From: Rick Eikenbary
Columbus
People can be fools – repeating mistakes without learning. Recall the idea touted 35 years ago to take a lush greenspace and build a shopping mall. Sketches showed the trees would be spared, with glimpses of a building nestled within. Look at Fair Oaks Mall and tell me how it remotely resembles the artist’s sketches that duped us into thinking it would be okay.
The proposal to close Greenbelt Golf Course? Another very bad idea. It’s losing money? We waste money on things we don’t need. Fancy projects and anything artsy are funded, but our city seems eager to close the most beautiful golf course in the area.
This land is perfect for what it is. It should be a crime to do anything else with it. We have enough history of overdevelopment and messing up ecosystems, so this gorgeous land should remain as it is.
It’s short-sighted to claim that golf is fading and will decline. I’ve golfed more this year than the past 10 years combined. While team and indoor sports are less safe, golfing in fresh air is a healthy venue. My son now loves golf since other sports were cancelled.
COVID-19 is not going away, so why remove a golf course at a time when golf could be promoted as a safe and healthy outing?
I attended the July 11 meeting. An outpouring of women and older folks spoke who cannot play at Par 3 or Otter Creek golf courses, so Greenbelt is their only choice.
Also, I believe the math is biased. Roughly speaking, Donner Pool loses $500,000 a year, Par 3 around $30,000, and Greenbelt around $130,000. However, city officials are lumping some salaries onto Greenbelt’s bottom line in this math which are not on Par 3’s or Otter’s. If some of those salaries were moved elsewhere, Greenbelt’s loss would be significantly less.
If the math were done fairly and salaries were logged as separate entities, the city would have no reason to justify closing it. So what’s really going on? It makes you wonder. I walked out of the meeting to see an artsy statue bought by the city, and I know the cost of it would pay for years of loss on this beloved golf course. And we have dozens of such statues.
The impression is that some officials get an idea and ram it through, claiming we have a voice, bent to do what they want regardless of reason. Closing this course should be political suicide for anyone who votes to close it, and they should possibly be investigated for corruption and hidden agendas.
There is now a movement to sell it, but what if that doesn’t happen? I will ask one more time to promote golf as a healthy social-distance activity, to allow this beloved golf course to stay open, and to do the right thing which is to keep it open. Close Otter’s east nine holes or even Par 3 if you must, but Greenbelt must stay.
