The city of Bellevue is going to charge people this year to see the popular Garden d’Lights. And, you’ll have to make an advance reservation.
We have only two words for this.
Bah, Humbug.
The popular display at the Bellevue Botanical Garden consists of 500,000 mini-lights fashioned into flowers and animals. Last year 150,000 people visited the popular display during the city’s Magic Season.
The city now wants to charge adults $5 each to come into the gardens and see the display. Children 10 and under get in for free.
Since when did Scrooge start working for the city?
Oh, the city will allow people in free on selected nights – Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 1, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15. But reservations still will be required.
The city notes on the event’s website that on some of the busiest nights, attendance topped 10,000 and that “the time has come to limit the number of visitors each night.”
Attendance will be limited to 5,000 people per night, making the event “a safer, more pleasant experience for all.”
Unless, of course, you can’t afford the tab to get in the gate or aren’t one of the lucky ones to secure a reservation.
Obviously, we haven’t been there every night to count the visitors to the Garden d’Lights. But the days we have gone to visit the yearly event haven’t seemed like a mob.
The gardens are, after all, extensive, with displays throughout many of the gardens. People tend to naturally walk to and view displays and aren’t overrun with other people. Besides, the Garden d’Lights is open for five hours each night. If 10,000 people come through the gate, the average is 2,000 an hour. Finally, how many times have Bellevue Police been called out to control a mob scene? Geeze, it is the holiday when people are full of good will toward all.
This can’t be a question of a huge cost no longer able to be borne by the city budget. After all, it’s mostly volunteers who work the months in advance to produce the lighted displays. What appears to be going on is the city grabbing at a chance to make some easy money in a down economy.
With every 1,000 adults (or children 10 and over, of course) who show up, the city collects $5,000. Get 100,000 through the gate and you’ve got a cool extra $500,000,
The nine free nights only “costs” the city $45,000 under the new rules. That still leaves Bellevue with a fat haul.
Bellevue taxpayers pay for their parks with their property taxes. Volunteers give their time freely to make Garden d’Lights the exceptional experience it is.
Bellevue needs to drop this attempt to shake more money from people’s pockets and return Garden d’Lights to the what’s it’s always been – a gift from Bellevue volunteers to their neighbors.
– Craig Groshart, Bellevue Reporter
