Our championship-level golf course on the west bank has flopped, requiring close to $30 million in taxpayer subsidies over the last few years, but are we discouraged?
No, sir. The way we figure it, if one PGA-style course proves ruinous, the best way to make a bunch of money is to build another one, this time in City Park.
Mr. Micawber would approve of the business plan. Park commissioners must figure something will turn up, because, having received three proposals, they have given the nod to one with a budget that exceeds the available cash by $9 million.
The park had three run-of-the-mill courses before Katrina, but only one has been open since. That has meant a lot of wasted space, with nothing but meadows, a bunch of trees, lagoons, birds swooping and fish jumping. The peace and quiet almost makes you think you're in the country. We obviously need to bring in the developers.
In fact, we do. City Park cannot survive without generating revenue, and golf has helped keep the wolf from the door for decades. The old North Course still does, and remains a popular hang-out for decent players and duffers alike.
Locals wanting to see PGA action have an opportunity every year when the Zurich Classic is held at the Tournament Players Club course near Avondale, which has otherwise been a disaster. The Mike Foster administration put taxpayers on the hook if not enough hackers showed up for the rest of the year to keep the course solvent. We have been bleeding money ever since.
Proponents of the new course at City Park course presumably figure it will take over the Zurich tournament. That will give taxpayers even more reason to rue the Avondale folly.
City Park has $16 million state and federal cash in hand, which would be enough to build a splendiferous 18 holes.
Park commissioners, however, chose the plan submitted by the Bayou District Foundation, which wants to spend $25 million on a new course, a driving range and a clubhouse in a new location, complete with an access road across what is now a grassy expanse.
If a fairy godmother shows up with the extra money, and it all comes to pass, green fees on the new course will run up to $100 for locals, more for non-residents. Nobody can accuse the guys behind this plan of lacking optimism.
Park commissioners have drawn up plans for a second phase which would include yet another 18-hole course and turn more than a third of the park's 1,500 acres into a golf complex. Commissioners have voted to hold off on phase two, and maybe it will never happen. A lot of people who like to disport themselves in the park without wielding a club certainly hope so.
The Bayou District Foundation is the developer responsible for the mixed-income housing under construction on the nearby site of the old St. Bernard housing project. Golf is seen as integral to a plan that would transform an area long mired in crime, poverty and illiteracy into a prosperous and civilized haven.
Evidently such transformations can happen, and the Bayou District Foundation's inspiration is East Lake Meadows in Atlanta, once a grim project with all the usual social ills but now a mixed-income development with schools, shops and plenty of recreational opportunities. Poor kids no longer leave school barely able to read but go on to college and wind up as solid taxpayers.
Next door is a golf course, which has proved a handy source of jobs for residents and revenue for various social programs. The Atlanta foundation also reports that kids can be taught "character" when they take up golf, and no doubt it works. You never hear about professional golfers cheating, at least not on the links.
Maybe the model will work in New Orleans, where the only difference is that the income needed to turn the neighborhood around will be generated on public land. In Atlanta the developer owns the adjoining golf course.
Still, whoever builds the new course will expect to split a decent profit with City Park, and the Bayou District Foundation appears to be the bidder with the noblest plans on how to spend its share.
We know the foundation is pretty good at figuring out how to spend money. Raising it is evidently more difficult.
James Gill is a columnist for The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at jgill@timespicayune.com or at 504.826.3318
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