Parks scandal

[snousle]

The whole flap about California state park closure has had me kind of upset - aside from the great importance I place on parks, which play a key role in keeping myself sane in this state, it has been obvious all along that the park closures were political in nature and had little to do with lack of funds per se. (Yes, the state is short on cash, but parks are not exactly a big part of the budget; what they are, however, is highly visible, making for lots of drama and teeth-gnashing.)

Still, I was astonished to recieve this email this morning:

After an intensive and successful year-long effort to keep Hendy Woods State Park open, the Board of the Hendy Woods Community was stunned, along with others who have struggled to avoid closure of parks around the state, to discover the Department of Parks and Recreation was hiding funds that could have kept every targeted park open...

I thought, no F'ing way. But it's true - the parks chief has resigned, though it wasn't her doing, and the secret-funds scandal is being covered by major news outlets.

This is a good example of why I mostly ignore charitable causes. The Hendy Woods issue in particular has occupied a lot of time and attention, and I have personally contributed quite a lot of money, only to get burned.

I'm starting to think that nearly all "charities" are actually frauds, one way or another. Although nearly all of the people involved are acting in good faith, it takes only a few crooks to ruin everything. A sad conclusion, but even with my extremely discriminating approach I've still been duped, and I find it less than amusing to consider all the good things that money could have gone towards. In a world with so many urgent needs, the lack of credibility and accountability throughout the private-charity sphere is truly depressing.

Comments

[wolfstoy.livejournal.com]

I remember hearing back in 2010 that the parks department had most of their funds cut in order to gain support for a proposition to raise taxes or a bond for the parks department figuring that the tax payers, when told the parks would close, would pony up to cover the short fall so that the funds could then be used in other items on the generla fund. Holy shit was that a long sentence, but it is basically just a taste of the creative accounting.

[barbarian-rat.livejournal.com]

I too am careful about giving to charities, and in fact only give four and ignore the rest.