Golf Course Redevelopment

[stick n move]

Looking around on maps its absolutely insane how many golf courses there are from the 128 ring and in towards the city. Im not a golfer, but I get why its popular with people. That being said its absolutely ridiculous the sheer amount of courses that there are in close proximity to a city with a housing crisis. Im not sure the exact number of courses, but its a lot.

I can understand 2-3 courses for one small sized city, but looking on maps I cant even count how many there are. Its hard to tell which ones are separate clubs vs single clubs with multiple playing courses, but holy crap! There has to be like 15 within a 12 mile radius of downtown.

At what point do we decide that this is a completely ridiculous waste of space and develop some of them into real estate? I dont see how it makes any sense at all to have sooooo many golf courses around one city. Wouldnt 10 be enough? What about 5? Theres probably a dorchester sized amount of land being taken up by soo many different courses. Im not saying there shouldnt be any at all, but how does it make sense to have so many this close to a city?

 

[stick n move]

I didnt even get em all I just got tired of screen shotting and uploading. Such an absolutely ridiculous waste of space. In what world does one city need so many damn golf courses, while theres hardly any space to build.

 

[jklo]

It's like Open Space. Except not...

 

[Justbuildit]

Otherwise-sedentary suburban golf dads are the actual secret cabal that runs the world, from law enforcement to finance to permitting to politics. I say this only half-sarcastically, but the only way they'll give up their 7 iron is if you pry it from their single-gloved cold dead hands. It's a losing battle, my friend. I agree it's terrrrrrible land use in an urban setting but you might as well try to cancel St. Patrick's Day.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Why not have a virtual reality golf course which would only take up the space of a driving range.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Going after golf courses is one of the most eye rolling "hills to die on" for Twitter YIMBYs. If they sell the land, redevelop it. But we have these things called stairs and elevators to solve our housing crisis.

 

[fattony]

Going after golf courses is one of the most eye rolling "hills to die on" for Twitter YIMBYs. If they sell the land, redevelop it. But we have these things called stairs and elevators to solve our housing crisis.

100%

Underutilized land area outside the urban center is not now and never has been a significant contributor to the housing crisis. This argument against golf courses just sets up a NIMBY strawman that the vicious developers are coming for every scrap of green space including Boston Common.

Densifying urban neighborhoods and town/village centers is where you want to look to solve the crisis, not turning golf courses into single family homes. Maybe there is one or two courses in a location that is conducive to density and transit, but for most of these you are just asking to create additional car-dependent suburban sprawl.

 

[Suffolk 83]

Dont touch my golf courses bro. Just cuz you dont play doesnt make it evil

 

[Equilibria]

Dont touch my golf courses bro. Just cuz you dont play doesnt make it evil

My not playing doesn't make it evil. The fact that it consumes massive amounts of land for fake, often exclusive "parks" (even public courses are unsafe to walk on when anyone's playing) while also being the official sport of rich corporate a$$holes and the most popular way to sportswash murderous despotic regimes... that's what makes it evil.

 

[Suffolk 83]

My not playing doesn't make it evil. The fact that it consumes massive amounts of land for fake, often exclusive "parks" (even public courses are unsafe to walk on when anyone's playing) while also being the official sport of rich corporate a$$holes and the most popular way to sportswash murderous despotic regimes... that's what makes it evil.

meh, I almost completely disagree. Go after a couple private courses here or there and I dont really care but these often go after the "everyman" courses.

You really gonna get started on LIV golf? Like the US isnt directly in bed with the Saudi's to begin with? That they arent also doing this to soccer and many other things? Its a really poor argument IMO

 

[bigpicture7]

I think any developer who builds a big fat landscraper should be required to put a golf course on its enormous roof, and then purchase an existing golf course to be converted to housing.

 

[Equilibria]

meh, I almost completely disagree. Go after a couple private courses here or there and I dont really care but these often go after the "everyman" courses.

You really gonna get started on LIV golf? Like the US isnt directly in bed with the Saudi's to begin with? That they arent also doing this to soccer and many other things? Its a really poor argument IMO

I grew up next to an everyman course. I get the appeal, but the fact of the matter is that for 8 months out of the year the public can't access it because you'll be disrupting the game of someone standing a football field away from you (and you might get beaned in the head by their ball even walking on the cart path or on adjacent streets. Tremendously inefficient use of space. The only similarly wasteful sport by acre is probably skiing, but they use mountainsides in rural areas and aren't competing with anyone else. Also, you can fit a lot more people on a ski trail than you can fit on a golf hole.

And I get that the Saudis etc. have invested in other sports (and FIFA and the NFL have their evil sides too) but no sport is so associated with the dirty rich like golf (maybe Croquet?). Donald Trump didn't choose to build hockey rinks.

 

[Suffolk 83]

I grew up next to an everyman course. I get the appeal, but the fact of the matter is that for 8 months out of the year the public can't access it because you'll be disrupting the game of someone standing a football field away from you (and you might get beaned in the head by their ball even walking on the cart path or on adjacent streets. Tremendously inefficient use of space. The only similarly wasteful sport by acre is probably skiing, but they use mountainsides in rural areas and aren't competing with anyone else. Also, you can fit a lot more people on a ski trail than you can fit on a golf hole.

And I get that the Saudis etc. have invested in other sports (and FIFA and the NFL have their evil sides too) but no sport is so associated with the dirty rich like golf (maybe Croquet?). Donald Trump didn't choose to build hockey rinks.

Not everything is perfect. Not everything is perfectly efficient. Let people have fun, even if you cant empathize with it. Vanshnook said it better than I did with the stairs and elevators line

 

[Equilibria]

Not everything is perfect. Not everything is perfectly efficient. Let people have fun, even if you cant empathize with it. Vanshnook said it better than I did with the stairs and elevators line

I don't necessarily want it to be housing - I want it to be a park that can be used by more than one person every 300 yards.

And that doesn't even get into the transportation implications of not being able to cut through these enormous areas of cities... I can stop, though.

 

[stick n move]

My whole point of this thread wasnt that golf sux and all the golf courses should be taken away and redeveloped. It was just that maybe we dont need 37 golf courses within 12 miles of downtown and instead could make do with just like 25 instead.. or even just one less would be a huge amount of land put to better use imo. Its just a terribly wasteful use of land in the metro area of a city to have soooo many courses. I dont think thats a completely unreasonable perspective, but what do I know.

 

[393b40]

My not playing doesn't make it evil. The fact that it consumes massive amounts of land for fake, often exclusive "parks" (even public courses are unsafe to walk on when anyone's playing) while also being the official sport of rich corporate a$$holes and the most popular way to sportswash murderous despotic regimes... that's what makes it evil.

You sound bitter and sad. Go take a walk, you could even take up playing golf and go for a walk in one of these parks while chasing around a little white ball, socializing with friends, and having a beer. How neat!

This is a dumb hill to die on for YIMBY types snd basically amounts to class warfare.

As someone else said, stairs and elevators have been invented.

 

[393b40]

My whole point of this thread wasnt that golf sux and all the golf courses should be taken away and redeveloped. It was just that maybe we dont need 37 golf courses within 12 miles of downtown and instead could make do with just like 25 instead.. or even just one less would be a huge amount of land put to better use imo. Its just a terribly wasteful use of land in the metro area of a city to have soooo many courses. I dont think thats a completely unreasonable perspective, but what do I know.

Most of them are private. Good luck getting eminent domain for any of these places.

If anything metro Boston has too few public courses.

 

[393b40]

I don't necessarily want it to be housing - I want it to be a park that can be used by more than one person every 300 yards.

And that doesn't even get into the transportation implications of not being able to cut through these enormous areas of cities... I can stop, though.

So government should take private property and socialize it because you want to use it? Thanks for checking in Comrade.

 

[Equilibria]

So government should take private property and socialize it because you want to use it? Thanks for checking in Comrade.

Nope. If you look back at the conversation it was about public courses - those already belong to the people, comrade. I've taken many walks - in public golf courses - and had to avoid the people chasing around a little white ball as it whizzed over my head at high speed. I get that you seem to enjoy it, since you even want to take more space for your exclusive use!

Nothing bitter and sad here - just looking to make the most people able to enjoy the most parkland!

 

[greenbeans]

Class warfare? Be more insecure.