Will the Jackson Zoo and Livingston Park experience a rebirth? Such might happen if city officials have their way.
Jackson Chief Administrative Officer Pieter Teeuwissen announced at a press conference Friday the city will issue a request for proposals to make the 115-acre Livingston Park a destination similar to "Lefleur's Bluff and the Children's Museum."
The CAO was not wearing rose-colored glasses as he recognized the changing nature of the zoo. The collection shrank from 338 animals in 2018 to its current population of 114 animals. "We envision a different footprint that is smaller and more modern. We will use more cost efficient animals such as reptiles and birds," said Mr. Teeuwissen.
"We plan to evaluate the animals we have and determine what is the right mix of animals that is cost-effective," he continued.
The Mayor's right-hand man said the park is "a valuable asset to Jackson" worth saving. It is a historical property with eight structures designated historical landmarks. One such structure is the Elephant House. Although it no longer houses elephants, it could be a "historic elephant house and used for something else, said Mr. Teeuwissen.
The water leaks at the zoo have been fixed save but one, the notorious leak at the Monkey Island moat. The source of the leak has not been determined.
Deputy Director Von Anderson said the RFI (request for information) will ask how to "take 120 acres in the middle of an urban area and turn it into a family event." The focus will be more on the park than the zoo. 30-40 acres of Livingston Park can be used to create a super park designed for families.
The park is approximately 115 acres. The zoo comprises half of the acreage.
"Attendance at the zoo will increase if there are more amenities. Right now we just have the zoo and some space," said Mr. Teeuwissen. He said the administration wants to dredge the lake and make it suitable for kayaks and paddleboats. The lake will be stocked for fishing.
The zoo is unaccredited. It lost its Association of Zoos and Aquariums accreditation ten years ago and the Zoological Association of America as well. The Chief Administrative Officer downplayed their loss, arguing kids don't ask about accreditation. However, the lack of accreditation means the zoo can not exchange animals with other zoos while making it harder to purchase animals for its collection.
29 comments:
"We will have more modern and cost efficient animals"
LOL!
"My mama always told me that miracles happen every day. Some people don't think so, but they do". Forrest Gump
There needs to be a grant for studying Quigley's Castle, outside Eureka Springs. My Fayetteville cousins love to regale us with the wonders of Quigley's Castle. "The Tour Guide showed us an exotic bird, and a tropical plant! ...a Parakeet and a Philodendron."
This wonder of the Ozarks popped into my mind, when I read the above plans for the Zoo. Definitely, studying Quigley's Castle would give Zoo Boosters ideas for cost-effective ways of stocking the revivified Zoo with fauna and flora.
Hope springs eternal. At least Horhn got the hiring of the CAO right. Pieter is a stand-up dude who genuinely cares about public service.
Is Teeuwissen neglecting to count the flies, roaches and rats as exhibits? However, his idea to stock the lake for fishing may be productive and fun for nearby residents. A continuous seawall and flocks of aquatic birds including exotic ducks makes running and walking interesting in Austin TX. So perhaps demolish the zoo and build a fitness and fishing park, with high quality barbecue park-grills, set in concrete, that cannot be stolen. That could provide true recreation and family fun, unlike a rotted zoo.
This is a sensible way to move forward.
Everyone that would actually take their family to this area if a renovation is done please raise your hand. Putting yourself in high risk situations that are easily avoidable is how very bad things happen.
It’s really not a bad idea. The reduction in size would leave plenty of room for the future site of Bennie T’s congressional library….
Move the zoo to Fondren.
@11:29 He doesn't know crap about running a zoo. He is a politician- lawyer.
They have to fix the lawless area on the drive in and the behavior of the residents if they want anyone out of the immediate area to visit. Nice buildings and amenities don’t matter if the other attendees ruin the experience with hood antics.
Nobody steps up to redevelop the park without a massive infusion of public tax dollars that red ink Jackson doesn't have.
There's going to be a property tax increase next budget year. Bank on it.
The park is actually a nice piece of land. The area around it not so much. Is there a way to include the Golf Course with the Park?
I love going to a zoo. Always have. Memphis and New Orleans are fantastic. But the last time I took my son to ours was over 10 years ago. I did not enjoy being on alert as I drove there. I felt bad for some of the animals as their exhibits were small and in disrepair (to put it mildly). I believe that if it is not relocated somehow, the only sensible course of action is to shutter it. Maybe the "cost-effective animals" is a viable option, I don't know. But anything else is just a band-aid, putting lipstick on a proverbial pig.
Again, name a non-personnel decision Horhn has made where the incompetent Lumumba wouldn't have made the same one.
Its only a bit over 3.5 miles from the Woodrow Wilson exit to the back of the zoo and the golf course. Would be really neat if we could clean up the corridor and tie that area with the museum district. Of that stretch, only a bit over a mile needs redevelopment as the land from the railroad tracks back to I-55 is populated with Ummc, the VA, Millsaps, the Stadium, etc.
Close the zoo!
Stocked for fishing, you say!
Have you ever noticed the number of Jackson's street walkers, bike riders, intersection solicitors, and porch lounger types who congregate on the Trace and every other fishing hole in the area...leaving worm boxes, styrofoam, dead minnows, stink bait, chicken livers and assorted trash in their wake?
Next, we'll read that a group of Iranians are being hired to oversee 'goat island'! And you know damned well where that's headed!
KF, you note (as reported recently with an inventory) that the current zoo population of "exhibits" is 144 +/- but my memory of your inventory showed that almost two-thirds of those 'exhibits' are smaller than the palm of one's hand - insects, butterflies, etc. True, that's what CAO PT said was going to be the focus in their proposed downsizing, but its going to take an imaginative mind to consider exhibits of these items a "zoo" ; most people when headed toward such an establlishment expects to see large animals, things that aren't naturally occurring in their backyards, you know "lions, and tigers and bears - oh my" type things.
But no, Hohrn - just like Baby Chock - can't stand in front of 'his people' and enjoy the benefits of a good Powdermilk Biscuit and "do what needs to be done" - close this relic and move on. While the idea of trying to figure out a productive use of the 120 acres is ok if the city had some money to do it, right now there are much more important parts of this disfunctional city that need to be addressed, and Pieter's talents and available time are getting stretched to the limit.
Day'um ... seems I have a new Jackson Zoo in my backyard.
Plenty of "cost efficient animals such as reptiles and birds" live there.
(A plethora of birds, squirrels, toads, tree frogs and the occasional snake and armadillo. Along with deer during late Fall).
This is the beginning of a long overdue transition of Livingston Park from an absolute failure of a zoo park into a workable neighborhood park with amenities the city can actually afford to maintain. It can be done if the politicians don't trip over their own feet.
@12:48, Other than a very active rail dividing the properites. Nah. What could happen? It worked for the Hackensack Bulls after all.
What about the Hico area? That property is 2-3 times larger (current zoo as well as LeFleur) and not quite so deep in the ghetto for whitey.
3:09 Tell me how to get to Hico without going deep thru the ghetto.
Tell ME, please, how to even find PICTURES of Lake Hico! Over a decade back, I did an image search, and, first-up, was the muscular chest of a local former swinger/bodybuilder (but no Lake Hico pics, at all...).
The chest shot was interesting, though. He was holding a big Cross, with varnish dried in drips. His nipples showed signs of extended abuse (he'd have been very popular, on the Rankin County Homeowners' Associations Circuit: definitely up to Laurelwood HOA standards...). And this led to his blog, filled with pics of him looking hot, in tight jeans and a wifebeater, on a motorcycle, whilst thinking about Jesus, and other bizarre bits of narcissistic-and borderline-blasphemous virtue signalling. And this led to his connections to a local Liberal powerhouse and prominent family, and an amazingly-funny and widely-reported court case involving swingers in Vicksburg, and a motorcycle club, and...
...but no photos of Lake Hico, except pics of the aftermath of a shootout or murder or gangfight in a "recreational area" adjacent the lake. And this suggests what will probably happen with ANY "family-friendly" area developed within the City of Jackson. The only thing noteworthy, will be the crime.
11:57 and 12:39 from yesterday have stated the obvious. No matter what is done with the zoo, no one with a pea for a brain is going there until the City rids the place of the ever present crime.
Low Maintenance Animal Exhibits...Why don't they just stuff all the remaining animals & get it over with...
Can the public donate snails, worms, wasp nests, mud daubers, ants and termites as low maintenance costs animals to the zoo for exhibit?
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