I couldn’t help noticing the juxtaposition this morning:<\/p>\n
First, the Washington Post editorial A Downtrodden Mall – America’s front yard desperately needs sprucing up<\/a>. A lack of funding and deferred maintenance have left Pierre L’Enfant’s “vast esplanade” looking pretty shabby. “[T]rampled grass, decaying sidewalks, crumbling foundations and scum-filled ponds … mar this special place.”<\/p>\n But good luck getting funding to fix that special place, if the federal budget is anything like we face here in New York.<\/p>\n This morning’s New York Times warns: Proposed Budget Shuts Out Zoos, Aquariums and Gardens<\/a>.<\/p>\n [N]ext fiscal year, which starts in April, state financing for all 76 zoos, botanical gardens and aquariums would be eliminated under Gov. David A. Paterson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposed budget. This after a 55 percent reduction this fiscal year \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a move that was made only last month, surprising many organizations so late in the fiscal year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Endowments and other funding sources for public gardens and the like aren’t looking real good either. Perhaps a surge in volunteerism will pick up some of the ‘resource shortage’ that looms. But that can only go so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I couldn’t help noticing the juxtaposition this morning: First, the Washington Post editorial A Downtrodden Mall – America’s front yard desperately needs sprucing up. A lack of funding and deferred maintenance have left Pierre L’Enfant’s “vast esplanade” looking pretty shabby. “[T]rampled grass, decaying sidewalks, crumbling foundations and scum-filled ponds … mar this special place.” But … Continue reading “Gardens in peril”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-gardens","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}