Ok, so if I told you about a place with Hearst in its name, and I told you it’s been said that it “does not earn enough money to cover its costs and is vulnerable to closure for that reason”, you’d totally think I was talking about the Chronicle, wouldn’t you?
But, no, I’m talking about state-owned Hearst Castle, which SFGate’s (which I guess is even more separate from the Chronicle than it was when I worked there, so confusing) On The Block blogger Betsy Schiffman says “is safe from closure — for now.”*
Looks like Hearst Castle was on a list of parks slated to close in an effort to save our state’s budget, but was granted a reprive by the Governor.
I’ll tell ya, the one time I went down there I only made it as far as the lobby of Hearst Castle, before balking at the ticket prices. And now the parks department says they’re considering raising ticket prices to generate more income?
Hmm, charging more to view your financially-failing monument to a bygone era? Where have we heard that one before?
*Hey, Betsy, isn’t that the same headline everyone uses every time you guys have a big round of layoffs?
