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Recently, the Budget Office presented its annual report to the city council of Central City. The report stated that the city has a budget surplus of $5 million. Not surprisingly, some city departments quickly expressed their ideas for using the surplus. The Transportation Department published a plan to spend the money on street repairs. The School Board argued in favor of remodeling the high school library. These are both good ideas. However, the most necessary and effective use of the budget surplus is to improve the Central City Zoo.
The Central City Zoo is small and old. Though it backs up to 400 acres of city-owned woods, it sits on just 50 acres of land. Due to the zoo’s size, its animals live in the same cramped, barred cages built in 1946. Any visitor can see the big cats pacing unhappily back and forth, day after day, and the apes prowling hopelessly in search of something interesting to climb. This is unacceptable. A 2014 study by the Zoological Association found that animals kept in these conditions tend to get sick often and to have shorter life spans. So the current facility is not merely imperfect; it is immoral. And improving it is not only a practical decision. It is the right decision. Expanding and updating the zoo will improve the lives of the animals entrusted to the city’s care.
Of course, animals are not the only ones who will benefit. People will reap the rewards of an improved zoo, too. Zoos have made major advances since 1946. Now Central City Zoo has the chance to catch up. It can finally provide visitors with an exciting experience. A new avian center, with tropical birds flying freely inside an airy, spacious dome could replace the smelly little cages of the old birdhouse. A larger, deeper pool with an underwater viewing gallery could allow seals more room to swim and give visitors more memorable encounters with the animals. Improving the zoo will be a win for two-legged, four-legged, and no-legged creatures alike.
Now, there will be objections to this proposal. Some will insist that spending $5 million on animals is foolish. “Spend that money on people,” they will argue. Certainly, it’s a good idea to repair the city’s streets. And remodeling the high school library is important. Yet neither of these projects can offer something critical: the chance to make back the money spent while improving the lives of living beings.
Improving the zoo means more visitors. More visitors means more revenue. More money from the zoo means more money for the city. How much more? Friends of the Zoo, a local organization, just conducted a study. It found that spending $5 million to improve the zoo will result in a $1.25 million increase in the zoo’s yearly revenue. In other words, this project will pay for itself in just four years. After that, the extra money can easily be used for projects like those suggested by the Transportation Department and the School Board.
The “problem” of having an extra $5 million is one any city would be happy to have. It is not surprising that the existence of the extra money led different departments to ask for a piece of the pie. But there is only one use of that money that benefits everyone and makes moral and financial sense. The city council must vote to spend the budget surplus to improve the Central City Zoo.