It won't be the first time that an activist is portrayed as a hand-waving, yelling, non-cordial opponent of a seemingly up front process that spends tax payer money on sports...and it won't be the last. (Nakia Hogan,Times Picayune, May 27th, 2009). It so happens that I stood up at the City Park Hearing yesterday not merely to yell, but to ask that the public be allowed to speak. After all, it is a public meeting, I said. Bob Becker, City Park CEO and the autocratic ruler of public land and public money for golf in this city, would have none of it though. "We've heard the public," I think he said, "in two hearings, and the public will not be allowed to speak".

Can you blame me then, for responding, "You know, you dictated your way through the Audubon Golf Course, but you are not going to dictate your way through this one. We'll continue to fight you." Them's fighting words.

Bob Becker is a smooth talking, autocratic boss who's seemingly public persona of reasonableness masks a steely, behind the scenes determination to convert the last of city green spaces to golf courses. He did it over at Audubon Park, to the detriment of the green space, and finances over there, and now he's got City Park in his clutches.

Times Picayune reporter Billy Turner apparently sees the golf course as though Jesus Christ rode in on a caddy wagon for the second coming. "On a humid afternoon, with kids and parents pouring into City Park as they often do, the City Park Board of Commissioners took their assigned seats around a rectangular table in a cool, simple room. Those of us in attendance without place cards, felt, or should have felt, another sweet breath of recovery air blow. It was just a whisper, a gentle solitary whisper of the winds of progress." (Billy, Turner, Times Picayune, May 27, 2009)

We have obtained a copy of the "confidential" Business Term Sheet from 2007 outlining the terms and conditions of the proposed agreement between the Bayou District Foundation/Fore!Kids Foundation (the "tenant") and City Park. Most of these proposed terms have never been made public.

The highlights:

- The location is referred to as "approximately 550 acres", despite the repeated claims of "only 400 acres" cited in public.

- It is to be a lease arrangement, with the initial lease term of fifty (50) years, with four ten (10) year renewal options, for a total of a ninety (90) year lease. [Important note: a 90 year lease is considered to be almost equivalent to a sale. When a public body wants to "sell" something, but is legally prohibited from doing so, sometimes they enter into a 90 or 100 year lease.]

According to attorney Michael Tifft: "It is time for the City of New Orleans to enter this debate. The City Council delegated its authority to the CPIA by ordinance in 1981. It is time for the Council to review that grant of authority and to see to it that the departments of Parkways and Parks and Property Management and the City Planning Commission exercise their Home Rule Charter responsibilities over City Park. At the very least, the Council should hold public hearings on this issue". In addition, "The State Division of Administration has not addressed the applicability of the State’s public bid and public lease laws, which would appear to apply under earlier legal decisions".

We have attached pages from the City of New Orleans' Home Rule Charter that include Sections 2-872 through 2-926, dealing with the lease of public property, and Section 4-1401, dealing with the role of the Department of Property Management in the leasing of immovable property.

The City Park Golf Projections done by Economic Research Associates were downloadable from their website and are also attached here. Assuming the 36-hole plan that keeps the North Course open (since that is likely to be the only one fundable): at year 3, which is the first year both courses are fully open, they're projecting net operating revenues of $3,573,000, net operating expenses of $3,048,000 (including cost of goods sold), and net operating income of only $525,000.

This is basically the same revenues as the old courses pre-Katrina, higher expenses as would be expected, but not a whole lot of improvement in net income to show for it all. At year 5, there is an inexplicable increase in rounds played, which trigger an equally inexplicable but steadily increasing rise in revenues and net income.

However, even these low income figures in year 3 are based on 56,000 rounds of golf being played at City Park, 38,000 at the old North Course and 24,000 at the new championship course! In Louisiana, the average number of rounds per course in 2007 and 2008 was under 22,000/year; even at the TPC Louisiana course, reaching 26,000 rounds in 2007 and 2008 was considered a highly successful number (From a Times-Picayune article of 4-19-09, "Going for the Green").

From where and with whom are these remarkable rounds of golf going to materialize? There is no explanation attached for how these numbers were derived, and they seem absurd... yet we are supposed to believe that the City Park Board has practiced "due diligence" by accepting them?

This so-called "article" reads more like an editorial than a piece of reporting:

"I say all that to say this: When the City Park Board of Commissioners votes Tuesday, it should vote to accept the golfing portion of the park's master plan."

"In my judgment, the plan has been worked over and worked out until indeed it is feasible."

Oh really? Mr. Turner's "About The Author" section comes up blank on nola.com which makes it difficult to determine his qualifications for such editorializing, for those of you who may be skeptical that indeed, "the fix is in", and would like to learn about his qualifications as an economic adviser on matters concerning taxpayer funds.

What does golf have to do with the redevelopment of public housing in New Orleans? Golf-loving former HUD Director Alphonso Jackson made sure they would be connected, when his agency chose the Bayou District Foundation to spearhead the redevelopment of the St. Bernard Housing Development. Bayou Foundation joined forces with Fore Kids Foundation and the Baton Rouge Foundation to help put the project together. For profit Colombia Residential joined the team as the developer.

Bayou District Foundation is, or was, banking on revenue from the proposed PGA-style golf course to fund a host of social services it plans for the St. Bernard site. In a recent City Business Article ( May 18, 2009), it is revealed that there is no money to complete two thirds of the proposed redevelopment. One third of the redevelopment, 466 "mixed income" units will open by November, according to the
article. One-third of those units will be for former residents of the St. Bernard Housing Development, if they qualify, under a host of new rules.

On Bayou District Foundation's website, the site continues to link to a Times Picayune (Nov. 27th, 2007) article stating the Foundation is counting on revenue from the proposed PGA style golf course for City Park. However, City Park CEO Bob Becker in recent public statements has cast doubt on the use of that revenue outside of the park, if and when the golf course is built.

Re: Communication to the Council
City Park Golf Course Expansion and Privatization

Dear Clerk of Council:

Please place this letter on the City Council’s next available agenda and please communicate a copy to each councilmember and the Council’s Chief of Staff, together with my request for an opportunity to address the Council on the issues set forth below.

According to a “confidential” term sheet released in 2007 by the City Park Improvement Association (the CPIA) the CPIA is considering a 90-year lease of 400 to 500 acres of City Park (the actual acreage is a matter of dispute) for the purpose of establishing a golf course concession and expanding the footprint of the pre-Katrina golf courses north of I-610, as currently set forth in the Park’s Master Plan. The action contemplated is part of a larger proposal by the Bayou District Foundation, Columbia Residential of Atlanta (linked to the former HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson scandal), Commercial Properties Realty Trust of Baton Rouge, the Fore!Kids! Foundation and Monarch Real Estate Advisors, Inc., among others, to develop the former site of the St. Bernard Housing Development.

Update March 11, 2010: In an article in today's Times-Picayune about the golf courses, it becomes abundantly clear that City Park officials are continuing to plan for a $46 million, 2-phase, 3-course golf behemoth in City Park, despite their admission at the May 26, 2010 meeting, both verbally and in print, that "it is highly likely that the Park will only be able to proceed with the Phase I plan in the near future. No other public funding for golf is currently available or programmed and a Phase II will cost more than $21 million dollars".(page 12/17 of the attached document)

Although the outcome of the CPIA Board vote and the expansion of golf in City Park was never really in doubt, thanks to the outcry by concerned citizens who worked tirelessly to strip away the veil of secrecy from the CPIA planning process, the Board was forced to make a number of concessions regarding their proposed plans for golf in City Park, none of which have been mentioned in the media articles published since the meeting.

An unchastened but clearly on the defensive CPIA Board was forced to back down from their consideration of a plan to lease away half of the public park under their stewardship in a no-bid transaction to a private developer for a term of 50-90 years.

Despite constant objections from about a dozen opponents Tuesday, the City Park Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to add to its master plan a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the park's golf complex.

The 36-member Board of Commissioners, which convened for its monthly meeting at the Botanical Gardens in the Pavilion of Two Sisters, decided to go along with Phase I of the project.

Phase I would cost about $24.5 million and would include construction of an 18-hole championship course designed by Rees Jones, a renovated North Course, a clubhouse and parking, a driving range, range clubhouse and maintenance facility. It would be built between Interstate 610 and Filmore Avenue, with completion expected by fall of 2011 or in 2012.

On a humid afternoon, with kids and parents pouring into City Park as they often do, the City Park Board of Commissioners took their assigned seats around a rectangular table in a cool, simple room. Those of us in attendance without place cards, felt, or should have felt, another sweet breath of recovery air blow.

It was just a whisper, a gentle solitary whisper of the winds of progress.

Golf is a tradition that's been part of City Park for more than 80 years. The sport raises revenue for the park -- more than $6 million a year -- but now the governor is looking to cut a chunk of the park's funding.

That's left park administrators scrambling to find a way to make more money, and the City Park Improvement Association agreed Tuesday to add another golf course to the park.

In a unanimous vote, the City Park board has approved changes to the park's master plan that make way for the initial phase of a $45 million golf facility. The vote gives City Park the green light to put out a request for proposals to develop the course.

The board's resolution officially starts the $24 million first phase of the project. City Park has $15 million to put toward that phase and is seeking a partner to help pay for the development.

“I think it’s very clear the board has considered all of the input, and I think they’re being stewards of what we need to do here,” City Park CEO Bob Becker said after the vote.

So far, the Bayou District Foundation has been the sole party to express interest in the project, although Becker stressed that there is no pre-existing agreement with the group and that the request for proposals is open to anyone.

The BDF is handling the redevelopment of the nearby St. Bernard housing site, and its plans call far a recreational park facility to complement the mixed-income residential development it is building.

“It’s just another part of the process, and we’re glad to move forward,” said J.T. Hannan, the foundation’s director of public and governmental affairs. “We’ll be making proposals as part of the RFP.”

Link to article

Bayou District Foundation believes that City Park golf was an underutilized resource before Hurricane Katrina -- however, if the course is properly supported, it could become one of the finest public golf facilities in the United States.

As with so many other aspects of life in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina totally reconfigured the picture. City Park's golf courses were largely shattered. Irrigation, piping, electrical and sanitation facilities were all destroyed by the floodwaters of Katrina. Out of state contractors hacked up many of the golf courses oak trees and the courses were left with large gouges and craters where heavy equipment had settled.

Out of this mess, the Bayou District Foundation leadership saw an opportunity. What if City Park could combine some of its disaster relief funds with private dollars provided by Bayou District Foundation and create a world class public golf facility? This would solve the financing problem that vexed earlier efforts to improve golf in the park using only private funding and would advance golf in the Park far above what could have been done exclusively with existing FEMA funds (which by statute could only be used to restore golf in the park to pre storm conditions.)

From the Bayou District Foundation website: their private plan for our public park:

Bayou District Foundation's fundamental goal is to help create a city neighborhood that thrives from excellent housing, nearby high quality schools and retail services and abundant recreational resources for youth. Since the Bayou District borders the historic New Orleans City Park golf courses, as well as the park's many other recreation and youth sports amenities, the redevelopment of the park's dormant golf facilities, in particular, has become a committed objective of the Bayou District Foundation's recreational plan.

A friend of mine once gave me some excellent advice. He said "you can't make everyone happy, though you might try. If you're making everyone happy, there's a good chance you're not doing your job, you haven't taken a stand on anything -- and eventually everyone that you've tried to make happy will be unhappy with you."

I say all that to say this: When the City Park Board of Commissioners votes Tuesday, it should vote to accept the golfing portion of the park's master plan.