It’s been a sad week in Lake Woebehere, my adopted home town. Last Tuesday, Feb. 27th, the City Council voted 3:2 to demolish the historic public resource known as the Lindsay City Golf Course and build 5 soccer fields on the property instead. We’ll be seeing bulldozers there very shortly.
At the Council meeting there were 20
or 30-some little soccer players shepherded there by a few mothers and their
coach, Mr. Faustino Perez. The three
women who spoke on behalf of the soccer players are employees of the City, and
they spoke confidently of the need for greater access to playing fields for
this burgeoning youth activity. Mr.
Perez followed their comments with a description of the hardships these youth
were experiencing for lack of places to play.
Four adults representing Lindsay’s
youth baseball teams were also there, because the money for “repurposing” of
the golf course is coming from a grant recently acquired to upgrade the Olive
Bowl (our historic baseball facility) and Kaku Park, an adjoining triangle of
ground with facilities for children in an area where there is very little for
children to do. These coaches were not
as prepared to defend against the “repurposing” of the money granted to support
their efforts; their day jobs don’t give them direct access to the powers that
be.
There were some silent majority
types sitting in the audience, too, adults from the boomer generation for whom
the destruction of the golf course feels like destruction of their personal
history, not to mention golfing future.
“I feel like crying,” one woman said to me after the meeting, though she
did not address the council when it came time to speak. When the bulldozers arrive, I imagine a lot
of us will feel like crying.
With the little soccer players
standing there behind the podium, it was hard to question the rightness of Bill
Zigler’s decision to propose this change, promoting one sport (soccer) to the
detriment of two (baseball and golf.)
Councilman Velasquez did, however, providing multiple reasons why
destruction of the golf course should be reconsidered, and lodged one of the
two No votes. Mayor Kimball also
expressed regret about the loss of this public resource and concern about the
hastiness of the decision, casting the second No. Councilman Salinas argued that at least it
will remain open space rather than being developed with housing, while
Councilman Watkins expressed hope for the resurrection of active use of this
public land (he golfs in Exeter.)
Councilwoman Cortes was adamant about the importance of supporting
soccer in this community.
I agree with all of them, but I
question whether this decision is fiscally responsible. The City owns a facility with two indoor
soccer fields, which were built entirely with public funds that were garnered
on behalf of serving the underserved.
Building new soccer fields which will compete with our indoor facility,
while continuing to neglect the baseball park (long overdue for maintenance)
and demolishing one of the last remaining public golf courses in Tulare County,
seems like just another bad decision in a long stream of bad planning.
But to challenge this decision, it
will take the residents coming together to support all the recreational needs
of the community. It will require us to
take back our voice as the represented public, and tell them what we really
need: a city government responsive to
its citizens, not the bulldozers.
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Trudy
Wischemann is a bulldozer-averse rural advocate who writes. You can send her your uniting thoughts c/o P.
O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247 or leave a comment
below.
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