Word: parks
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...FRANCISCO, Calif.—Something that definitely didn’t occur to me until I was walking around AT&T Park before Sunday’s Giants game was just how cold the Bay Area is. It’s the beginning of August, probably the hottest time of the year in most places, and the weather report called for a high of 59. But just as I was about to discount both Bay Area teams for this failing of Mother Nature, the morning fog burned off, the sun came out, and it turned into a beautiful...
...near Calistoga, Calif., is known as "the stairway to heaven" for its panoramic views of the Napa and Sonoma valleys. These views, however, soon may be off-limits to visitors - the latest victim of the Golden State's staggering budget crisis. The trail sits within Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, one of up to 100 state parks in California that might be closed by Labor Day to help eliminate a budget gap of $26 billion. While the Department of Parks and Recreation isn't releasing a list of potential sites on the chopping block, the stairway-to-heaven park likely...
...California is not alone. Budget gaps are forcing officials in just about every state to scale back hours, reduce services and close even some of their most popular tracts of open space. But rather than panic, park officials are looking for alternative approaches to funding what was once exclusively paid for by the government. "After years of suffering budget cuts and scrambling for strategies to make ends meet, it's almost like parks people have had enough," says Phil McKnelly, executive director of the National Association of State Park Directors, an industry group in Raleigh, N.C. "People finally realize there...
This epiphany certainly didn't happen overnight. Most states have sliced parks budgets for the better part of the past decade - in some cases shrinking ledger sheets by as much as 70%. In Colorado, for example, Bonny Lake State Park in the Eastern Plains near the Kansas border had been open year-round but will now be closed from October through April and will trim its staff from four employees to one. "At the same time we're cutting back, we have one of the fastest growing states in the country, full of people who come here for the beauty...
...states carry out these cutbacks, many park officials have started investigating long-term strategies to find more reliable sources of funding. Margaret Bailey, senior vice president at CHM Government Services, a consulting firm in Beverly, Mass., says parks are trying to move away from operating with money in their states' general-fund accounts. These catchall coffers have historically financed public spaces but in recent years have been decimated by legislatures redirecting much needed cash to fill other lines in their budgets. Of the seven state-park systems that are not tethered to general funds, Oregon finances its parks with money...