In a message to RICH VERAA, KATHY JOHNSON wrote:
RV>Parrot Jungle is getting closer to moving to Watson's Island.  A citizen's
RV>group is organizing to try to save the old park...
KJ> I hope it ends up staying where it is. That citizen's group should
KJ> have been working on this years ago, when the problems first arose.
Well, Parrot Jungle qua Parrot Jungle _will_ move -- I can't remember if it's 
Watson, but it's definitely one of the Biscayne Bay islands.  Bernie Levine's 
already got the property and they might already be building plastic rocks and 
stuff down there...  the Pinecrest Homeowners Association's lawyers saw to 
that...
The project now is to get the county -- or someone -- to buy the old jungle 
property on Red Road and keep it open as some sort of public park (without 
birds).  The Pinecrest Homeowners don't seem to mind that.
The politics of the whole situation are so damn intricate and byzantine I 
can't follow it, and get ill trying.  A lot of the Pinecrest folks, for 
example, thought they wre _saving_ PJ from Bernie's greedy
over-development, and indeed, he'd made the place a lot less appealing with 
vending machines everywhere, and non-bird hoopla like the petting zoo, 
apeland (to compete with Monkey Jungle down the road), and a low-budget 
serpentarium.  They just never thought he'd give up the natural setting 
altogether to set up a Disney-plastic erzatz-jungle close to downtown.
I haven't been there at all in two years.., I know I'm missing out on the 
waning moments the old place has left, but it's just too sad; I can't stand 
it.  I'm crying just writing about it.
       Cheers,
           Rich
http://www.netside.net/~rveraa/
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