Balboa Park History 1984
January 2, 1984, San Diego Union. B-1. San Diego gets the Philly flavor
January 2, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Mummers the word in Balboa Park
January 3, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-2. Two transients charged in death of man
January 3, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Letter, Richard Amero: Editorials on park do not show insight
January 5, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-12. Letter, Jeff Stickney: Transport crucial in new park plans
January 7, 1984, San Diego Tribune, C-2. Letter, Michael Suozzi, Hillcrest. Fan of San Diego deplores its growth.
Balboa Park is the jewel of this city. You have allowed it to be crisscrossed with freeways, pockmarked with golf courses, chopped up for Navy hospitals, dried up by parking lots and eaten up by private developers. When are you going to wake up?
The park is under attack by the developers and other enemies of the public interest. No more parking areas, no more access roads, no more golf course, no more building in the park and not one more square inch of park ;and must be touched by anyone. Vagrants are not the enemies of the park. The fat, overfed and predatory characters in three-piece suits with an eye to grabbing up public land are the criminal enemies of this park and of this city.
January 10, 1984, San Diego Tribune. Leisure-1. A day in the park — what’s going on?
Just about everything, by Nancy Cleeland.
It is an 1,100-acre playground, a green belt through the heart of San Diego. On sunny weekends, thousands of visitors stroll along the walkways of Balboa Park, past the elegant Spanish colonial buildings of the Prado, past gardens, fountains, courtyards and reflecting pools.
Museums describe the physical and cultural history of human beings, and explore
But there is much more going on in the 115-year old park, so much that no one person can keep track of it all. “That would be a full-time job,” said Park Manager Dave Seyfarth. “Someone would have to bird-dog all these groups to make sure they sent in their activities.”
For instance, competitive sorts can find tournaments in golf, tennis, Frisbee golf, horseshoes, shuffleboard, lawn bowling, petanque (a French game similar to lawn bowling), boccie ball (an Italian variation of the lawn game), roque (similar to croquet), archery, badminton, table tennis, chess, bridge, volleyball and basketball.
Nature lovers can see what the original shrub-covered park was like, while searching out native plants and animals on a guided hike through Florida Canyon. These free hikes are led by volunteers from the Natural History Museum every Sunday at 2 p.m. Trails, which begin near the Morley Field tennis courts, are clearly marked and are open at all times.
Another look at the park’s plant life – one not limited to the native varieties – is led periodically by horticulturist Dale Ward. During the two-hour walks, which start at Alcazar Gardens, Ward identifies plants, traces their biological history, and covers some of the park’s history. For instance, he might point out a tree planted by Kate Sessions, one of the park’s original boosters.
Ward normally charges $4 per person, but during January his walks are free. The next will be held January 21, starting at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Walkabout International, a non-profit walking group with a full schedule of walks around the city, periodically leads special interest walks through the park, usually at no charge. February 4, the group will feature a four-hour behind-the-scenes walking tour of the zoo, starting at 8:40 a.m.
Looking for something more strenuous? Balboa Park is the setting for many competitive and recreational runs, often listed in the Leisure Calendar. The next, a 6-1/2 mile run, is set for next Tuesday at 5:45 p.m., starting at the Federal Building. Fee is $1.
Three measured cross-country running courses start from the Morley Field Sports Complex, where runners will also find a two-mile jogging trail with a Fitness Parcourse (18 exercise stations).
Bicycle races and races often begin or end in the park. For those just starting out, Dick Quivey of the American Youth Hostels bicycle club leads a “vascular bike ride” every Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m., starting at the Organ Pavilion.
More advanced cyclists might want to try the banked track at the Velodrome, also at the Morley Field complex. Free and open to the public daily, the Velodrome hosts amateur races Friday nights from April to October.
A popular 18-station disc golf course, played with Frisbees rather than golf balls, is set up along Pershing Drive in the Morley Field Complex. Games are open and free. And an archery range in the same area has nine targets available for public use, with tournaments held each Sunday.
There is more, much more in the Pan American Plaza area. The Federal Building contains a weight room, open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, at $6 per month, or $1 per workout; open badminton nearly every day when tournaments are not held; and open volleyball Monday and Wednesday evenings. For inspiration, players can watch the U.S. Olympic Volleyball team practice in the same building nearly every morning from 8 to noon.
The gymnasium hosts open basketball from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Open table tennis games are played every Wednesday evening at 7:30 in the Conference Building.
Also in the plaza area, an adventurous soul can find exotic new hobbies, from folk dancing to bagpipe playing, with only a small amount of effort.
An information center in the House of Hospitality, on the Prado, issues a monthly calendar of museum exhibits and entertainment. Also available there are maps of the Cultural Recreation Area in the park center, and of the Morley Field Sports Complex, showing where 16 athletic events are held.
The center is busy every day of the week, with 100 to 200 visitors in an average afternoon, and many of the curious are locals. “You’d be surprised,” said volunteer staffer Bob Huff. “Most of them have a general idea of the park, but they don’t know any of the specific things going on. They’re usually amazed when they find out how much there is here.”
January 10, 1984, San Diego Tribune, Leisure-1.
Balboa’s rock pile has turned into a gem — municipal golf course, by Frank Macomber. The Balboa municipal golf courses, which could be moved under a long-range park development plan, have a long and colorful history liked to the growth of San Diego (illus.).
Today the 18-hole Balboa layout is a huge patch of green rolling hills and valleys in the center of San Diego and one of the most conveniently located layouts in the area. Adjacent to it is the shorter nine-hole course.
From the air, they appear to be an emerald with surrounding San Diego the setting of a beautiful ring.
It was not always that way. In the early 1920s when the city fathers decided the town should have a public golf course, people called the Balboa Municipal course “the rock pile.”
And indeed it was to some extent. Excavating machines and workmen carved the layout from the rocky canyons bordering Pershing Drive on the west and north and the residential districts on the east and south. Golden Hills was one of these.
The original municipal layout was fashioned from what is now part of the short nine and land to the north, recalls Harry McCarthy, head pro at Balboa for the past 27 years. While he wasn’t here when the course construction started, McCarthy has pieced together most of its history, aided by people such as Ethel Johnson, George Waldram and Les Larsen.
“Back in the ‘20s, Balboa had no grass, and that resulted in the ‘rock pile’ label,” said Johnson. “And what is now the 16th hole in the big course used to be called the ‘hog’s back,’ because of the ridge that ran between canyons on both sides.
The course was turfed in the early 1930s, McCarthy said. The par 5, No. 18 is called “Cardiac Hill” because its fairway climbs from the valley to just below the hilltop clubhouse.
Johnson remembers also that in the late 1930s holes on the back nine bordering Pershing Drive had to be revamped because too many errant golf balls were sailing into the street. Some of them found the windshields of passing cars.
So a par 3 and par 5 were changed to two par 4’s, allowing golfers to aim their shots farther left and away from Pershing Drive.
A veteran golfer herself, Johnson vividly remembers the early days of World War II, when Slammin’ Sammy Snead, then already a golfing legend, walked the fairways of Balboa as a Navy enlisted man assigned to instruct senior officers in how to strike the ball properly.
Johnson was playing with Snead on October 2, 1943, when he shot 28-32-60 at Balboa to set a record that likely never will be broken. The scorecard hangs in the Balboa pro shop as a challenge to anyone who dares to try to match Snead’s skills on that day.
When Snead shot a 60, the course measured 6,187 yards for a par 72. Today it still is par 72 but only about 5,900 yards.
Balboa Municipal is the site of both the annual Junior World Golf tournament, which brings young contestants here from more than 50 nations, and the annual San Diego County Junior Golf Tournament, sponsored by The Tribune. The local PGA chapter also schedules many of its events at Balboa.
Together, the courses accommodate more than 400 golfers daily, the majority of them senior citizens, especially on the nine-hole layout.
“It would be a great loss to San Diego golfers if Balboa were to be eliminated,” said Johnson, a former president of the Balboa Women’s Golf Club. “It is conveniently located for those who can’t drive long distances and the fees are within reach of the retired.”
Critics of the Balboa course claim it is a money-loser. McCarthy says there are no revenue figures available because money from greens fees is poured into a general recreation fund, to be used for golf and other city-sponsored recreational activities.
Whatever happens to Balboa Municipal, its rich and colorful history will be remembered until somebody breaks San Snead’s record 60, and that’s not likely ever to happen.
January 12, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-10. Letter, Hamilton Marston: Editorials ignore Balboa Park action
The Tribune’s three-day editorial on Balboa Park (December 21-23) neither asks nor answers why to major Navy-city plans to relocate the new Naval Hospital outside the park to appropriate sites adequate to the demands of the future, Murphy Canyon Heights and Helix Heights are to restore 77 acres of former park land to park use were allowed to be frustrated by the opposition of business and labor interests who wanted such superior sites to go to private development.
On December 5, 1980, The Tribune headlined the decision of the secretary of the Navy to place the new hospital in Florida Canyon in Balboa Park, adding: “The decision came as a surprise in light of an earlier Navy study, released November 6, which indicated that using city-owned land in Southeast San Diego would be cheaper and faster.”
The Tribune quoted former Mayor Pete Wilson, who said the decision “makes absolutely no sense based on the recommendations made to me by Admiral Jones (the author of the November study).
“I am completely at a lost to understand this decision in terms of the hospital’s safety and ability to expand.”
Citizens present at the meeting of the City Council on December 16, 1980, saw the council vote: “Be it resolved that the City Council of the City of San Diego hereby urges the president of the United States and the United States Congress to reverse the decision of the Secretary of the Navy.”
Nothing much happened after that.
All the birds of the air
Fell sighing and sobbing.
When they heard the bell toll
For poor Cock Robin.
January 16, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-9. Flight staged for replica of Curtiss A-1 seaplane
January 19, 1984, Memo from Citizens Coordinate for Century 3; to Members of the Park and Recreation Board; Subject: Comments on Pekarek proposals for Balboa Park Master Plan.
January 19, 1984, Statement by Richard W. Amero; to Park and Recreation Department Hearing on the Pekarek Plan for Balboa Park.
January 20, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. Funding plan for park criticized, by Lori Weisberg.
Consultant Ron Pekarek, a landscape architect hired by the city to do a major updating of the park’s existing master plan acknowledged at the outset of the hearing that many of the proposed sources of revenue, including parking fees, increased golf fees and income from new restaurants would prove to be unpopular.
“Conventional funding methods of the past are simply not available to complete the capital improvement,” Pekarek said.
Another large source of revenue could come from the steady growth in the occupancy tax.
January 20, 1984, San Diego Union, B-5. Transient arrested in fatal stabbing
January 23, 1984, San Diego Union, C-1. Balboa Park — ideal spot to catalogue the world
January 26, 1984, San Diego Tribune,, B-1. Twenty two nabbed on park camping charges
January 27, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. Police horse patrol arrests 22 sleeping vagrants in park
February 2, 1984, San Diego Union, B-4. Bea Evenson left $55,625 for Museum of Man.
February 9, 1984, READER, 3:1-5. Up With Acorns, by Neil Mathews
It may look like nothing but an empty, weedy lot now, but in a few more weeks the southeast corner of the intersection of Pershing, Upas and 28thstreets will look like an empty, weedy piece of art. In late December a local group of artists and landscape architects calling themselves the Landmark Art Collaborative planted most of the two-acre site with a combination of wildflowers and indigenous saltbush. As the poppies and the blue lupin and the saltbush bloom, the lot will become an “urban meadow,” in the collaborative’s parlance, the first of many planned for San Diego’s fallow plots of land.
February 10, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Will we see horse riders on Balboa Park trails again?
February 11, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. Four Navy clinic buildings brought in ahead of schedule
February 14, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Balboa Park plan showdown
February 14, 1984, San Diego Tribune, Leisure-1. Table tennis in Conference Building, Balboa Park
February 17, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-10. Letter, Irene Syzdelko: Light the tower
February 17, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. Balboa Park master plan gets limited approval from Park and Recreation Board
February 19, 1984, San Diego Union, C-1. OPINION: Balboa Park attempts to put people purposes first, by Ron Pekarek.
February 19, 1984, San Diego Union, C-2. EDITORIAL: Balboa Park.
In general, we think the Pekarek Plan is a logical extension of the Bartholomew Plan. We do not agree with every specific proposal it contains, and we are particularly concerned about how it can be financed. We do agree generally with this updated blueprint on how to deal with the park’s most pressing problems: Parking and traffic congestion.
February 19, 1984, San Diego Union, C-6. OPINION: Park’s cultural contributions must not be sacrificed, by John D. Thelan, president of the Central Balboa Park Association.
March 2, 1984, San Diego Union, B-9. Human remains found in park
March 2, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-2. Balboa Park hiker finds man’s bones
March 5, 1984, San Diego Tribune A-3. Cities’ Nativity Scenes OK at Yuletide, the Supreme Court ruled today.
March 14, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Balboa Park plan to be aired tomorrow at Park and Recreation Board.
March 15, 1984, Minutes of the Park and Recreation Board. (incomplete)
STAFF RESONSIBILITY: Park Development and Open Space Division
Mr. Smith presented the March 7, 1984 staff report, which recommended that the Board approve the proposed amendments to the adopted 1960 Balboa Park Master Plan, in the category titled “Buildings and Land Use (Controversial).” Mr. Pekarek also made a presentation.
Proposal #1 – Consolidation of Park and Recreation Department offices in Building #29 of the Navy Hospital site.
There was no public input on this proposal
MOTION: Mr. Golden moved approval of the Manager’s recommendation, with the caveat that staff incorporate improvement costs, when the Plan goes forward to Council. Mr. McElroy seconded the motion which carried unanimously.
STAFF RESPONSIBLITY: Park Development and Open Space Division.
Proposal #2 – Relocation of Boy Scout, Girl Scout and Campfire Headquarters and reclamation of these areas for open park land.
The following individuals/organizations spoke in opposition to the proposal:
- Richard Davis – Boy Scouts of America
- Chris Fontana – Campfire
- Jan Madigan – Girl Scouts
- Delza Martin
- Monty Griffin, San Diegans for Park Reform
- Bernadette Donnelly
- Mike Madigan – Boy Scouts of America
MOTION: Mr. Arnhym moved that the Board disapprove the consultant’s recommendation. Mr. Skill seconded the motion which carried by a vote of 10 – 1 (Allen).
STAFF RESPONSIBILITY: Park Development and Open Space Division
MOTION: Dr. Fairlie moved that the Board recommend that the regulations and signing in the area be revised to improve public access. Mr. Skill seconded the motion which carried by a vote of 9-2 (Quinn and Yturralde).
STAFF RESPONSIBILITY: Park Development and Open Space Division
Proposal #3 – Relocate Blind Center on their site or another site in the park.
The item was continued until a future Board meeting at which time transportation issues would be heard.
Proposal #4 – Expansion of Spanish Village
The following individuals/organizations spoke in opposition to the consultant’s recommendation:
- Charles A. McLaughlin, Central Balboa Park Association
- Kirk Butler
- Harry Haelsig
- Veronica Enrique, Centro Cultural de la Raza
- Dunham Reilly, Citizens Coordinate for Century 3
- Eleanore Meadows, Uptown Planners
- Carol Landsman, North Park and Golden Hill Community Planning Groups
- Marilyn Irwin
Ms. Bernadette Donnelly spoke in support of the consultant’s recommendation.
MOTION: Mr. Arnhym moved that the proposal be returned to the consultant to develop a compromise, with economic considerations. Mr. Golden seconded the motion which carried by a vote of 10 to 1 (Quinn).
STAFF RESPONSIBILITY: Park Development and Open Space Division
6:10 p.m. Mr. Sadler left the meeting and did not return. A quorum was still present. Mr. Golden assumed the chair.
Proposal #5 – Construct a bowl/amphitheater in Florida Canyon
The following individuals/organizations spoke in support of the consultant’s recommendation:
- Delza Martin
- Bernadette Donnelly
The following individuals/organizations spoke in opposition:
- Charles A. McLaughlin, Central Balboa Park Association
- George Chapman
MOTION: Mr. Arnhym moved approval of the Manager’s recommendation, with the understanding that consideration would be given to the impact on the Zoo. Mr. Quinn seconded the motion which carried unanimously.
STAFF RESPONSIBILITY: Park Development and Open Space Division
Proposal #6 – Expand food services in the Park to include one additional restaurant at the Prado, two at the Palisades area, a maximum of seven snack bars park-wide, and a maximum of six mobile vending units.
There was no public input on this proposal.
MOTION: It was moved, seconded and carried unanimously to approve the Manager’s recommendation.
STAFF RESPONSIBILITY: Park Development and Open Space Division
Proposal #7. Develop a restaurant at Marston Point.
Ms. Bernadette Donnelly spoke in support of the consultant’s recommendation. Mr. Richard Amero spoke in opposition.
6:30 p.m. Dr. Fairlie left the meeting and did not return. A quorum was still present.
MOTION: Mr. Arnhym moved approval of the consultant’s recommendation. Mr. Skill seconded the motion which carried by a vote of 7 to 2 (Allen and Quinn).
STAFF RESPONSIBILITY: Park Development and Open Space Division
Proposal #8 – Old Navy Hospital redevelopment into a community activities center.
The following individuals/organizations made comments:
- Daniel Marnell, Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association, spoke in support of the consultant’s recommendation.
- James Ard, immediate past President of the San Diego Botanical Garden Foundation, spoke in opposition.
- Kirl Butler spoke in opposition.
MOTION: Mr. Allen moved approval of alternative #2 in the staff report. Ms. Hix seconded the motion which failed by a vote of 7-2 (Allen and Hix).
MOTION: Mr. Arnhym moved approval of the Manager’s recommendation. Mr. McElroy seconded the motion which carried by a vote of 7-2 (Allen and Hix).
STAFF RESPONSIBILITY: Park Development and Open Space Division
Proposal #9 – Establish southeast corner of the Park and Switzer Canyon as open park land; and Proposal #1 – Relocation and reconstruction of golf courses. The following individuals spoke in opposition to the consultant’s recommendations:
- Carol Landsman, representing Uptown Planners, Golden Hill Planning Group, and North Park Planning Group.
- Monty Griffin, San Diegans for Park Reform.
MOTION: Mr. Arnhym moved that these two proposals be returned to the consultant to develop a compromise which would achieve addition open space and, yet, allay community fears regarding thoroughfares. Mr. Skill seconded the motion which carried by a vote of 8-1 (Allen).
ADJOURNMENT.
March 15, 1984, Los Angeles Times, Part V, 1:1-3, 7:1-6. Telling the story of ancient man in San Diego; Doug Sharon, veteran of Peruvian digs, leads museum to greater heights, by Thomas K. Arnold.
March 16, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Zoo, animal park plan parking, concert fees, by Bob Corbett.
For the first time, two of San Diego’s top tourist attractions — the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park — are going to start charging patrons for parking and special concerts.
A $1 parking fee will go into effect April 2 at the park and on May 1 at the zoo, zoo spokesman Jeff Jouett said today.
In addition, he said the free concerts that started last year at the zoo’s Wegeforth Bowl and those which have been given at the park for the past four years will cost $2 per person.
The Wild Animal Park will start charging for the concerts on Memorial Day and the zoo on June 1.
Jouett acknowledged the fees might stir some protest. “We expect some negative reaction,” he said, “but we’ll just have to weather that.”
However, he said, zoo officials and its board of trustees think the fees are justified. The board approved the fees early this year.
The budgets for the two areas, he said, have become restricted in recent years because of inflation and labor costs.
The fees, he explained, are an attempt to make certain aspects of the park’s operations pay for themselves and not cut into the regular operating budgets.
“There are many behind-the-scenes activities,” he said, “that people don’t play for when they come through the gates.” He cited the zoo’s intensive research and breeding programs as examples.
In addition, Jouett said the zoo is planning a multi-level and multi-million garage to be built sometime in the next 5 to 10 years and needs to start saving money for that.
The zoo’s present parking lot off Park Boulevard can handle 3,2000 cars, he said, but is often filled to overflowing. He also noted that it has recently been repaved, restriped and relandscaped. All that money — $400,000 — comes out of the regular operating budget.
The parking facilities at the Wild Animal Park also need repaving. In some places, they need to be paved for the first time.
March 16, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Board backs scouting at Balboa Park, by Rita Calvano.
Members of Scouting groups that have used a portion of Balboa Park for their activities for many years are breathing easier today. The city Park and Recreation Board voted yesterday to keep the camping and other scouting facilities at the park, possibly sparing the groups a move from their longtime site.
March 16, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1. ITEMIZED: For the first time since its opening in 1922, the San Diego Zoo will charge for parking. Beginning May 1, it’ll cost $1 a day in the Park Boulevard lots. (The Wild Animal Park starts charging on April 1). The Zoo’s Jeff Jouett says revenues will fund upkeep and future construction of a multi-level parking garage. And starting this summer, the Zoo and Wild Animal Park will charge $2 a ticket for heretofore free concerts.
March 16, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1. Balboa Park plan returned to architect, by Lori Weisberg.
Opponents of two controversial proposals that would result in an expansion of Balboa Park’s Spanish Village and relocation of its two golf courses won a reprieve yesterday when the city Parks and Recreation Board sent the plans back to the drawing board.
March 18, 1984, San Diego Union, B-8. Three suspects arrested for fatal stabbings
March 18, 1984, San Diego Union, B-8. Babar, 50, is due here for show at Museum of Art
March 19, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1. Leo Calland dies
March 22,1984, San Diego Tribune, B-7. Renewal of golf course restaurant pact urged.
The Public Facilities and Recreation Committee voted 4-0 to authorize a 10-year lease with Early Tobey.
March 22, 1984, San Diego Union, E-1, E-3. St. Francis Chapel in Balboa Park will reopen for weddings, by Eileen Jackson.
March 25, 1984, San Diego Union, B-12. Theater lease update urged.
A City Council committee has recommended approval of an updated lease for the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park that would allow the nearly outdoor Festival Stage to remain permanently in the park.
March 26, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. Zoo, animal park draw protests over new fee plans, by Al Manning (condensed)..
Still, Zoo and Wild Animal park officials plan to stick with the decision.
Most of the people complaining are upset with the new $2 fee for concerts which we be charged in addition to the regular admission prices, Zoo officials said.
Others, including the Zoo’s neighbors in Balboa Park, are concerned about the $1 parking fee.
“We’ve gotten about 100 telephone calls from people who are unhappy,” Zoo spokesman Jeff Jouett said last night..
‘A number of persons signed up (for memberships) with the anticipation of going to a number of free concerts. With the $2 charge, it’s not quite the same bargain.”
Earlier in the year, the Zoo raised its single-day adult price $1 to $5.95 and the Wild Animal Park price $1.10 to $6.95. The annual membership in the Zoological Society, which allows unlimited access to the Zoo and Wild Animal Park is $33.
Meanwhile, mild opposition also is developing on the park issue, but as yet the complaining has not resulted in a formal protest.
Charles McLaughlin, the director of the Natural History Museum, said the $1 parking fee in the Zoo lot may result in parkgoers deciding to park instead in the free lot near the museum.
Institutions located further away from the Zoo lot apparently are less concerned about the possibility of a negative impact.
Jouett said they do not know how the new fee will affect the use of the lot. The spokesman said they are anticipating approximately $600,000 in gross revenue in 1984 once the charge begins May 1, and approximately $800,000 annually thereafter.
However, he said budget analysts are projecting a net loss for the first year of operation because of the cost of installing and purchasing new parking equipment, plus the hiring of additional personnel.
The equipment cost is estimated to be $325,000 and the additional labor, $218,000.
The Zoo eventually may construct a multi-level parking garage, Jouett said.
April 1, 1984, San Diego Union, F-16. The Museum of Man is completing a $60,000 new plaza outside its headquarters in the California Tower Building (illus.).
April 2, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-6:3-5. Reactions to new zoo fees.
Letter, Robert Leffler, San Diego (same letter in San Diego Union, April 9, 1984).
Letter, James Rowland, East San Diego: “I suppose the next step is to charge room and board to the tenants of the hummingbird cage.”
Letter, John S. MacGregor, University City: “I am now curious about may things — how much will the new fees rise, what is the budget for 1984 and do any of the zoo officials have Swiss bank accounts?
Letter, Wayne Moxley, Talmadge Park: “An emphatic no to the sale of beer and wine at the San Diego Zoo.:
April 3, 1984, San Diego Tribune, A-1. Naval Hospital shaping up
April 3, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Zoo needs money from sales of beer and wine to visitors
April 5, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Zoo parking fee request is delayed
April 5, 1984, San Diego Union, B-4. Delay urged for zoo parking fee
The Public Facilities and Recreation Committee, a City Council committee, yesterday voted to request the San Diego Zoo to delay for 60 days its plan to begin charging a $1-per-car parking fee in Balboa Park
Committee members and a representative for other Balboa Park tenants voiced concern that the fee may deter persons who use the parking lot but visit areas other than the Zoo from coming to the park.
April 5, 1984, San Diego Union, B-11. Old Globe spins joyfully, by Welton Jones.
Included in a list of renewed leases for city property (voted by the City Council Tuesday) was a 25-year agreement (with an option of another 25 years) covering the Simon Edison Center for the Performing Arts, which includes the Old Globe itself, the Cassius Carter Center Stage and the outdoor Festival Stage.
April 6, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-10. Letter, Delia Laitin, president Citizens Coordinate for Century 3: Unilateral actions by zoo are cavalier
Two actions, in particular, demonstrate a cavalier attitude toward the opinion of the San Diego community. First, the zoo acted unilaterally to destroy mature eucalyptus trees in the parking lot used by zoo patrons. The second action of the zoo is its recent announcement that it will soon commence charging for the use of that same parking lot.
April 8, 1984, San Diego Union, B-7. Casino night for disabled at Recital Hall, Balboa Park
April 9, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Letter, Peter H. J. Ussell, East San Diego: Zoo puts proverbial boot to paying public.
As a local resident on and off for the past 18 years, I feel that the recent announcement from the officials of the San Diego Zoo is part of an ongoing scam and deterioration of the zoo in the eyes of the zoo-going public, its supporters and all animal-lovers in general. San Diego Zoo used to be an interesting and fun place to visit, but unfortunately over the past several years the same is not true. It has been gradually going down hill by offering fewer animals to see, more and more commercialism for profit, and less and less concern on the park of zoo officials for the public.
I feel that the zoo is relying on its past fame, both locally, nationally and even internationally, to put the proverbial book to the paying public, and the latest move to raise admission fees and charge for parking is really the last straw.
I have also noticed that since the zoo employees have become unionized, they are showing a noticeable lack of interest and care toward zoo patrons They have realized, to the detriment of the fee-paying public, that they get well paid, even if they don’t show interest or concern. Some of them are as rude as they almost dare to be. Probably their higher wages and benefits are one of the direct causes for the higher entrance fees and parking lot charges. Nowadays, the zoo is literally infested with popcorn, soft drink and candy machines at every turn in the road. Gift shops selling overpriced gifts are everywhere. And the eating places charge enough to soak the public.
Those double-decked monster buses parade around in an endless stream, belching out noxious fumes over the visitors and animals alike, causing conditions, especially on hot calm days, that are definitely unhealthy and most aggravating. It is noted that the bears especially are expected to perform and salute as every bus goes past, in exchange for a handout from the driver for the amusement of zoo visitors; cute maybe, but is this what a zoo is supposed to be? Certainly not in my opinion.
Many animals are caged in quarters that are too small for their size. For instance, take a look at that beautiful black leopard near the seal pool; one can see it restlessly pacing a figure eight all day long in an inadequate-sized cage, on cold cement. Also, the lion and tiger areas get little sun, and those wonderful proud animals are obliged to sit and stand on cold cement in quarters not sufficient for their natural needs.
Also, while visiting take a look at the pitiful monkeys “doing time” in cages that look like cells; this is not how animals are supposed to be expected to live. Maybe the San Diego Zoo ought to be renamed the San Diego Animal Prison.
Seems also that a lot of the animal zoo inmates have been moved to the Wild Animal Park near Escondido and, in my opinion, that is where they all should be to enjoy the freedom they are justifiably entitled to.
Maybe the zoo should just be abandoned and covered with blacktop to provide a huge, free parking lot for the users of Balboa Park and not be used as the commercial, ugly and expensive disgrace it is turning into.
April 9, 1984, San Diego Union, B-11. Letter, Robert Leffler, San Diego: “My family has held a zoo membership for over 22 years. Regretfully, we will be considering our next renewal very skeptically.
April 10, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Council refuses Zoo parking fee, by John Gillmore.
For the time being, parking will remain free at the San Diego Zoo.
The City Council refused yesterday to approve a $1-a car fee that the Zoological Society had planned to start May 1.
The council said it wanted a legal review of the zoo’s lease with the city and a report on the effects a parking fee would have on other Balboa Park attractions.
April 10, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Does San Diego need Exposition in ‘90s?
April 11, 1984, San Diego Union, B-9. World’s Fair proposal
April 11, 1984, San Diego Union, B-9. Zoo delays parking fee plan; Council urges new study
April 12, 1984, San Diego Union, B-2. Horticultural walk scheduled in park
April 13, 1984, San Diego Tribune, C-1. “Hawaii” at Fleet
April 18, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-8. EDITORIAL: Zoo needs money — and our support.
When prices go up, it’s natural for people to protest the injustice of it all.
That’s exactly what happened when the Zoological Society’s Board of Trustees boosted membership fees for the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park and (Of all the gall!) announced a $1 charge for vehicles for zoo parking.
The media reported the prices boosts, and people reacted immediately. Several letters of protest were carried in the “Letters to The Tribune” column. No letters of approval were published because none was received.
Perhaps it’s time San Diegans step up and speak out in favor of the board’s decision — and the best way to gain support is to offer facts.
The Town Hall column, appearing today on the next page, explains the society’s position. The column is by Charles L. Bieler, executive director of the Zoological Society. His explanations are convincing.
And there are a lot of San Diegans who are concerned. The Zoological Society of San Diego has more than 250,000 members. The majority of the membership is made up of married couples who pay a dual membership fee each year.
Ten years ago the dual fee was $16. This gave a couple free admission to both San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park for as many times as they cared to attend. It also included two guest passes and a year’s subscription to the society’s magazine ZOONOOZ.
Today, dual membership offers the same privileges. The price has been increased several times since 1974 and now it is $38. This 10-year increase amounts to 138.5 percent — slightly higher than the inflation rate of 127.3 for the same period.
This sort of increase is well within the ballpark. In fact, the society’s dual membership is one of the best bargains in town.
On the matter of parking, the board of trustee’s decision to charge a fee is in limbo. The City Council, receiving numerous complaints about the increase, voted to withhold approval for two months while the city manager’s office studies the matter.
One dollar for all-day parking is fair. It is much cheaper than parking fees at other attractions. It will help the zoo by providing $600,000 each year.
We know the trustees have given the membership fee increase and the parking fee intensive study. We believer their decisions were correct, and we hope the City Council agrees when it make a judgment on the matter in May.
April 18, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-9. Town Hall: The price of excellence, by Charles L. Bieler, executive director, San Diego Zoological Society.
While no one at the San Diego Zoo or the San Diego Wild Animal Park expected to hear enthusiastic “thank-yous” for the new $1 parking charge, $2 summer concert ticket or increased membership dues, the response from some press and public was startling. Misconceptions of how the zoo is run and paid for surfaced with surprising frequency. Many accounts ignored the “why” behind our new fees.
For starters, the Zoological Society of San Diego is a non-profit organization. Non-profit does not mean free and it does not imply cheap. Non-profit groups must pay their bills too. Our non-profit status means the money we take it at the zoo and the Wild Animal Park all goes to operate, maintain and improve these two facilities. No one will get rich on new concert and parking fees, but the Zoological Society may afford to keep up its expected excellence and conservation leadership. A non-profit service is often a value relative to a commercial venture. Admission to the San Diego Zoo or the Wild Animal Park is less expensive than admission to Sea World, for example.
Ruled by cooperative agreements with the City of San Diego, the Zoological Society operates the Zoo and the Wild Animal Park. Taken separately, each location is a world-class zoological garden. The zoo and the Wild Animal Park are each top-drawing cards for the substantial tourism and convention segments of this city’s economy. Taken together, the zoo and the Wild Animal Park represent an unparalleled recreation, education and conservation resource to this community. Running the two campuses for the optimum long-term benefit for all challenges the Zoological Society to succeed with two major business operations on a non-profit basis.
Deciding how the zoo and the Wild Animal Park get and spend money is the duty of the Zoological Society’s board of trustees, 12 community leaders who volunteer many hours to the task. In addition, 120 San Diegans contribute their energies to 12 citizen committees which advise the trustees on specialized aspects of zoo and Wild Animal Park operations. Since its inception in 196, the Zoological Society has been served by generations of San Diegans with the intent and ambition to make the San Diego Zoo and later the San Diego Wild Animal Park, the world’s best zoological gardens.
By wide consensus, their efforts have equaled their goals. Whether in terms of size, number and rarity of animal and plant collection, number of yearly visitors or pure aesthetic value, both the zoo and the Wild Animal Park rate among the biggest and best in American and in the world. Not too surprisingly, the Zoological Society’s expenses are also among the zoo world’s biggest. Our 1984 budget details about $48 million in costs to operate the zoo and the Wild Animal Park. Our sources of income, though, are unlike any other American zoo and our expenses include many essential goods and services not readily apparent to the casual zoo visitor.
Every other major zoo in this country relies on tax support from city, county, state or federal governments for most and sometimes all of their income. In San Diego, we are fortunate our city fathers saw fit to make this Zoological Society self-supporting. The Wild Animal Park was built entirely with revenue generated at the zoo and from private citizens. While the zoo receives some tax support from city of San Diego residents — about $1.3 million in 1984 — the total amounts to only 2 percent of our operating costs. With 137,000 households holding memberships (about 250,000 members), the Zoological Society of San Diego is by far the world’s largest such organization. Our members are a valuable asset, yet membership dues at the new, increased rates account for only 7 percent of the money necessary to run the zoo and the Wild Animal Park. Donations make up another 8 percent of Zoological Society revenues.
More than 75 percent of the Zoological Society’s operating income is paid directly by the people who visit the two zoological gardens. Included in that 75 percent, some 30 percent, more than $15 million, is earned from non-members, directly from admission charges to the zoo and the Wild Animal Park. The guided tours — double-deck buses at the zoo and the monorail at the Wild Animal Park — earn 11 percent of our necessary revenue. A total of 36 percent (nearly $18 million) of income is generated by sales of food, drinks, souvenirs and gifts at the two locations.
The new $1 parking fee collected at the zoo and the Wild Animal Park will account for less than 2 percent of Zoological Society income in 1984. The new $2 charge for summer concert tickets should also generate nearly 2 percent of the Zoological Society’s 1984 revenue. How will these new fees be spent? It is no coincidence that the 1984 cost of operating, maintaining and improving the zoo and Wild Animal Park parking lots takes roughly 2 percent of Zoological Society expenditures. And the money needed to pay performers for the Wild Animal Park’s country and pop music series and the zoo’s big band concert series is about 2 percent of our 1984 expenses. The while idea behind the new parking and concert charges is to allow those persons who use the parking lots and those who attend the concerts to pay for these services.
Costs of operating the zoo and Wild Animal Park in 1984 are not out of line with what would be expected from two major businesses which serve more than 4.5 million customers. Our biggest expense is labor, which accounts for nearly 55 percent of Zoological Society expenditures. About 1,000 people are employed at our two locations, more than at any other two American zoos. General operating supplies and services — everything from the cost of food sold in snack stands to food for animals and costs of gift shop items to employee uniforms and tools — takes another 35 percent of yearly Zoological Society budget allocations. Administration costs (4 percent), facility maintenance (3 percent) and membership services and fulfillment (3 percent) round out the Zoological Society’s annual operating expenditures.
Prices increase at the zoo and the Wild Animal Park for the very simple reason that costs increase. The cost of health insurance, of utilities and of labor rise for this business operation as they rise for all others. To minimize the effect of these increases, we have tightened out belts, found ways to maximize our productivity and sought to add revenue in ways most fair to those who visit the zoo and the Wild Animal Park and benefit from its services. Because the total number of zoo and Wild Animal Park visitors has not risen as rapidly as inflation rates in the last five years, we have had to meet increasing costs with increasing prices.
The average zoo visitor may not realize all the programs and services their payments provide. The hidden costs of maintaining these modern zoological gardens include education programs for all ages, informative graphics and signing, renowned botanical collections, top-notch veterinary care, and security and health care sufficient to serve our millions of guests. We pay for an endangered species research program unequaled at any other zoo and necessary for the future of all zoos and hundreds of threatened wildlife species. Our cooperative breeding programs with other zoos in America and around the world are an expensive item not in San Diego Zoo budgets of yesteryear.
Comparing the price of running the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park to the budgets of other American zoos is a classic apples-to-oranges fallacy. Many other zoos receive labor, maintenance and supplies from the city governments who support them and these costs do not show up on budgets published in World Almanacs. Many contract with outside vendors for gift and foot sales or tour transportation systems again avoiding these costs in zoo budget tallies. Some have education programs separately subsidized by state or local governments. Some have animal collections filled with fish and insects, which are easier and less expensive to care for, but which run up their species counts to bring these zoos close to San Diego totals. Many are outstanding zoological gardens, but almost all are far smaller in size and are visited by far fewer people than the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park.
The price you pay for a day at the San Diego Zoo or the San Diego Wild Animal Park is the price of excellence. Even with a new parking fee and higher membership rates, we sincerely feel a visit here is an educational and recreational value. Our admission prices compare favorably to other entertainment facilities, to sporting events, to theaters and even to moves. San Diego has been justifiably proud of its zoo for 68 years. The zoo and the Wild Animal Park make living here a richer experience for all and we have appreciated the goodwill and support of this community. We hope the critics of our recent pricing changes can understand the demands of our self-supporting financial philosophy and, in time, rejoin the ranks of zoo and Wild Animal Park advocates.
April 18, 1984, San Diego Tribune, C-1. Timken gallery announces acquisition of portrait of Mrs. Thomas Gage by John Singleton Copley for $1.4 million
April 19, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-10. Letter, B. Sherwood, Encinitas: Support greatest zoo: “Come on San Diego. All this fuss over $1. Let’s keep the San Diego Zoo No. 1, help support it and the changes.”
April 25, 1984, San Diego Tribune, A-1. Balboa Park isle of escape in city’s heat, by Rita Calvano.
. . . on a recent overcast morning, (Hamilton Marston) and a visitor embarked on a 1-1/2 hour excursion through park of Balboa Park for a historic review and a look toward the future.
April 28, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. Landmark status seen for Zoo, by Roger Showley.
The San Diego Zoo has a good chance of being declared a national landmark this fall, a National Park Service official said here yesterday.
But James Charleton, A NPS historian, said granting landmark status to the site of the now-demolished Balboa Stadium at San Diego High School is unlikely.
Charleton said he will make his report in July and the U. S. Department of the Interior could act on declaring more national landmarks this fall.
April 29, 1984, San Diego Union, F-2. Look of Spain via Balboa Park . . . bits of Electric Building can be seen on Tablao Flamenco restaurant in Pacific Beach
April 30, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Letter, Steve Kowit, coordinator Animal Rights Coalition, San Diego: Enclosures at zoo termed inadequate.
The real trouble with the San Diego Zoo is not that it has too large a budget, but that too many of its animals live miserable lives in dreadfully inadequate environments.
While money is spent on enhancing the grounds and building new junk-food stands, many animals are forced to spend their lives pacing hopelessly in small cement cages, often with nothing to occupy them but a rubber tire or chain or fake tree — while just out of reach, the grounds are tree-laden, lush green and spacious.
In this ecologically conscious era, zoos like to promise the idea that they’re in the business of saving endangered species. Nothing could be further from the truth. Zoos are directly responsible for the depredation of rare and exotic wildlife, numerous species have been hunted to the point of extinction for the excellent prices paid by American and European zoos.
The Animal Rights Coalition suggests that San Diegans write to the zoo, urging it to spend appreciably more money on creating livable environments for its innocent victims. The day we stop being “amused” by helpless animals pacing in cages will be the day we can start calling ourselves civilized.
May 1, 1984, San Diego Tribune, D-1. Boccie — San Diego’s link to old Italy
May 2, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Zoo parking fee, liquor sales delayed
May 3, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. The Public Facilities and Safety Committee yesterday voted 5-0 to delay a $1 parking fee for the San Diego Zoo until the effect of the new charge on parking and traffic throughout the park can be determined, by Michael Smolens.
The committee said the city also should consider amending the Zoo lease so that fees could be used to pay for a future parking garage.
The full City Council is expected to approve the committee action on Monday.
May 4, 1984, San Diego Tribune, A-32. The Committee of 100 has grown
May 5, 1984, San Diego Union. Mission Day “to win sold for Christ” in Balboa Park next week
May 6, 1984, San Diego Union, F-43. The eucalyptus tree
May 8, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Zoo parking fee deferred as city studies its effect
The council also suggested amendments to the Zoo’s lease with the city that would reduce any future parking fees for zoological society members and would allow for a reserve fund for a future parking structure.
May 8, 1984, San Diego Tribune. Leisure-1. Morley Field archers use modern gear, by John Circle.
May 8, 1984, San Diego Union. B-7. Council votes to block Zoo parking fee plan
May 10, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-2. Slaying of park transient probed
May 18, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Park and Recreation Board votes funds to light up park tower.
Lights will go on again in Balboa Park’s California Tower by about July 1. The city Park and Recreation Board voted to spend $6,500 a year to illuminate the tower, which has been dark for about four years.
Light fixtures rusted out but were not replaced because of a budget crunch, said George Loveland, park and recreation director. But now the budget picture is brighter, allowing for the annual maintenance after an initial installation cost of about $6,000, he said.
May 18, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-8. Balboa Park master plan faces delay
May 20, 1984, San Diego Union, F-51. Cabrillo freeway in Balboa Park
May 23, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Woman killed in van crash into abutment of bridge in Balboa Park
May 23, 1984, San Diego Union, At Ease-2. House of Pacific Relations offers ethnic fair, by Virginia Spiller.
June 3, 1984, San Diego Union, A-3. Senator Gary Hart addresses 1,500 at Balboa Park rally
June 3, 1984, San Diego Union, B-2. Vice President Bush holds rally in Balboa Park today.
June 3, 1984, San Diego Union, E-1. Museums winning rounds by Anne Marie Welsh.
When county supervisors suddenly cut allocations to museums in Balboa Park by more than half last July, no one suspected that this local skirmish in the heated national battle over government funding would become a fight between Babar the Elephant and Mother Goose. Nearly a year later, Babar seems to have won at least half the battle.
June 4, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1. Bob Breitbard, a sports champion in his own way
June 6, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Police make restroom sex raids; more than 30 men arrested in undercover sweeps in Balboa Park, by Jerry K. Remmers.
June 6, 1984, San Diego Union, B-4. Two ‘trolley’ buses begin park run
June 7, 1984, San Diego Tribune, F-6. Baseball exhibit to open at Hall of Champions
June 7, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1. Police park detail boosts gay arrests, by Dick Weber.
June 8, 1984, San Diego Union, B-11. Letter, Barbara A. Smith, El Cajon, saying Balboa Park deserves more attention from County Supervisors than Quail Gardens and a railroad museum in Ramona.
June 10, 1984, San Diego Union, H-8. Hall of Champions opens a new baseball exhibit
June 11, 1984, San Diego Union, B-4. Gift to Aerospace Museum much more than zero
June 12, 1984, San Diego Tribune, C-1. Balboa Park, hub of fun, cultural activity, by Leonard Novarro.
June 12, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. Union-Tribune gives negatives to San Diego Historical Society
June 15, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-5. City gains from park, study says, by Joe Hughes.
Balboa Park has a significant impact on the San Diego economy because it generates city sales and hotel-room taxes, says a report commissioned by the Central Balboa Park Association.
June 17, 1984, San Diego Union, F-43. Sausage tree and Cape chestnut, two rare trees, now in bloom, by Dale Ward.
June 21, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Collection of American Indian artwork at Museum of Man
June 21, 1984, San Diego Union, B-6. Finnish program at park.
June 24, 1984, San Diego Union, F-1. Museum of Man, fit for the finest city, by Roger Showley.
The Museum of Man has embarked on a $10 million building program that even the Smithsonian Institution might admire.
June 26, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Careening car strikes 5 at Balboa Park
June 26, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-5. Balboa Park power goes out
June 28, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. County slashes funds for museums, by Claudia Walbert.
June 28, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1. Supervisors slash funds for museums
July 1, 1984, San Diego Union, F-45. Alcazar Garden in Balboa Park
July 3, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Balboa slashes raise uproar; Eckert, Fordem defend museum fund cuts.
July 3, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. Two county supervisors who slashed park museum budgets, by Carol Sottili.
July 4, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-10. EDITORIAL: Our down-at-the-heel parks.
Long-term maintenance is the key to preserving the parks for decades to come. Since the passage of Proposition 13 such care has suffered from budget cuts. Yet if the city is to maintain its beautiful park system it must act soon before the change to preserve and enhance the beauty of the city’s parks is lost.
July 4, 1984, San Diego Union, At Ease-2. Science Center adds 14 new exhibits
July 5, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-10. EDITORIAL: How to fund park maintenance: create a “Friends of Balboa Park” to fund park maintenance
July 6, 1984, San Diego Tribune, F-5. 32-unit Wilshire development at north end of Balboa Park
July 8, 1984, San Diego Union, F-40. Magnolia and marklamia evergreens in park, by Dale Ward.
July 10, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Letter, Alice Parker: volunteers at rose garden.
July 14, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1, B-3. Manuel Garcia’s plants reflect growing concern for Chicano Park, by Ed Jahn.
July 16, 1984, San Diego Tribune,, B-5. Comment sought on horse trail proposal
July 19, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Japanese garden taking root; Balboa Park lease brings Will Hippen’s 26-year dream closer to reality, by Rita Calvano.
Tomorrow, a 50-year lease will be signed between the Japanese Friendship Garden Society of San Diego and the City of San Diego. The ceremony will be at 11 a.m. in Mayor Hedgecock’s office in City Hall.
July 20, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B10. EDITORIAL: Don’t say ‘neigh’ to park horse trails.
July 25, 1984, San Diego Union, Special Supplement, 2. Museum of Man embarks on a $10 million modernization, by Roger Showley.
July 22, 1984, San Diego Union, H-12. Volleyball training center in Federal Building, Balboa Park, opened June 1981
July 27, 1984, San Diego Tribune, C-1. “Cronus” new film at Fleet Space Theater
August 5, 1984, San Diego Union, F-50. Cycads in Balboa Park
August 5, 1984, San Diego Union, F-1. Hal Sadler, architect, advocates unifying Balboa Park and downtown
August 18 – 26, 1984. America’s Finest City Week.
August 19, 1984, San Diego Union, F-58. Palo verde trees
August 20, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Starlight Bowl awaits $2 million facelift
August 22, 1984, San Diego Union, At Ease-7. Museum of Natural History charge now $3.00 for adults
August 26, 1984, San Diego Union, F-21. Starlight Bowl to be brightened by a new box office-refreshment area, restrooms and aisle lighting and banisters, by Roger Showley.
August 27, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1. Environmental Impact Report may delay park plan a year, by Lori Weisberg.
August 31, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-10. EDITORIAL: Build new library for all people
We have a suggestion that has been shared by individual library commissioners but not formalized into a proposal. Why not locate the library in the old Naval Hospital on the edge of Balboa Park?
September 8, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. Pedestrian struck by a car, killed near Balboa Park
September 11, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-2. Gift to Historical Society
September 12, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-3. New tax law should keep Aerospace Museum flying high
September 15, 1984, San Diego Union, A-1. Police woman slain; 2 officers wounded near Balboa Park
September 15, 1984, San Diego Union, B-4. House of England lawn party September 23
September 16, 1984, San Diego Union, A-1. Two arrested in police shootings
September 17, 1984, San Diego Tribune, A-1. San Diego’s growing Japanese connection
September 18, 1984, San Diego Tribune, A-1. Girl recounts shooting of police officers
September 19, 1984, San Diego Union, A-1. Sad farewell to officers
September 20, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Cinco pleads innocent
September 23, 1984, San Diego Union, F-50. The natal coral tree
September 25, 1984, San Diego Tribune, Leisure-2. Museum of Man to display Indian artifacts
September 28, 1984, San Diego Tribune, D-1. ‘Precious Legacy’ misses mark
September 29, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. House of China to give program October 7
October 1, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1, B-8, B-9. Zoo to get new look over next 30 years, by Gina Lubrano.
A massive redesign will give the San Diego Zoo a totally new look over the next three decades — the park will be organized around climate zones with plants an integral park of each exhibit, transforming the Zoo into an even more lush park that it is today.
“It’s the first time that climate will be considered as a primary basis for organizing a zoo,” said Sheldon Campbell, president of the board of the Zoological Society of San Diego. “It is the climate that dictates what life forms can live in certain areas. There will be a tropical forest, tundra, savanna, and a montane — life zones that run to certain kinds of vegetation and certain species of animals.”
A key element in the project is construction of what Campbell calls “third-generation” zoo enclosures.
The new enclosures will attempt to replicate nature, said Charles Bieler, executive director of the society. They have been used at the San Diego Wild Animal Park in conjunction with geographic zones. At the Zoo however, the enclosures will be used in combination with an arrangement based on bioclimatology — the science that deals with the effects of climate on living matter.
The new enclosures, unlike the cages of the early Zoo and the moated enclosures that make up most of the current Zoo, will be designed to meet the animal’s physical and psychological needs.
“Third-generation (enclosures) and the climatic them go hand-in-hand,” Bieler said.
The changes will be gradual but if before-and-after pictures were to be taken the change at the end of 30 years would be dramatic, Campbell said.
In keeping with plans for a new layout, a study has been conducted of the microclimates throughout the 100-acre Zoo.
“The climate at the Zoo varies,” Campbell said. “It is much colder on the west side, near State 163, which will house the arctic and tundra exhibits. It is much warmer in other areas, where the tropical exhibits will go.”
At present, the Zoo is laid out on a taxonomic basis — the animals are grouped according to type. The new Zoo will “group animals according to the kinds of places they come from,” whether it be desert or tropics or savannas or montanes, Campbell said.
The Zoo already has one major exhibit that is both third-generation and bioclimatic — modeled after a tropical rain forest. The $3 million Heart of the Zoo exhibit was completed in September 1982 and contains an orangutan enclosure, two Siamang enclosures, two types of langurs, or leaf-eating monkeys, and two aviaries.
Two more exhibits, to cost about $1 million are planned for next year. When they are completed, about 20 percent of the Zoo will be organized on a bioclimatic basis, Bieler said.
The first if the $400,000 kopje exhibit, scheduled for completion by the end of the summer. Kopje is Afrikaans (language of the Boers) for upheaval of rocks, Campbell said. The exhibit will depict a transition from montane to savanna. Montane is a region of moist, cool upland slopes below the timberline; savanna is a treeless plain, or a grassland with scattered trees.
The exhibit will include the Pygmy mongoose, the Verreaux eagle, the Klipspringer, a delicate antelope the size of a small dog, the rock hyrax and agama lizards.
From the beginning of planning, consideration has been given to the kinds of plants to be included, Campbell said.
The second exhibit, based on bioclimatic layout and on a third-generation enclosure, will be the Sumatran tiger exhibit. Campbell said the project is expected to cost $600,000 to $650,000. Construction should begin by the end of next summer and be completed by the summer of 1986. It will represent animals found in a tropical forest.
Bieler said Campbell coined the term “third-generation” for the enclosures used at the Wild Animal Park and even at Sea World for the penguin exhibit.
Experience at the Wild Animal Park has shown that animals will reproduce if their environment in captivity is similar to that in the wild, he said. Animals that failed to reproduce at the Zoo, bred successfully at the park in its third-generation enclosures.
The 100-acre Zoo houses approximately 3,200 animals, representing 750 species. The Wild Animal Park has developed only 700 of its 1,800 acres and has 2,200 animals representing 200 species.
Campbell said the Zoo and park are not designed to be competitive and will not be when the new design is completed.
“The park is designed to give a large picture of animals working in groups. The Zoo has a more intimate approach.”
Bieler said third-generation enclosures evolved over the last 10 to 15 years when “the profession realized that our resources for animals were disappearing and if we were going to have animals to exhibit in the future, we would have to be self-sustaining,” with animals reproducing in captivity.
“We assume if we can produce a natural setting, it would be a better setting,” Bieler said.
Dr. James Dolan, curator of mammals, said that in the new exhibits, “Animals will be in a more naturalistic setting and there will be an opportunity for more natural behavior.”
He said, “In captivity, animals live longer because they are provided with medical care and they are always assured of food. It’s not like in the wild.”
Medical care and food account for longevity in captivity, “but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are housed in better conditions,” Dolan said.
The combination of bioclimatic zones and third-generation enclosures is for the “encouragement of natural behavior,” Campbell said.
In the first generation of exhibits, the animals were placed in boxes or pits, he said. “There was no regard for the animals’ psyche.
“With the second generation, the exhibits were more open. It (second generation) characterizes our Zoo — more space, and the public perceives the animals to be more free. The third general will take into consideration the psychic needs and the behavioral needs.”
Campbell said the exhibits will encourage the animals to display their natural behavior, even modified hunting. He said this would be done by using models or decoys, nor real animals to encourage a hunting behavior.
He said that in the case of fishing cats, a stream would be stocked with live fish so that the cats could capture them as they do in the wild. That would be the only instance, Campbell said, in which the use of live animals would be tolerated.
Bieler said the new plan will provide for a “more integrated landscape plan. We will see more landscaping, more greenery in the Zoo that we have today. We will be able to separate the vehicular traffic from pedestrian traffic. We will have better traffic, better crowd control, better distribution of utilities and facilities.”
The bioclimatic layout should give the Zoo a flexibility not possible with a geographic layout, he said.
“Here you design an exhibit for an African monkey, but then you can’t get the monkey anymore. Eventually you lose the theme. You don’t have the flexibility of working with it.”
With a layout according to climate zones, the Zoo will have the ability to place animals and plants that live in a certain climate zone together, no matter their continent of origin.
The Zoo is ready to move with the redesign, but there are two impediments that will spread the project over at least three decades. The primary one is money, according to Campbell, and the need to keep the Zoo open to the public.
“We owe it to the city of San Diego to keep a zoo going, so we have to do it slowly,” he said.
Although organizing the Zoo bioclimatically and using third-generation enclosures should be completed in 30 or so years, Bieler said work to improve the Zoo will never end.
He said the idea contradicts a statement by Dr. Harry Wegeforth, who founded the Zoo in 1916. Before his death in 1941, Wegeforth reportedly said, “Now the Zoo is finished.”
He was wrong, said Bieler.
“Keeping the Zoo fresh and modern is never finished. It’s an ongoing process. I’m certain there will be a fourth and a fifth generation.
He said the future for zoos, although difficult to visualize, probably will evolve around science, perhaps expansion of artificial insemination, embryo transplants, perhaps embryo management.
October 2, 1984, San Diego Tribune, Leisure-1. Aerospace relics recall bygone eras
October 6, 1984, San Diego Union, A-27. Thyssen-Bornemiza collection of American paintings at Museum of Art
October 7, 1984, San Diego Union, E-3. Renaissance at the Timken — Inside and out, by Isabelle Wasserman.
October 8, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Lights go on in California tower . . . and a shining jewel.
The California Tower, long considered the jewel of Balboa Park, will sparkle again next week when its lights go on permanently.
Except for brief periods of experimentation to determine which illuminators cost the least to operate, the tower has been darkened for the past five years — to the dismay of many residents who looked to the tower as a beacon of light in the San Diego night sky.
The tower lights were a victim of the energy crisis and tax-cutting Proposition 12 in the 1970s. But this week, a city crew is expected to begin installing energy-saving light fixtures purchased on the East Coast.
If all goes well, the lights will go back on next week, shining from dusk to midnight, just like the old days.
October 10, 1984, San Diego Union, E-11. Hall of Champions
October 10, 1984, San Diego Union, E-9. Hall of Champions shows Padre films
October 10, 1984, San Diego Union, C-15. Craig Noel will have his day
October 11, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Balboa Park parking has become lots of trouble, car prowls, break-ins in Balboa Park parking lots, by Preston Turegano.
October 11, 1984, San Diego Union, B-13. Film visits old and new Globe
October 11, 1984, San Diego Union,, B-12. Show puts the Timken in ‘Focus’
October 12, 1984, San Diego Tribune, F-1. “Annual” San Diego Art Institute exhibitions improved, still boring
October 14, 1984, San Diego Union, H-15. Natural History Museum exhibits history of decoys
October 14, 1984, San Diego Union, F-32. Fire wheel trees now in bloom at park
October 14, 1984, San Diego Union, K-1. C. J. Paderewski, architect
October 14, 1984, San Diego Union, E-1. ‘Legacy’ raises art questions
October 20, 1984, San Diego Union, B-2. Lost 15 ft. tall bronze statue, call CCC alumni, by Virginia Spiller.
October 21, 1984, San Diego Union, F-62. Chinese flame trees stand out in park
October 25, 1984, San Diego Tribune, E-1. Table tennis issue reflects sad history, by Nick Canepa.
I have been informed that there is a move afoot to expel the San Diego Table Tennis Association — plus 13 other groups — from the Conference Building in Balboa Park.
October 27, 1984, San Diego Tribune, A-1. Mondale calls for ‘justice’ at Balboa Park rally
October 27, 1984, San Diego Union, A-30. Old Globe sign ups extended for community acting workshops
October 29, 1984, San Diego Tribune, A-1. Another Old Globe fire: Outdoor theater destroyed in blaze, by Frank Saldana.
October 29, 1984, San Diego Tribune, A-1. 1978 fire seared on city’s memory, by Preston Turegano.
October 29, 1984, San Diego Tribune, A-1, A-3. Familiar cry at Old Globe; Show must go on, by Preston Turegano.
October 30, 1984, San Diego Tribune, A-1. Festival stage will rise again, by Vicki Torres.
October 30, 1984, San Diego Tribune, D-1. A theater can be destroyed, but never its spirit, by Bill Hagen.
October 30, 1984, San Diego Union, A-1, A-8. Arson probe underway in Globe fire; new outdoor facility planned by June; to cost $1.2 million, by Dick Weber.
October 30, 1984, San Diego Union, A-1, A-8. Again, Globe undertakes a rebuilding job
October 30, 1984, San Diego Union, A-1, A-8. Smoke smell haunts Globe memories, by Lew Scarr.
October 30, 1984, San Diego Union, A-8. Festival Stage fire . . . the ghost of fires past haunt Balboa Park, by George Flynn.
October 30, 1984, San Diego Union, A-9. Globe fire raises park security questions.
October 30, 1984, San Diego Union, A-9. Seven festive summers of theater, by Anne Marie Welsh.
October 31, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1, B-5. Plans pushed for rebuilding Festival stage, by Ed Jahn.
October 31, 1984, San Diego Union, B-6. EDITORIAL: Silver linings.
One of the firemen who fought Monday’s fire would not leave the scene without making a donation for rebuilding the outdoor theater. He didn’t have to be asked; the importance of rebuilding the Festival Stage spoke for itself. We expect most San Diegans who have enjoyed Shakespeare or Moliere or other theatrical adventures amid the trees of Balboa Park will feel the same way.
October 31, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-10. Arson must be stopped
November 1, 1984, San Diego Union, B-2. Stage fund drive planned.
November 2, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Investigators blame arsonist for Globe fire.
November 4, 1984, Los Angeles Times, II, 2. EDITORIAL: Fond memories spur hope for new stage.
November 4, 1984, San Diego Union, F-60. Mini-show for orchid growers slated at Casa del Prado
November 5, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1. Park’s growing crime showing seamy side, by Ed Jahn.
November 6, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-6. EDITORIAL: Let’s kick crime out of Balboa Park.
November 6, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Letter, Richard Amero, claiming destruction of Festival Stage is a godsend.
November 6, 1984, San Diego Tribune, Leisure – 1. Torrey Pines Reserve so rare, so right, by Martina Schimitschek.
November 7, 1984, San Diego Union,, B-12. EDITORIAL: Crime in the park.
The city should not wait for approval of the entire Balboa Park Master Plan before carrying out most of its public safety recommendations. The crime threat in the park mandates action now.
November 7, 1984, San Diego Union, D-1. Natural History Museum and Museum of Man’s cluttered closets
November 8, 1984, READER, 2. The Globe Complex, by Paul Krueger.
The Festival Stage arson also prompted concerns by Art Casey and C-3 president Bruce Henderson about another park canyon south of the theater, designated as home of the proposed Japanese Garden. Casey fears construction of the garden will decimate yet another virgin area, while Henderson worries that copycat arsonists may torch the garden’s wooden tea house and pavilion structures if around-the-clock security isn’t arranged.
November 9, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-10. Letter, Polly Browder who thinks Amero is all wet.
November 12, 1984, San Diego Union, C-5. ‘H.M.S. Pinafore’ at Casa del Prado
November 16, 1984, San Diego Tribune, E-2. ‘Celebrate the Holidays” at San Diego Historical Society Museum in Balboa Park
November 18, 1984, San Diego Union, F-6. Ancient Gingko tree thrives here
November 20, 1984, San Diego Tribune, D-1. How safe is Balboa Park? by Zenia Cleigh.
“That park is probably the safest large park in the whole United States,” said San Diego Police Captain Winston Yetta, captain of the central area command that patrols Balboa Park. “It’s nowhere approaching the problems people have portrayed.”
November 22, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. City Public Facilities and Recreation Committee backs horse trails, by Jeff Ristine.
November 23, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. City Council committee backs return of horseback riding in Balboa park
November 25, 1984, Los Angeles Times, II, 2. OPINION: Balboa Park going to the wealthy; Plans to rebuild Festival Stage should be halted, by Richard Amero.
November 25, 1984, San Diego Union, B-2. Swedish Yule program
November 25, 1984, San Diego Union, F-16. Naval Hospital is on schedule
November 27, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1. Officer says Cinco shot him.
November 28, 1984, San Diego Union, At Ease – 2. Christmas will glow in Balboa Park Saturday, by Gina Lubrano.
November 30, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-2. Teen age girl recalls Balboa Park shooting incident.
November 30, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1:2-4. Myers to replace Bieler at Zoo, by Gina Lubrano.
Charles L. Bieler, executive director of the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park for nearly 12 years, will take a newly created planning and fund-raising position in February, Sheldon Campbell, president of the Zoological Society, said yesterday.
Bieler will be replaced by Douglas G. Myers, 35, who is currently deputy director for operations.
Bieler, 49, will become executive-director emeritus and will remain on the Zoological Society payroll. His duties will include development, planning and inter-zoo relations.
The other director-emeritus, Charles Schroeder, 83, retired in 1972 and is not on the payroll, although he remains involved with Zoo and park activities.
Campbell said the change involving Bieler has been under discussion since September and is a key part of the society’s long-range plan to give the Zoo a totally new look over the next three decades.
“We are nearing completion of our long-range strategic plan,” Campbell said, “and it has become increasingly apparent that our capital needs to refurbish old exhibits and build new ones will take front and center in our thinking.”
The plan calls for organizing the Zoo around climate zones, with plans an integral part of each exhibit.
November 30, 1984, San Diego Union, E-5. Downtown art museum in Balboa Theater backed
December 4, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. Balboa Park Committee explores proposals to stem crime in Balboa Park, by Ric Bucher.
A mini-police headquarters and a form of Neighborhood Watch were among the suggestions made yesterday for stemming crime in Balboa Park by the Balboa Park Committee.
December 5, 1984, San Diego Union, B-2. Museum of Man to exhibit pueblo pottery
December 5, 1984, San Diego Union, B-3. Chino to face trial for murder
December 6, 1984, San Diego Union, D-13. History of quilts at Museum of Art
December 7, 1984, San Diego Tribune, D-2. Yule on Prado
December 10, 1984, San Diego Union, B-4. Elevator to be built in Museum of Man
December 11, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Slain officer honored
December 13, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Police say Balboa Park gets bad rap, by Jeff Ristine.
The City Council Public Services and Safety Committee yesterday was told by Deputy Chief Norm Stamper that the park has experienced “a remarkably low crime rate,” considering the fact that it receives 13.5 million visitors annually.
Technically, Balboa Park’s crime rate, the number of crimes reported for each 1,000 residents, is the worst in the city, Stamper acknowledged, but that statistic is skewed because only 956 people reside in the Police Department’s Balboa Park precinct.
Of the 1,212 crimes logged so far this year, Stamper said, more than 80 percent were “vehicle-related: — theft of automobiles or items in them. The citywide figure for vehicle-related crimes is about 41 percent.
December 13, 1984, San Diego Union, B-1. Balboa Park crime figures disputed, by Michael Smolens.
A Police Department official yesterday countered news stories about crime in Balboa Parky by saying the park has “a remarkably low crime rate.”
Nevertheless, Deputy Chief Norman Stamper told the City Council’s Public Services and Safety Committee that police have stepped up enforcement efforts in the park.
December 16, 1984, Los Angeles Times, II-2. Letter, Polly S. Browder, La Jolla.
San Diego is no longer a small town of dairy farms, naval facilities and vacation cottages. It is America’s eight largest city and its city park should reflect the intellectual and technological growth of its citizens.
December 21, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-2. 137 people recite oath to become citizens in War Memorial Building, Balboa Park
December 22, 1984, San Diego Tribune, A-16. Defendant denies shooting officers
December 25, 1984, San Diego Tribune, C-1. The many sides of Aerospace Hall of Fame’s Kate Baum
December 27, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Crew dismantling Globe stage ruins, by Preston Turegano (illus.).
Old Globe spokesman Bill Eaton said the Lowell Davies Festival Stage is expected to be ready for use for the summer Shakespeare Festival beginning June 7.
December 28, 1984, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Road bids sought for Naval Hospital
Return to Amero Collection.
BALBOA PARK HISTORY
pre-1900
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1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919
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1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929
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1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979
1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984
1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989
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1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999