Today's article in the Times Picayune illustrates that the battle to stop the over-development of City Park is far from over. In fact, the paper today seems to suggest that it is virtually a done deal, that City Park will have its TPC style pro golf course, and even declining golf use in the surrounding area will not stop it.

I'll tell what has the only chance of stopping this boondoggle: a grass roots movement that has a belief in egalitarian land use, a belief in smart environmentalism, and a belief that a nature park at City Park could attract monies, and people, and finance itself, and even make money for the park. My definition in egalitarian land use is the belief that public land is for everyone. Golf is not for everyone. One of the problems with the rather weak, opposition to current plans (weak because it isn't yet organized into a bona fide movement; actual opposition to this plan is strong though), is the lack of an alternative, a cohesive vision of what could be at the park.

The current and future visions for the park have been taken over by elite golf and private property interests who will stop at nothing to get the Zurich classic into the city. Take Bayou Foundation, one of the non-profit entities involved in pushing for this deal. Mike Rodrigue is described by the Picayune article as a key member of the Bayou District Foundation and a longtime member of Fore!Kids, which produces the Zurich Classic, currently staged in Marrero. Bayou Foundation pushed for the demolition of the St. Bernard Housing Development, not far from City Park, and it's redevelopment into so-called "mixed income housing". You might ask, what does housing have to do with golf?

It has a lot to do with golf when you are trying to create an upper middle income, and wealthy clientele to play the game, who live not far from City Park. Apparently, the youth of public housing just didn't qualify as potential future players, hence, a redeveloped public housing development that will cater to the middle and upper middle income folks, with few working poor residents able to return.

Now you can agree or disagree with the concept of public housing, but make no mistake: Bayou Foundation got involved in the St. Bernard redevelopment project with specific goals in mind, and they didn't have to do with creating affordable housing for the working poor.

The recent demolition of the St. Bernard Housing Development will drive up property values from the 610 interstate to the park, particularly if this golf course is built. This will attract a higher income resident to the area, and will result, if Bayou Foundation's fantasies come true, in greater use of what will be an expensive golf course.

Now I attended the City Park hearing in March, and I heard one person get up and speak in favor of rising property values. If I remember correctly, he was the president of the Lakeview Neighborhood Association. Rising property values are fine, if you plan on selling. But if you are like most folks who spoke that night, you are here in New Orleans for the long, dysfunctional haul, and you love this city, and want to see her "leaders" make the right decisions for the long-term quality of life here.

You can go to St.Bernardnow.com and click on Bayou District's link to get all the facts, and a sense of their "vision". Golf for everyone, I suppose, who can pay the high fees, except for the working poor of course who used to live in the area and are now scattered to the high winds. First they come for the least of us...

Today's Times Picayune articles, there are two of them, one on golf in general and one specifically on the City Park proposal, are included below. The articles barely touch on the millions of state public dollars that subsidize this greedy game. Even the cheap, Brechtel golf course in Algiers is waiting on $3 million in city funds to redevelop its course.

Apparently, in a rather quiet deal, the state has essentially purchased the TPC golf course in Marrero, the current home of the Zurich classic, to the tune of $9.15 million dollars, and apparently, the state and current operators of the park think that is a good deal. And this public ownership comes at a time of dropping golf revenues in the area. Thanks a lot.

This is in addition to the millions of state funds already spent in the previous deal with the TPC course in Marrero to guarantee rounds of golf for a sagging industry. Gee, I bet small business owners would love to have a certain number of poboy sales guaranteed, for example. That is the "thing" about golf though, It's a selfish sport, with millions spent by the state to subsidize it, all over the state, not just here, and golfers who love the game but seem oblivious to the fact that the rest of us are having to subsidize their game. This is absurd, and it needs to stop.

I'm still waiting on that article, promised by a Times Picayune reporter some time ago, on the amount of money that the state spends to subsidize golf courses in this state.

As part stakeholder now of the TPC course in Marrero, I advocate to return that course to the wetlands for whence it came, and create a beautiful addition to Bayou Segnette State Park, with virtually no overhead and maintenance fees. Now that's a deal I can believe in.

Here is where the vision thing comes in. If we don't begin to propose our vision of egalitarian, environmental land use, and our belief that that kind of land use, in this day of the greening of America, can attract monies, well...we are going to lose this battle, and lose our park and the neighborhood's quality of life to these wealthy elites and their expensive game. An entire complex of affordable housing for the working poor has already been sacrificed for this sport.

There is no time like right now to get busy and get active.