Paving Paradise to Put Up a Golf Course

The BBQ Pit
1

Florida politicians want to use tax money to build Jack Nicklaus-designed golf courses in 5 state parks, complete with hotels.

Okay, thems the facts, Jack. And here’s the opinion:

Fuck you. Fuck you, Rep. Pat Rooney, Sen. John Thrasher, and Gov. Rick “Voldemort” Scott. Fuck you sideways with metal golf cleats. Fuck you for coming up with one of the single most wrong-headed and offensive ideas in an already mind-blowingly sickening political season.

It’s as if they actual sat down and said, “Hey! Let’s come up with a way to make money off the state parks for private businesses, using state funds to do so, that primarily appeals to white, rich men. Why, that’s a capital idea!” And them I’m sure they polished their monocles, kicked a poor kid in the ass, and went off to sleep the sleep of the untroubled and completely batshit insane.

I mean, this shit is so movie-screen evil that they might as well be twirling mustaches and tying widows to the train tracks. Oh, wait, they can’t do the last bit - the Gov made sure of that.

Burn in hell, you thieving bastards. We may have no unions, shitty mental health care, lackluster schools, the blight that is Disney, and enough mosquitoes to carry off the White House, but at least we have some of the most beautiful (and well used!) state parks in the country. And they belong to us, and they should be passed down to our children. And once you shitslurping dirtweasels destroy them, we won’t even have that.

Fuck you. Get the hell out of our state.

2

That’s the dumbest thread title I’ve ever seen.
I also like the idea that golf is evil because white people like it.

3

A few years ago, as part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, a plan was presented to put a golf course on the site of the last pristine, old-growth patch of bottomland hardwood forest in central Alabama. Seriously, the trees were hundreds of years old, and the biodiversity in the tract was incredible. Biologists and nature lovers all over the Southeast began protesting. One morning not long after, it was discovered that wild bulldozers had broken into the tract overnight and leveled most of the trees.

The fucking golf course exists there now.

4

Maybe you’ve never heard this? Or have I been whooshed?

And I think there is something to be said for the idea that golf is an activity aimed at upper-middle class and higher, mostly white people, while state parks are at least accessible to lower-middle or middle-middle class folks if they have a car and a few bucks to pay for admission.
Roddy

5

Does Florida have some lack of golf courses that must be addressed by government action rather than the miracle of private enterprise?

6

There’s a serious lack. As the aged population of Florida increases, the need for golf courses will increase sevenfold.

7

We have county and regional parks that have golf courses. I haven’t seen anyone get bent out of shape over them.

The courses are useful for youth golf, among other things. Considering how nice it is to get the kids into the sunshine once in a while, the OPs rant seems ill-advised.

8

I doubt those courses are designed by Jack Nicklaus. And I doubt any Jack Nicklaus-designed course will be a municipal golf course, or affordable for most people.

9

To be fair, it is stipulated that the courses will be open to the public. Affordability of greens fees, however, is not addressed, as far as I understand.

10

Huh. I live in North Las Vegas and they’re converting a golf course into a park.

11

Of course I’ve heard of it. Trying to shoehorn it into a story about a golf course was lame.

It sounds to me like Florida legislators are trying to find a way to help fund these parks, so that they remain accessible to the general public without being too much of a drain on taxpayers.

12

Do golf courses that are cheap to use make money?

Sounds to me like a possible way for the parks to cost even more to operate. But then again, maybe they will make it up in volume?

13

Yes, and public courses are doing better than private ones, at the moment. I think part of that is due to volume, as you suggest. They really pack them in.

I’m not going to defend this one to the death, though. If some folks don’t like the idea of a golf course in a state park, then so be it.

14

In North Carolina, we pave our golf courses and put up auto dealerships (one Honda, one Audi, and one under construction that appears to be BMW or Mercedes).

15

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

16

Yeah, but just for golf carts, and those are usually electric. Green!!

17

Got some nice invective in the OP, I’ll defend that idea to the death…

18

As. Mr. Moto pointed out, golf courses on public land are nothing new.

I would want to know:

  • How much of the park will be taken up by the golf course and how much will remain accessible to non-golfers?
  • What is the projected cost of building the courses and who is paying?
  • What will the estimated revenue be, and what will be done with the profits?

before I knee-jerkily pronounced the whole plan “evil.”

I like playing golf, but it can get damned expensive. If they end up offering low greens fees to the general public, while satisfactorily answering the above questions, I for one would welcome such a development near me.

19

(Missed edit.)
I found the answer to one of my questions in the link within the OP’s link, which is much less screechy and contains some actual information.

The initial plan calls for the use of 200 acres within an 11,500 acre park. I don’t see going off the deep end over that.

20

Yes. As for the last part, they could even do something like they do for Harding Park in SF-- lower green fees for residents, and whack the tourists with higher green fees. Come to think of it, that’s what they do at DeLaveaga golf course in Santa Cruz, too.