatened to diminish the number of gardeners, according to the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society website.

Brilliant idea — maintaining a landscape as extensive as this is labor and cost extensive — cutting down staff will eventually lead to the deterioration of plants. Charging people hard cash to visit a once-great, but now mediocre garden is a surefire way to turn the this local gem into just another San Francisco tourist trap.

Alternatively, volunteers could be recruited to help with the daily challenge of maintaining such an extensive collection of plants. This would keep the cost down and possibly eliminate the need to restrict free access to those who can’t afford to pay a fee.

Parks should be free for anybody to enjoy, including tourists or anybody who can’t prove residency in areas with the “right” ZIP code. It is wrong to scare people away from one of the few remaining free city attractions by forcing them to pay a fee. The Japanese Tea Garden and the Conservatory of Flowers already charge admission and it certainly won’t be beneficial to include the arboretum in this line up.

Tourists and visitors provide a major source of income to the city. In 2009 San Francisco had about 4.9 million visitors, who spent more than $7.8 billion of their hard earned dollars here. Hotel taxes alone collected $146.8 million dollars, according to statistics by the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau.

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee — the tourism industry is one of the city’s life-lines. How does it make sense to piss off the people who bring money to the city by inventing exclusive fees to see local attractions?

For more information or to sign a petition to keep the Arboretum free for everybody go to http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org.