What is the cost of saving the City of San Francisco?
For Batkid, the total cost came in at $105,000. On Nov. 15, the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted a wish for 5-year-old Scott Miles, who has been fighting lymphoblastic Leukemia since he was 20 months old.
He is now in remission, and his wish was to be his favorite superhero, Batman — or as he came to be known, Batkid.
Batkid began his crime fighting day by being called into service by San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr and spent the day riding around the city in his Lamborghini with a Batman decal, according to the Associated Press.
The car was donated by a resident of San Francisco, according to AP.
Accompanied by an adult Batman, Batkid rescued a woman tied up at the Hyde Street Cable Car line.
After that, he went to a downtown San Francisco bank, where he caught the Riddler in the act of robbing a vault.
He then saved the San Francisco Giants mascot, Lou Seal, from the Penguin.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation, which planned the event, expected only a few hundred volunteers and donors to participate in the event.
But when more than 20,000 residents arrived, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s presentation of a chocolate key to the city was quickly changed.
Instead, Lee presented the key to the city with professional staging and big-screen TVs, bumping the cost of the event to more than $105,000, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The city will pay for the cost that was charged for using Moscone Convention Center and the big-screen TV’s, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Suhr made note that on-duty police officers or public works department employees were not paid overtime or extra expenses to participate in the event for Batkid.
Still, some remain upset by the amount that it cost to grant Miles his wish.
Some, however, say it was priceless to see Miles so happy.
According to Marketwired, a company specializing in social media monitoring and analytics, only 4 percent of the 400,000 tweets regarding Batkid were considered negative.
With such little negative feedback, it’s hard to see that the majority of the public questioned the use of taxpayer dollars.
It goes without saying that $105,000 is a lot of money that could be used for other things to aid the City of San Francisco.
It’s more important to note that the pot of money also comes from the same funding source that was used to pay for San Francisco Giants parade.
The Giants parade was held after the team’s World Series victory and cost the city $225,000 in 2012.
There will always be those who like to rain on other’s parades.
At the end of the day, though, the cost of granting 5-year-old Scott Miles his wish was well spent.
Putting a smile on a child’s face is priceless. The memories will be remembered for a lifetime.
Leon Ly is a junior journalism major and a contributing writer at the Daily 49er.
