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Course Correction

“How much do you want to subsidize golf?” asks a consultant studying the city’s money-losing public golf courses. Well, if “you” refers to the citizens of A2, the answer is “a lot”; as Tom Gantert’s story points out, this is a city where a write-in city council candidate almost beat a moderately popular incumbent by running on a one-issue “save the golf courses” platform. The courses are, the consultant argues, “an inferior product that is overpriced in a highly competitive market.” And, as we all know, there’s no room for overpriced, inferior products in Ann Arbor.

According to the consultant, the golf courses suffer from a lack of visibility. “The city should spend $25,000 on marketing for things such as highway billboards and newspaper advertisements … ‘If you don’t know where Leslie Park is, you can’t find it.’” Actually, that would be a great advertising slogan. Leslie Park: not only overpriced and inferior, but also inconvenient and inaccessible except to an elite few! If the city goes with this ad campaign, we predict that the courses start turning a profit in the next couple months.

23 Responses to “Course Correction”


  1. Sell Huron Hills! It will happen and then the residents of Ann Arbor Hills can suffer like the “inner city” residents who have shouldered the majority of dense development.

    If the city wants/needs to grow, (and I still think that is a dubious and misguided assumption based on political and economic expediency), let every neighborhood and quadrant of the city share in the “growing” pains.

    Who really benefits from “growth”? I doubt that the increased tax base (offset by the increased infrastructure costs) will result in mine going down or a better quality of life in Ann Arbor.

    posted by mucho gusto (I'm back) on December 13th, 2007 at 10:35 am

  2. Fuck golf. We really spend our tax dollars on fucking GOLF!!?? WHERE IS MY SKATE PARK YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!? I’m a home owner in the city of Ann Arbor where my taxes are around $4000, and part of that goes to GOLF??!! FUCK YOU! If we pay for golf then I want a god damn Skate park! Po-dunk redneck towns all over Michigan have real deal skate parks and we in Ann Arbor are forced to spend money on Golf ?
    Why do I continue to live here? A bunch of elitist shit bags run this town. Fuck golf. Fuck U Of M too.

    posted by Ann Arbor = honkey town USA on December 13th, 2007 at 12:14 pm

  3. Holland, Michigan has had a skate park for a decade.

    posted by Brandon on December 13th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

  4. But no golf course.

    West Michigan is so hip and edgy.

    posted by Brandon on December 13th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

  5. Holland especially.

    posted by Tom Brandt on December 13th, 2007 at 5:19 pm

  6. Wooden Shoes are the new Air Jordans.

    posted by MDS on December 13th, 2007 at 5:59 pm

  7. Speaking of billboard advertising, the bane of the recently deceased Lady Bird Johnson, Any of you younguns ever recollect or heard in utero any references to the Billboard Bandits?

    Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s there were roving bands of godless anarchists (or was that godless bands of roving anarchists?) who chainsawed billboards in the name of the god Shiva. A couple of them took down insults to the envinronment along I-94 between A2 and Jackson.

    posted by mucho gusto (I'm back) on December 13th, 2007 at 9:19 pm

  8. I they should have used hand saws, because chain saws are terrible for the environment.

    posted by Anna on December 14th, 2007 at 8:50 am

  9. Despite having two skate parks, Monroe, Michigan is still not hip and edgy. :)

    posted by Greg on December 14th, 2007 at 9:54 am

  10. As I recall (long past utero for me), the activities of the Billboard Bandits prompted the move heavy welded steel columns for advertising signs, rather than the old-fashioned wooden posts.

    posted by Larry Kestenbaum on December 14th, 2007 at 3:44 pm

  11. Anna, there was a whole lot more environment back then, so using chainsaws didn’t have as much effect as they do today.

    A lot of the environment was turned into golf courses. Too bad you can’t chainsaw a golf course!

    posted by mucho gusto (I'm back) on December 14th, 2007 at 7:57 pm

  12. Be sure to make your opinions count (to offset the responses by the people who live adjacent to the golf courses):

    http://www.a2gov.org/government/communityservices/ParksandRecreation/Pages/default.aspx

    Citizens are encouraged to comment and provide input. All comments about the report will be accepted in writing (Parks & Recreation Services, 100 N. Fifth Ave., Sixth Floor, Ann Arbor, MI 48107; Attention: Golf Report/Jan Barber) and via e-mail to: GolfReport@a2gov.org. Comments received will be posted on the City’s Web site (see below).

    posted by Rage on December 17th, 2007 at 9:30 am

  13. I don’t think that the Ann Arbor Hills pro golf, parks at any cost crowd can stop the snowball once it gets rolling.

    It will be only a matter of time until there is some development of some sort at Huron Hills. It won’t happen soon, but it will happen. the politicians and administration at City Hall can’t keep the drool in their mouths at the thought of some high end homes mixed with low income housing (hah!) on the first hole fairway.

    My advice is that the residents of Ann Arbor hills work with the city and any developers to get a decent development, If they don’t, that site could easily hold a WalMart or two.

    posted by mucho gusto (I'm back) on December 18th, 2007 at 8:40 am

  14. Strike a blow against Walmart and drooling politicians! Subsidize golf!

    posted by Bruce Fields on December 18th, 2007 at 10:15 am

  15. Personally, it bothers me a lot more that the U of M golf course takes up such a huge swath of land and is completely inaccessible to the public. I’d like to see it taken away from the University and given back to the citizens of the state…

    posted by Fred Zimmerman on December 18th, 2007 at 2:40 pm

  16. I’d just be happy for a pedestrian easement across the U of M golf course, Fred - do you know if there are any unofficial paths? Seems that would make a good place to walk.

    posted by Edward Vielmetti on December 19th, 2007 at 11:06 pm

  17. Ed, good idea — I live fairly nearby and have never seen any easements. There are convincing fences the whole length of S. Main and Stadium. I suppose one could walk in via the front gate on Stadium. They could certainly do a lot more to make the public welcome.

    posted by Fred Zimmerman on December 20th, 2007 at 10:12 am

  18. Let me see if I understand this idea…

    Pedestrians and 100 mph golf balls…

    Yeah, why didn’t someone come up with this before?

    posted by abc on December 20th, 2007 at 10:48 am

  19. abc: it’s easy, let’s get rid of the golf balls.

    Golf is a horrendous waste of land, water, natural vegetation, wilderness habitat, you name it.

    posted by Fred Zimmerman on December 21st, 2007 at 9:20 am

  20. Mr. Zimmerman, I am not a supporter of golf courses; you can do away with them all. But this isn’t, and has never been, about golf. If Huron Hills were not a golf course we would still be having the same discussion. William Newcomb would have still found reasons to declare any touching of this property to be “morally corrupt and philosophically bankrupt”, even if this land were simply a park. And Ed Amonsen would also have found it time to run for Council even if this property were a just a brushy hillside. What this is about is maintaining a green belt, of sorts, for Ann Arbor Hills; which just happens to be Mr. Amonsen’s backyard, literally.

    And for perspective, my position does not come from my wanting Mr. Amonsen and his neighbors to suffer and / or loose property value. The city should be finding ways to grow and become more dense. By definition that means less open space. The city should be actively identifying property that can be developed and prioritizing them. Is this the right piece now? I don’t have enough information. But clearly we have to take a step in this direction.

    posted by abc on December 21st, 2007 at 9:57 am

  21. Huh. We should all be so lucky to have a greenbelt in the backyard of an exclusive home in Ann Arbor Hills.

    We’re now paying for a Greenbelt so the townships can have a Greenbelt in the backyards of their exclusive homes.

    If the object is to increase density in Ann Arbor. let the ENTIRE city shoulder the burden, not just downtown or those areas adjacent to downtown!

    If the object is to increase tax revenues, the city should have never given a tax abatement to the corporate scoundrel, Pfizer and now should sell Huron Hills so some highly taxed million dollar homes in Mr Amonsen’s backyard.

    posted by mucho gusto on December 21st, 2007 at 2:27 pm

  22. Subsidizing the construction companies by releasingpublic park land for development in a depressed real estate market? Brilliant!

    Don’t like golf? Neither do I. But that’s no excuse for corporate welfare.

    posted by Ace Tomato Company on December 25th, 2007 at 12:06 pm

  23. Well fine close the courses and just make them parks.

    posted by EJ on January 3rd, 2008 at 6:23 pm

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