#golf course repurposing

[jaybarou]

I don't want to be negative on an utopia post so I started my own.

For reasons, I have lots of golf lore. And transforming golf courses is a good idea in teory, but I'm afraid these kind of posts paint this trasformation as a miracle that will solve the housing crisis and become the solution to climate change. It's not.

There is a lot, and I mean a LOT of nuance.

For example, there's a difference between a links golf course in Scotland (a kind of course more integrated in the native nature in an already humid country), and a regular golf course in a desertic area in Florida. Or a par-3 course? (the one least eco-damaging and the friendliest to kids, old people and people in general)

More nuance: is the golf course in the middle of the city or is it a 60 minute ride from anywhere livable? (Because transforming a green area in the middle if a cramped city into more housing will increase the summer heat in the area. And transforming an isolated area is a waste of resources.)

Even more nuance: is it a golf course in use or one of the 200 golf courses closed in the U.S. in 2017?

And a big big nuance: is it a PUBLIC golf course or a PRIVATE golf course? Those are incredibly different problems with incredibly different approaches.

Most golf courses in the USA are a privately owned business that rely on the kind of clients that make business on the club house. And like to bee seen spending 8 hours staight walking around It is lucrative! Look at all that water, and the land they can aford with the tiny number of people perusing it at a time. Because they are not selling in bulk, they are selling exclusivity snd selling an image of power and richness.

One way to close them down is to ruin golf's public image. But this year they survived being shamed for betraying an association of terroist victim's families. I'm not kidding. I wish I was, but the golf lovers are willing to shove a LOT under the rug.

The tipping point for golf gourse private owners is not going to be shame. It's going to be: "is more profitable to exploit people through rent indefinitely than to sell the image of richness?"

You may love direct action, but a few weeks ago a main event for senior players was trashed. Destroyed, the ground was unplayable, and all the golf superintendants of the region pitched in and in the morning it was perfect and they played.

However you choose to dismantle it you have to take into account that this is still owned by people who live off the image of affluence, it is their business model. So whatever they build instead of a golf course is not going to be affordable for you and me.

It is not going to solve the housing crisis. The neighborhoods surounding a golf course are of high value, so you are going to find a strong opposition of a small army of semi rich Karens and Kens of the area unless you find something that will keep the value of their property up.

And this is not a crazy "what if" story. I come with receips because this has already happened.

Successful story of repurposed golf course into a park. The land had to be clawed out of private hands.

“It always had been identified,” Moskos said. “It just took 100 years to secure the land.”

Metro Parks bought the property, which had been a golf course for more than 50 years, for $4 million in October 2016. The 200-acre property connects three parks — Cascade Valley, Gorge and Sand Run — and creates the district’s second-largest contiguous area, at just under 1,700 acres.

Another repurposed golf course in Kent, this time apartments. Public space in debt sold to private hands to build "luxury rental housing". You decide if that's a success.

Auburn-based Landmark Development Group and HAL Real Estate will construct the project on the former Riverbend par 3 golf course property along the Green River they bought from the city of Kent for $10.5 million. The City Council voted to sell the property to eliminate the Riverbend Golf Complex fund’s debt of about $4 million and spend about $6 million to improve the 18-hole course across the street from the former par 3 course.

[...]

Marquee on Meeker will provide Kent first-of-its-kind, luxury rental housing and retail via two new six-story, 120-unit buildings featuring 6,000 square feet of retail each, and 21, 12-unit, three-story walk-up residential buildings. Residential units will feature high-quality finishes.

The apartment complex will include lounges, decks, fitness centers and a large clubhouse including a modern kitchen, pool, spa, outdoor fireplace and barbecue areas.

Yet another story, this time in Palm Springs. Dead golf course turned into "exclusive neighborhoods".

Overseen by Freehold Communities, a national real estate developer, Miralon represents one of the country’s biggest bets on agriculture-oriented real estate. [...] Residents in these exclusive neighborhoods can tend community gardens, fill up baskets of fruits in orchards, and, in Kukui’ula in Hawaii, even harvest guava, papaya, and pineapple.Selling a more experiential and exclusive lifestyle—“whether it’s tranquil, artsy, eclectic or organic, more or less everything is right where you want it,” says Miralon’s website. [...]

Of course, maybe the most sustainable use of land may actually be dense high-rises, which support resource conservation, public transit, and more efficient land use. But that may be a bit too radical, not to mention expensive, for Palm Springs.[...]

Miralon actually had its start as a failed golf course development named Avalon that, like it’s partial owner, Lehman Brothers, was stopped short by the recession.

There have been other successful stories, like Japan turning a defunct golf course into a solar farm. And there have been faillure stories about HOAs refusing to let affordable housing be built.

What can you do?

I don't know, do you live near a defunct golf course? Is there a public golf course in your town that you could encourage to plant local flora? Are you involved in a HOA that's blocking the repurposing of a golf course? Can you educate someone making seed bombs into a more productive course of action? I don't know! Here is where you have to think for yourself, learn about your area of influence and influence it.

Just make sure when you rage against the machine that you are aimed at the right direction, make sure there is at least one possibility of realizing what you set yo do, and know what will happen later to save yourself the pikachu face.

[profbruce]

Invasion of the Pod People

Or what to do with underused parking lots and golf courses…

OK, I’ll admit it. I am a bad (actually terrible) golfer and a not much better driver (of cars, that is).

These days golf is a sport in decline (even before Covid-19 cratered much of the planet’s economy), which has triggered questions like: What to do with underused courses?

The debate over the fate of these lands is often fierce, witness the on-going argument pitting local councillor Jenna Sudds and Kanata Lakes homeowners against ClubLink-owned Kanata Golf and Country Club, who want to turn their erstwhile golf property into a 1,500-unit housing and apartment project.

Local residents want to keep the lands in its current use or turn it into open space. It’s a great place to walkabout or, in winter, toboggan with your kids.

How do I know that?

Because I owned a home backing onto that golf course for a generation. My spouse and I brought up five great kids whilst living there and we used the golf course every year (for sliding, not golfing).

To me, golf courses always were a waste of space–they use enormous amounts of energy, water, chemicals, fungicides, insecticides, fertilizer to keep their manicured greens in perfect condition. Golfers walk through a cancer-causing soup with each round IMHO.

So, what would I recommend for the reuse of some golf courses?

How about:

-grow local, turning part of it into microgardens producing a font of produce?

-playland, adding outdoor games like pickleball courts?

-tiny home paradise, creating spots for affordable housing?

Hence, turn this:

Into this:

And while we are at it, how about colonizing underused parking lots, turning this:

Into this:

I call this: Invasion of the POD People (a term I derived from the classic 1956 sci-fi horror film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers). POD people are folks who are tired of not having access to safe, affordable housing, a scandal in North America and beyond. Somehow, we forgot how to create enough housing for our citizens. Are you freaking kidding me?

I lived in Australia for many years and, more recently, I noted that Aussies are doing something about homelessness and parking lots. Yes, they are re-purposing parking garages to host homeless at night, https://www.boredpanda.com/homeless-shelters-car-parks-charity-australia-beddown/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic, so maybe my idea of re-purposing parking lots and golf course lands is not as far fetched as one might think…

I wrote a novel about this sort of “civil disobedience” (it’s called Jenna’s Story). I attach an excerpt from the work below but, I apologize in advance, it has some language NSFO or children under 18.

Be well everyone,

Prof Bruce

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GHS-pictogram-skull.svg

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers_(1956_poster).jpg

FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT AND BUSINESS COACHING THAT’LL HELP YOU PROVIDE FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY FOR 3-GENERATIONS, PLEASE CONTACT:

Bruce M Firestone, B Eng (civil), M Eng-Sci, PhD Real Estate Investment and Business coach Century 21 Explorer Realty Inc broker Ottawa Senators founder 613-762-8884 [email protected] brucemfirestone.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/profbruce https://brucemfirestone.com/blog/ profbruce.tumblr.com/archive https://www.youtube.com/user/ProfBruce/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/reiroi https://bruce-firestone.c21.ca/

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Excerpt from Jenna’s Story:

Tom is restless these days, so he goes for long nighttime walks to calm himself down, get some exercise as well as feel less alienated and alone.

There are a lot of changes happening in his neighborhood, and around the nation as what everyone has taken to calling “pod people” invade cites and towns across America.

They’re not exactly the same as the aliens who invaded the US in Jack Finney’s classic 1955 novel, the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but might as well be as far as equity lords, police and Homeland Security Squad are concerned.

Immigrants, illegal aliens, people of color, the poor and homeless as well as a surprising number of middleclass people are riding in on long wagon trains of mobile pods—quantum tunnel generated micro homes that are sleek, jelly bean shaped, canvas-colored places on wheels. They are self-propelled by small EMP engines so they don’t move very fast, but they are quicker than 19th century Conestoga heavy wagons that, when fully loaded with up to 6 tons of cargo and people, could only travel a maximum of 4 mph.

In his neck of the woods, these pods have colonized almost every green space in San Francisco—Golden Gate Park, Lands End, Lake Merced Park, Potrero Hill, Lafayette Park, Gleneagles Golf Course at McLaren Park, Presidio Golf Course—and when these places filled up, pod people who came in later waves have taken to parking them on streets, in squares, even in backyards, front yards and side yards of private homes and buildings.

They’ve also crossed the Golden Gate Bridge invading Sausalito and surrounding zones including the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Millions of Americans are giving notice to their landlords, electing instead to buy a pod from Federal Unincorporated Company Kabooses, a not-for-profit manufacturer of these homes run by a crony of Abel Toreli’s, whose initials are on the side of each micro residence, that is, “F.U.C.K.”

Inhabitants or graffiti artists have cleverly added hand painted words after these initials such as, “you”, “them”, “yourself”, “it”, “yeah”, “POTUS”, “the feds”, “SCOTUS”, “slumlords”, “scumlords”, “gooberment”, “the man”, “DICKtatorship”, “robocracy”, “the SS”, “crapitalism”, “Amerika”, “bankenstein”, “aristoCATS”, “the Repulik”, “eviktion”, “democrazy”, “fascinazis”, and inexplicably, “Charlie Sheen”.

Once they find a parking space, they disable their EMP engines and settle in, rent free. They have street parties, drink a lot, play music—loudly—do an amazing range of legal and illegal drugs, and then get up every day to go to work, if they have a job. If they don’t, they turn their pods into mini flea market stalls selling whatever art, services or products these micro entrepreneurs can get access to or dream up.

A lot of the pod people across the States are from areas located within two miles of hazardous waste sites where persistent sickness and much higher cancer rates prevail; 56 percent of folks living that close to toxic dumps are minorities. This is their chance to get away, lower their monthly costs plus get access to better jobs and services.

…

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GHS-pictogram-skull.svg

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers_(1956_poster).jpg