One Year After Elk Grove’s Zoo Collapse: Millions Lost, Just $1.9M Raised - and No Political Fallout
Zoo relocation scheme collapsed one year ago under the weight of its own hubris
It was one year ago today that the city of Elk Grove and the Sacramento Zoological Society (SZS) announced plans for a multi-hundred-million-dollar relocation of the Sacramento Zoo to Elk Grove, which was being scuttled like a poorly designed listing ship.
continued below
For people who understood the ridiculousness of the scheme conjured by Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen, a couple of her city councilmen, Elk Grove's economic development director Darrell Doan, and a handful of delusional board members of the SZS, the announcement was not surprising. In fact, for anyone with even the slightest understanding of economics, the plans were doomed from the start.
April 30, 2025, was the kill date because on May 1, the SZS was scheduled to have raised $27 million. It had raised about $1.9 million.
The failed project lasted about four years, and it cost taxpayers millions of dollars - money that could have been better used to benefit residents, not the ambitions of politicians like Singh-Allen.
Notwithstanding the wasteful use of taxpayers' money, the good news for Madame Mayor is that it will not affect her bid for a fourth term. Mayor Bobbie, as she insists people call her, so she is relatable to her "subjects," will coast to reelection given the short memory of most voters.
Even though Singh-Allen famously said the zoo relocation was all about the animals, the project's collapse showed it was about something else. In the end, it was Ambition, Arrogance, and Avarice that fueled the ill-advised scheme.
As for the 100-acre parcel the city purchased with taxpayer dollars for the zoo relocation scheme, we are sure they'll come up with an alternate use, even if only temporarily.
Given their poor track record and general disregard for common sense with such projects at Elk Grove City Hall, who knows what they could conjure? The mayor and Mr. Doan could even be in negotiations with people like Tom Homan to use that parcel for a facility that would please the President and Stephen Miller.
You just never know what they are formulating in the dark and secret corners of City Hall!
