A California legislator wants to make Neverland Ranch open to the public, but first, a broke California must foot the bill.
California Assemblyman Mike Davis told the Associated Press that he’s likely to propose a bill to the California State Senate for Neverland Ranch to become an official state park, controlled by the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Jackson, who signed over the estate to private equity firm Colony Capital LLC in 2008 amid money troubles, hadn’t lived at Neverland since he was cleared of child molestation charges in 2005, but Davis argues this won’t stop fans from making the pilgrimage from across the globe. At its peak, the 2,500-acre estate featured amusement park rides and a zoo and was the center of events the star held for children. There’s no telling if the rides, cleared out after Jackson’s death in 2009, would be reinstated on the estate’s grounds, but if Davis gets his way, Neverland could be California’s hottest new attraction, though without the singer’s grave site, it would be a hard feat to trump Graceland.
Given that the Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had briefly supported closing 220 of California’s 279 state parks to cut back on costs, it seems unlikely that the financially strapped state would be shopping for pricey real estate, but Davis says he’ll move to propose a public-private partnership with Colony Capital. If the deal does go through, we wonder if Bubbles the chimp could get a job telling fortunes or something. Paul the octopus has retired, after all.