An idea so good that it's doomed: Metro Louisville "should turn its golf courses into walkable neighborhoods."

We have all been here before.

Experts say golf is dying, and if so, expect the redevelopment vultures to circle New Albany Springs.

I think it's a great idea to repurpose golf courses into something remotely useful. Retain some of the green space, build living spaces, and make it walkable.

Golf scramble? Nah, but scrambled eggs and chorizo sound good to me right about now.

Streets for People: Metro should turn its golf courses into walkable neighborhoods, by Chris Glasser (Insider Louisville)

As Insider Louisville’s Joe Sonka reported last week, Mayor Greg Fischer’s 2020 budget calls for the closing of up to four of the city’s 10 public golf courses. Reports indicate that only three of the courses are operating at a profit, with the courses showing an overall operating loss of $700,000.

With the golf courses on the chopping block, the question has become what to do with them?

The most straightforward approach, potentially, would be to find a private company to run them. Councilman Brandon Coan has floated another idea for the course in his district: donating Cherokee Golf Course to the Olmsted Parks Conservancy.

Scott Martin, the former director of The Parklands at Floyds Fork and current director of River Heritage Conservancy, mused on Facebook that the Cherokee Golf Course would have been a great site for the Botanical Gardens project.

I would like to propose a quite different option: the city should repurpose some of these courses as mixed-use, mixed-income, walkable neighborhoods.

As has been observed in Metro Council hearings on the matter, golf as a sport is losing popularity, and courses across the country are closing because of it.

“Long term . . . I think we’re going to keep seeing a greater and greater amount of general funds being drawn into golf,” Metro’s budget director David Frockt said.

Put another way, this isn’t so much a Louisville budget problem or even, as some would like to make it, a government mismanagement problem; it’s a golf problem.

This reality makes closing some of the Metro Parks courses a fundamentally different kind of decision than that of closing the Metro Parks swimming pools ...

Experts say golf is dying, and if so, expect the redevelopment vultures to circle New Albany Springs.

For as long as I can remember, during unguarded moments, certain of our city officials have been musing about the potential value and redevelopment potential of the area occupied by the New Albany Housing Authority's property on Bono Road.

They no longer speak with me, but I'm assuming this moistening of lips to have escalated since Jeff Gahan seized control of NAHA early in 2017.

Looking at the map, it's easy to see the military reasoning of these C-minus students, graded on the curve. NAHA is the high ground (topographically, though not morally in terms of Gahan's putsch), from which command of the battlefield is assured.

Just to the south, there's the expanse of Padgett. Some day, and I'm guessing sooner rather than later, someone at Padgett finally will do the math, begin negotiating with state agencies, score incentives and treasure chests, and move those cranes out of the city, into industrial space near an interstate, or River Ridge, probably both.

That's because Padgett is landlocked and can't grow where it is now, and the redevelopment potential (read: money) of its downtown property will become too great to ignore.

At this point, all we'll need to complete the scene is for the current New Albany Springs golf course property to become worth more as housing (alas, probably not as affordable as we'd like to see) than recreation, and the dominoes will fall.

Baptismal Hospital to "cleansed" NAHA land, down the hill to Binford Park and the golf course, continuing through the Padgett redevelopment bonanza, and all of it anchored by a cemetery that might as well be another park. It's the closest thing we're likely to have to the Clarksville South and future JeffBoat makeovers, and it's why the sycophants salivate.

And right there, in the middle of it, completely unchanged, with precisely the same long-necks and Democratic Party Walt Disney Film Nights, there'll be the Roadhouse, like a working museum.

Remember, the Green Mouse told you so.

Dead Golf Courses Are the New NIMBY Battlefield, by Nolan Gray (CityLab)

As the sport’s popularity wanes, vast amounts of underutilized land will open up. Can it be developed?

Golf is dying, many experts say. According to one study by the golf industry group Pellucid Corp., the number of regular golfers fell from 30 to 20.9 million between 2002 and 2016. Ratings are down, equipment sales are lagging, and the number of rounds played annually has fallen.

Part of the bust can be blamed on the fallen fortunes of a single person: Tiger Woods. Golf boomed in the 1990s and early 2000s as the charismatic superstar raked in titles. Then, beginning in 2009, it faced a one-two punch of recession and bad press when its star golfer’s chronic infidelity came to light.

But the bigger story involves the sport’s aging demographics and the athletic tastes of Millennials, who just aren’t that into an expensive, poky sport that provides few health benefits. Unless the golf industry can change its ways, the decline will mean a lot of empty greens across the country. How that land is used—or isn’t—could reshape America’s suburbs for decades to come.

Golf courses and country clubs currently consume massive amounts of relatively underutilized land in cities and suburbs. Across the country, as courses and clubs begin shutting down, hundreds of thousands of acres of land could soon start opening up for infill redevelopment. While not so great for golfers, this could be a boon for cities, especially those facing a housing crunch ...

Meanwhile, at LEO: Dude, how many left feet can one incoming owner and sole employee have?

Former LEO Weekly editor Sarah Kelley, who graciously helped me relieve myself of LEO beer columnist duties a few years back, submits pithy Insider Louisville commentary about the publication's surreal changeover.

When the weirdness broke, I resolved to give Aaron Yarmuth a chance. I'm trying hard to stick to my resolution, and he's not making it easy. Apart from the staffing catastrophe, he has pulled a local LEO cover and substituted one about (yuck) golf, featuring an article written by returning fascist hero (blech) John Ziegler -- really, Aaron, he's the first issue "surprise" you were referring to? -- in which the coffin of a black man is lowered into a grave.

Of course, lest we forget, Papa Yarmuth used to waste acres of poor dead trees writing about golf, too, so this apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. But it's bizarrely tasteless, isn't it?

LEO executive editor Aaron Yarmuth swaps planned west Louisville cover with Tiger Woods cartoon

I received a photo of today’s LEO Weekly cover via text this morning, and I initially thought perhaps it was a self-reflection about the grave mistakes new ownership has made in recent days. A dark prognostication — an acknowledgment of LEO’s grim future if great care isn’t taken to right the wrongs that have been done.

Heavy reading: A golf club, an outing, a suicide and Frank Sinatra.

For the hundredth time, thanks to Dave Zirin of The Nation for sportswriting that actually matters, on a daily basis. Zirin places sports into context, as a part of life, not removed from it. I only wish he had time to bring the same skills into beer writing, which is in a wretched state these days.

On Saturday, Zirin was tweeting about this saga. It begins here:

Dr. V’s Magical Putter; The remarkable story behind a mysterious inventor who built a "scientifically superior" golf club, by Caleb Hannan (Grantland)

... I play golf. Sometimes poorly, sometimes less so. Like all golfers, I spend far too much time thinking of ways to play less poorly more often. That was the silver lining to my sleeplessness — it gave me more time to scour YouTube for tips on how to play better. And it was then, during one of those restless nights, that I first encountered Dr. Essay Anne Vanderbilt, known to friends as Dr. V.

As soon becomes evident, this is not a story about a golf club. It is about a suicide, and a writer getting the story, whatever the outcome (in this case, chilling), because "The Story Is The Most Important Thing" -- as lucidly critiqued here by a fellow writer.

SINATRA’S COLD IS CONTAGIOUS: Hostile Subjects, Vulnerable Sources & The Ethics of Outing, by Maria Dahvana Headley (GLITTERING SCRIVENER blog)

THERE ARE THINGS ABOUT BEING A WRITER THAT SUCK. One of them is that as a writer, you’re sometimes sold a bill of bullshit.

Here is a prime example: The Story Is The Most Important Thing.

This line is a lie, but in order to make students pay for writing instruction – and sometimes in order to fuel our own egos as writers who often professionally neglect the people in our lives so that we can sit in silence making things up – we have to have a culture in which story matters more than anything else.

The Dr. V story is sobering enough, and Headley's deadly accurate corrective edifying, but what of colds? Specifically, what the hell is meant by "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold"? Read all about it here:

FRANK SINATRA HAS A COLD, by Gay Talese (April, 1966 in Esquire; 2007 reboot)

In the winter of 1965, writer Gay Talese arrived in Los Angeles with an assignment from Esquire to profile Frank Sinatra. The legendary singer was approaching fifty, under the weather, out of sorts, and unwilling to be interviewed. So Talese remained in L.A., hoping Sinatra might recover and reconsider, and he began talking to many of the people around Sinatra -- his friends, his associates, his family, his countless hangers-on -- and observing the man himself wherever he could. The result, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," ran in April 1966 and became one of the most celebrated magazine stories ever published, a pioneering example of what came to be called New Journalism -- a work of rigorously faithful fact enlivened with the kind of vivid storytelling that had previously been reserved for fiction. The piece conjures a deeply rich portrait of one of the era's most guarded figures and tells a larger story about entertainment, celebrity, and America itself. We're very pleased to republish it here.

1Si makes one small step to reduce CEO sexting, hires non-Wassmer female exec from Benton Harbor as kingpin.

Insiders say that Kerry Stemler's personal glee club has been struggling of late. Perhaps this explains why I just went to One Southern Indiana's website to read about the new CEO hire, and there's no coverage there at all, just the usual oligarch-fluffing propaganda.

Now THAT's a bottom line for you.

Chesser is new CEO of One Southern Indiana, by John R. Karman III (Business First)

Wendy Dant Chesser, who has led an economic development organization in Benton Harbor, Mich., since 2007, is the new president and CEO of One Southern Indiana.

Hmm, Benton Harbor ... where have we heard that name before? There's a fine craft brewery there (The Livery), but you heard about Benton Harbor right here at NAC, back on December 26, 2011. The full text follows, proving that we can expect a 1Si golf course (with Chick-fil-A clubhouse) to be built where the nasty inner cities used to stand. Also, don't forget our paean to all things Kerry earlier this year: Kingpin of the week: There's only one, isn't there?

---

"Is there anything wrong with this economy that a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course can't fix?"

The New York Times offers fascinating reading about the trials and travails of Benton Harbor, Michigan, especially for those among us who've ever asked the question, rhetorically or otherwise: "Can golf revitalize New Albany?"

Now That the Factories Are Closed, It’s Tee Time in Benton Harbor, Mich., by Jonathan Mahler

 ... Watching carpenters hammer preweathered wood shingles onto homes that wouldn’t look out of place in East Hampton, Long Island, I felt almost as if I were at a resort in a third-world Caribbean country: beyond the boundaries of Harbor Shores is the poorest city in all of Michigan.

In the state of Michigan's view, Benton Harbor is so failed that democracy must no longer be permitted to exist there -- temporarily, of course. The appointment of an "emergency manager" overrides all election results, and that chortling you're hearing may or may not be Indiana's governor, Mitch Daniels, and his henchmen (see Bennett, Tony).

Benton Harbor: An Addendum by Chris Savage, by Jonathan Mahler

... I understand that Michigan cities like Benton Harbor are struggling and help is needed. The Snyder administration’s recent cuts in revenue sharing to cities and cuts to our public schools have only made matters much worse. My contention is that we must start from the baseline that democracy, even at the local level, must be preserved. Democracy isn’t always pretty and “the people” sometimes elect unqualified representatives. But that’s not an excuse to disenfranchise our citizens and democracy should be sacrosanct, the baseline from which we evaluate any potential solution. I reject the notion that this is the only answer.

Strictly speaking, the parallels between Benton Harbor and New Albany are few in number. The Whirlpool variable alone counsels caution when making comparisons. Still, I agree with Savage: It's a chilling development indeed when nixing democracy is deemed acceptable as the best American alternative to problems with many more sources than just civic corruption. Is robber baron capitalism the solution in Benton Harbor, or was it the problem? Where did the wonderful corporate citizen Whirlpool take all those jobs, anyway?

Would this make more sense to me if I played golf with the oligarchs? I certainly hope not.

"Is there anything wrong with this economy that a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course can't fix?"

The New York Times offers fascinating reading about the trials and travails of Benton Harbor, Michigan, especially for those among us who've ever asked the question, rhetorically or otherwise: "Can golf revitalize New Albany?"

Now That the Factories Are Closed, It’s Tee Time in Benton Harbor, Mich., by Jonathan Mahler

 ... Watching carpenters hammer preweathered wood shingles onto homes that wouldn’t look out of place in East Hampton, Long Island, I felt almost as if I were at a resort in a third-world Caribbean country: beyond the boundaries of Harbor Shores is the poorest city in all of Michigan.

In the state of Michigan's view, Benton Harbor is so failed that democracy must no longer be permitted to exist there -- temporarily, of course. The appointment of an "emergency manager" overrides all election results, and that chortling you're hearing may or may not be Indiana's governor, Mitch Daniels, and his henchmen (see Bennett, Tony).

Benton Harbor: An Addendum by Chris Savage, by Jonathan Mahler

... I understand that Michigan cities like Benton Harbor are struggling and help is needed. The Snyder administration’s recent cuts in revenue sharing to cities and cuts to our public schools have only made matters much worse. My contention is that we must start from the baseline that democracy, even at the local level, must be preserved. Democracy isn’t always pretty and “the people” sometimes elect unqualified representatives. But that’s not an excuse to disenfranchise our citizens and democracy should be sacrosanct, the baseline from which we evaluate any potential solution. I reject the notion that this is the only answer.

Strictly speaking, the parallels between Benton Harbor and New Albany are few in number. The Whirlpool variable alone counsels caution when making comparisons. Still, I agree with Savage: It's a chilling development indeed when nixing democracy is deemed acceptable as the best American alternative to problems with many more sources than just civic corruption. Is robber baron capitalism the solution in Benton Harbor, or was it the problem? Where did the wonderful corporate citizen Whirlpool take all those jobs, anyway?

Would this make more sense to me if I played golf with the oligarchs? I certainly hope not.

Golf as a redevelopmental riposte to "well intended organizations," or just plain mental?

This guest commentary in today's Tribune is credited to James Bledsoe. It's hard to argue that New Albany's moribund downtown country club stands well positioned to serve as a centerpiece of neighborhood revitalization, but some readers may differ with the details as proffered here. That's what makes it fun, right?

BLEDSOE: Can golf revitalize New Albany?

When I was overnighting in Atlanta as an airline pilot, I was fortunate to watch a special on a local station about the revitalization of East Lake Meadows, one of Atlanta’s worst public housing projects located just six miles from downtown ...

.. This transformation was able to happen when a philanthropist named Tom Cousins, a golfing enthusiast, felt that if character-building through the fundamentals and high standards associated with the game of golf were taught to young East Lake Meadow children, then the cycle of poverty could be broken. He purchased the bankrupt golf course and rehabilitated it and its country club into its former glory.

Open thread: Whither the NA Country Club?

NAC readers are expected to be outdoors today, enjoying the reintroduction of the sun. Some may even be playing golf.

Chris Morris reports, and the Tribune headline says it all:

New Albany Country Club could be sold at sheriff’s sale

Ideally, what is the best outcome? Personally, golf means nothing to me, and my best case scenario would be an expansive, urban public park.

Your opinion?