My trip to Yellowstone: privatization sucks

[Ernesto]

Ever hear of Xanterra Corp.? That's the name of the contracter that controls Yellowstone. DO NOT stay in their lodges unless you want to pay too much for a lousy room & eat crappy food...... Stay outside the park in West Yellowstone, Montana. It is a trendy little spot with many restaurants & motels that cost half as much as the dumps inside the park......Imagine walmart with high prices, that's Xanterra!

[Radical Activist]

1. Just imagine the entire park run that way

That's what George Bush wants. The admin is looking at how it can privatize more areas of the National Parks and they're looking at everything. How would you like a quickie tour from a "park ranger" with a corporate logo on the uniform that has to rush tourists through to meet quota? Or maintenence crews run by a company that has to care more about making a profit than maintaining the park.

Everything this administration does is designed to help corporate America, right down to the finest detail.

[Ernesto]

4. I don't need to lmagine it

I saw it with my own eyes. The park rangers are the only survivors. Same story in Grand Teton & Death Valley.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. It is the bane of parks preservation!!

BOOOOO!!!!!!!

Screw privitization. Parks need to be managed by people who love them and love nature. That is, bona fide underpaid park rangers who are happy to be underpaid because they are fulfilling a cause they feel deeply about.

Screw the republicans and their privitization (@^$*@O)%()@&&%)%$^% mantra.

[TX-RAT]

3. When did the privatization start?

Last time i was in Yellowstone was over 40 yrs ago. It was magnificent, no traffic, very little people.

[Ernesto]

5. very little people?

picture yourself waiting to be seated for 2 hrs before you can eat an overpriced "Denny's" class meal.

[Wapsie B]

6. The thing that gets me about

this push to privatize so many things is that it doesn't take the burden off the taxpayers. We're still paying Xanterra Corp. and all the other contractors to provide whatever product/service that needs to be offered. All these private companies have succeeded in doing is to drive down the standard of living. Where there once was government employees with fairly decent paying jobs with benefits there's now private contractors with just a few at the top of their korporate pyramid making any kind of money at all. But most importantly, where's the savings to the taxpayer?

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. And in the end, it costs us more

because whatever the base cost to manage the park (or whatever it is being privitized) the company will charge that amount and then another 20% more (or more) for profit, while, as you say, decreasing wages, making the place less safe, and cutting the amount of actual maintenance that's done. Plus, they'll come up with the great idea that "Hey - camping spaces for tents only bring $10 a day, so that's no good. We need to cut down all the camp grounds and put up luxury quarters that will make us way more! And then kill the bears and bison and other animals, because they're unsafe, because peple p
And if even if they don't kill the campgrounds, the private company will always cost the taxpayers more in the long run. Always.

[Ernesto]

9. Which reminds me of the nice young folks I met in the free speech zone

Their issue was the systematic slaughter of buffalo to protect the grazing rights of the park's nieghboring livestock industry... Try their site @ wildrockies.org

[pocket]

8. Privatization: today the parks, tomorrow space

but I keep hearing how great this privatization of space is going to be.

[Mnemosyne]

11. Yeah...

can hardly wait for billbords in the night sky! wheee!!!

good point pocket.


edit> the stars are such an annoyance

[skippysmom]

10. I am so sick of hearing how privatization is a panacea

Some things shouldn't be left to corporations, whose main motive will always be profit.

[Southsideirish]

12. You mean they are running those beautiful old CCC lodges in

the park? Same in the Tetons? Yuck! We went there 20 years ago and stayed in Jackson Lake Lodge - it was fantastic.

[Ernesto]

13. Jackson Lake Lodge is run by some other corporation

I was so pissed off by my Xanterra experience that I forfited My $198 room & stayed in Jackson for $88. Had a great time though....