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)

Conveniently glossed over is the fact that there is a gap in funding for this park in the form of $8.9 million, in Turner's article. Actually, Turner suggests that Bayou District Foundation already has the cash, despite the hearing report yesterday of the shortfall. Turner says, "That said, let's dispense with the pleasantries and talking around the elephant in the room. Will the BDF make a proposal? No question. Does it have the money to make it happen? You betcha."

Perhaps Turner got caught up in the moment, what with the smell of recovery finally making its way to City Park. The Board has proposed, and passed, the First Phase of a $49 million makeover of the park ostensibly to raise $16 million in revenue yearly to run the park. I'd love for a detached entity to take a hard look at that business proposal. On the face of it, City Park appears to be rolling the dice for future golf revenue to go up, despite the fact it has dropped for many area courses.

Perhaps I've listened to my colleague Mike Howells a bit too often on his passionate study of the mafia in the United States. But smooth talking Bob Becker is like one of those mob bosses who just won't take no for an answer, no from the public that is. The vast majority of the public that attended the two hearings since Katrina were opposed to this plan. I attended both hearings, and heard speaker after speaker get up and voice their objections in a variety of angles.

Turner doesn't mention in his column that many golfers were opposed to this proposal, simply because the green fees will be too high. But this is recovery, having a $49 million potential boondoggle shoved down our throats, in what has been characterized by many as an undemocratic process. There are off the record accounts of Bayou District Foundation attending executive sessions of the City Park Board. As one activist put it, why is a private entity attending closed door meetings of a public entity?

Such is the nature of urban renewal, as public services, and spaces, are essentially privatized in back room deals out of the public eye. Turner makes it clear Bayou District Foundation will be the driver behind this proposal. Why is that, Mr. Turner, since it was stated at the meeting yesterday that City Park is open to all proposals? How could Bayou District Foundation be a mover and shaker of this if this is a public process that takes place before the public in public meetings?

Because much of decision making on this didn't take place in meetings open to the public, apparently, because it is clear Bayou District Foundation, the driver chosen to redevelop the St. Bernard Housing Development, has been the main player all along. I don't recall a single member of their team speaking at the two public hearings on this golf course. I could be wrong, but I don't recall...

City Park's web site lays it out though, and makes it clear that Bayou District Foundation is the driver in control of this vehicle, and has been all along. This is privatization. This is how its done. The public didn't choose Bayou District Foundation. City Park CEO Bob Becker, hired as steward of this public park, chose them, and now the Board of Commissioners has stamped its approval.

What a stiff lot that is, the Board. Standing out front of the Pavilion of the Two Sisters before the meeting yesterday, we, the public attempted to lobby board members as they walked by. Most simply ignored us, stiff faced, as they made their way into the meeting. A small handful, to their credit, actually paused to listen to our arguments. One Board Member, Susan Hess, said tersely as she walked by, "I'm voting for the golf course". When we asked why, and hurriedly stated some of our own arguments, she wheeled around and asked, "Do you give to the park?"

Rather stunned, we asked what that has to do with a publicly owned park, and public monies, being used for a golf course, essentially, for the wealthy. "The park needs revenue, and this will bring it."

There it is in a nutshell. The Board of Commissioners of City Park, including Shelly Midura who was in attendance as one of the City Council's appointees to the Board, all bought Bob Becker's and Bayou District Foundation's golden promises of revenue generated by golf.

The public really needs to take a hard look as to how this board is appointed, because it can certainly be stated that this process was a runaway train wreck when it comes to democracy. About three or four board members asked questions yesterday, but there was no hard discussion, no concern expressed over the promises of revenue, no mention of golf feeling the effect of the recession everywhere. The Board, too, should be reminded that it serves and represents the public, but it wasn't in evidence yesterday. And again, no public input at this meeting, and a measly two public hearings for a $49 million golf makeover.

The public should also take a look as to the hiring process for the City Park CEO position. Granted, Bob Becker was hired before the full failure of the golf overhaul of Audubon Park was manifested, an issue that never came up in yesterday's board meeting. Becker was Vice President of Planning of the Audubon Nature Institute (ANI), when he helped usher in the $6 million renovation of the golf course and clubhouse facilities there, in a process that could be characterized as less than democratic. Hearings were held, and the public told the renovation would amount to $2.5 million. However, ANI felt it needed more money for a banquet/restaurant facility, and without public hearings, though it is a public park, raised more money and proceeded to renovate.

Now controversy abounds regarding Audubon Park golf course, as the course has lost revenue every year since its opening in 2003. Check out www.saveaudubonpark.org for more info on this. The club house is having to host outside catering parties to raise revenue, though the area is not zoned for that purpose, and the restaurant was to be for clubhouse members only.

ANI CEO and would-be mayor Ron Forman, I'm sure, knows a thing or two about marketing, but apparently, Billy Turner, even Forman has been unsuccessful in selling Audubon Park golf "like coffee and chicory and beignets", to an apparently less than hungry tourist industry for golf these days.

What was sacrificed for the Audubon Park golf course? A beautiful grove of Oak trees and the Meditation Walk, which was the favorite of many park goers, including myself, and the taking of Audubon Park green space for a sport for the very few. As one activist pointed out, they oddly left the sign there for the Meditation Walk, "a gravestone", she said.

Becker reminds me of the corporate CEOs, the highest, and highest paid personnel of the corporate world, who despite their bad ideas continually get recycled through various companies; after losing one CEO position because the company loses money, these CEOs simply pick up and start fresh with another company.

Though Becker shut the public out of yesterday's meeting, City Park activists seemed determined more than ever to maintain vigilance and continue to oppose this anti-democratic, urban renewal process of privatization of public services. Becker and the board can get used to it.

Elizabeth Cook