Save the San Francisco Botanical Garden From the Botanical Garden Society

We, the undersigned, deplore the underhanded plan to undermine access to the Strybing Arboretum (San Francisco Botanical Gardens) by closing gates and extorting a fee. This is being done in an underhanded and undemocratic fashion, and such fees were rejected twice in 2009. 

We call on Recreation and Park Department to hold a community meeting on this %u201Cordinance%u201D which is a racist and discriminatory proposal which would deny us the free and unrestricted access to the Strybing Arboretum (San Francisco Botanical Gardens) which all humans have enjoyed since 1940.

We also call upon Phil Ginsburg to end his policy of discriminatory fees for visitors, which are serving to undermine our tourism industry. We also call upon him to stop holding gardeners hostage to this plan%u2019s passage and to separate the extortion from tourists of an additional $2 at Coit Tower from the privatization of the Arboretum, as the two have no relationship to each other.

We also call on Michael McKechnie (Director, Botanical Garden Society;  661-1316 x 415) to stop the lies about the Strybing Arboretum. He should publicly acknowledge that his Society is subsidized by the taxpayer and has tens of millions of dollars of investments in the Dodge and Cox Mutual Funds. The Society is not going broke, and, even with a cut in gardeners (which does not need to happen), is it wild and hyperbolic fantasy to claim that %u201Crare plants are in danger of dying.%u201D

With this plan, the Gardens will decline as visitation plummets.  San Francisco will lose the unique public commons  that the Garden provides.  Much of this beautiful space has already been destroyed by the mismanaged %u201CPathways Project%u201D (which has paved formerly dirt trails and has soaked California taxpayers for an astonishing $5 million). Neither the Society nor Brent Dennis, who manages the Strybing Arboretum (San Francisco Botanical Gardens) on behalf of taxpayers, have expressed a shred of contrition for this fiasco.

This proposal will sabotage the future of the Strybing Arboretum (San Francisco Botanical Gardens). Secret plans are to = raise the prices annually and charge all visitors. 

We urge you NOT to pass this proposal, which would destroy the the Strybing Arboretum (San Francisco Botanical Gardens). We are up against an unscrupulous nonprofit which has an annual budget of $3 million (funded by the likes of Chevron) and has hired a public relations firm to lobby members of the Board of Supervisors and destroy the democratic process. We need your help. San Francisco sets an example for the world, and turning our beloved Strybing Arboretum into a restricted access facility would send a disastrous message to the World!

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter and standing up for democratic human rights in San Francisco!