November 12, 2004
Panda Envy
Holy Ailuropoda melanoleuca! SFist tells us pandas are coming to Oakland! City Councilman Harry Chang announced that the Oakland Zoo will be getting a pair of pandas, after six years of "pandaring" (tm SFist). Yo, Queens City Councilman John Liu, Gothamist hates to pigeonhole the Asian city councilmember into being in charge of panda procurement, but can we work on a proposal to bring pandas to NY? They have already roamed Times Square.
This will make Oakland the fifth U.S. city with pandas. There are pandas at the National Zoo in DC, San Diego Zoo, Memphis Zoo, and Zoo Atlanta. Gothamist's favorite panda posts: Our visit to the San Diego Zoo, DC pandas mating, and the panda transformer; plus all our other panda posts.
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Thanks for the the credit on my bad joke. I can tell you right now that I doubt the Bronx Zoo will get pandas anytime soon - where in the hell are you going to put the bamboo fields you need to feed them, and how would they survive your ice-cold winters and asthma-inducing summers?
I'm sure y'all would have an easier time than Oakland coming up with $25 million bucks, though. I have no idea how they think they're going to get that kind of money. UC Davis is working on a high-fiber 'panda pellet' that could mitigate the need for hundreds of acres of bamboo, so we are trying to help.
You're welcome to come see the pandas and complain about our laid-back attitude and lack of seasons once they get here.
I just think Jen's obsession with pandas is just too cute ... to include a totally non-NYC posting on gothamist.