Ding! Dong! ... She's (Almost) Gone!

For those who haven't heard the News, Tanya Peterson is on her way OUT as Director of Our San Francisco Zoo.  

The moment we've all been waiting for, has finally come.  

Let the healing (and celebrating) soon begin.  

I got the News about 5:30p, about a half hour after it breaking in media.  Thank you to those who texted me!  I had gotten home an hour before and checked Google news and nothing.  Proceeded to wrap-up my day and then Pow with the Wow!  I hadn't expected there would be any developments on this revealed until later in the week.

There is so much to unpack now that we're finally here.  So, this post will be short, but I'm sure I'll have many over a handful of days through the weekend.  The wheels have already been turning for the last four hours, so I'm going to sift through my notes so I keep this simple, and leave further dissection for the coming days.

I think I'm not the only one who is curious about what transpired to make this finally happen.  It was heavily reported that Tanya, "has no intention of leaving".  So, one must assume this was not her idea.  And, while the Mayor denied having Authority,  when he finally got involved, it happened quick!   The most seemingly possible scenario is the Mayor pushed to remove her.   We know the Board, now made up of her supporters, didn't want to remove her.  Maybe the Mayor finally asserted himself, the Board had no choice, and they laid it on the line, giving her the opportunity to resign and save face.  All we know now and possibly forever, is that it's done.  

I'm still wondering, what moved the Mayor to get in the game? As I wrote in a previous post, I'm not saying my efforts pressuring the Mayor had anything to do with it, but it would seem my almost daily, consistent badgering via email and social media, had to have had some impact.  As well, before I started going hardcore on him, I had already been on the RecPark Commission and GM, ultimately urging them to ask the Mayor for help removing Peterson.  All I can see is he was silent, until I was vocal.  Whatever it was, we owe him Thanks, even if he made us wait too long.

Seven weeks ago, when the Zoo Board was voting over and over to fire Tanya, I had a thought that made me smile.  I wondered something I hadn't before.  I asked Google, Has any Director in the history of the San Francisco Zoo been fired?  The AI Overview response was, "While the San Francisco Zoo has had its share of leadership changes, there is no record of a Director being formally fired." 

It would have been perfect Karmic satisfaction for me if Tanya had been the first Director to ever be fired from Our Zoo, as I was the first person in the history of Our Zoo to have my Membership revoked, ... at her hands.  Ironically, because I cared about Our Zoo, something, contrary to what she is still trying to make people think, she never has.

It's ok though.  It's enough, even ironic that she has lost a job she wanted to stay in, whether by her own volition, or by ultimatum suggestion.  It's a beautiful thing, and still has the feeling that some Karma was at play, either for the way she treated me, or the many staffers she was shitty to.

Ironically, I woke-up this morning, and had a graphic in mind, as we all waited for the outcome of the Mayor's "talks with the Zoo Board".  I've become a bit compulsive with my AI graphics. I didn't have anything new to document about the Director situation, but of course the thoughts and feelings continued.  I feel like the graphics I've made interpret a condensed version of what I'm feeling and thinking.  Akin to the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words".  My thoughts were, what if the Mayor's talks with the Board are not successful.  What if he continues to maintain that he has no Authority, and the Society Board doesn't budge.  

I planned to post the graphic and the paragraph above, but it was getting late and I needed to jam out the house.  Thought I might do it while out, tried but fast on the go as day was running late, and later when on the way home, I stopped to help a Canada Goose who was walking on the shoulder of a four lane freeway.  

Then the news.  

So, in closing for tonight, I'll share that graphic, as it was a future many of us had felt could be the reality for Our Zoo.

Now, hundreds of us are relieved and rejoice.  Now she knows she can't just do whatever she wants indefinitely, and contrary to what she believed, Tanya Peterson does not own Our Zoo.