BY KATHRYN KELLY
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) did another survey about the Hiawatha Golf Course project in February. The following results are a best effort to categorize the comments.
The top ten categories of comments were:
268 – Keep the 18 hole golf course
209 – Redesigning of the golf course
165 – The environment and ecology of the property
144 – Changes to the clubhouse
136 – Importance of Hiawatha Golf Course to the community
116 – Keep or improve the practice area
108 – Youth and beginner golf programs
103 – Water management
86 – Improving the maintenance of the golf course
59 – Water quality
For the third survey in a row, the request to keep the 18 hole golf course was, by far, the most common concern with 268 responses. Other comments were: Get rid of the golf course (34), Don’t like golf or the golf course (16), the 9-hole golf course will lose patronage (26), and OK with a nine-hole golf course (12).
The community cares about the Hiawatha Golf Course, with many believing it should retain 18 holes.
Many responses were related to ecology (165), water management (103), and water quality (59), asking for better ecological practices. While some people still believe that the golf course is polluting the lake and the cause of its water problems, more people see that the cause of the problems is the management of the watershed, not the golf course, itself.
How serious is the Park Board about ecology? All five Park Board golf courses used to be certified with The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, www.auduboninternational.org/acsp-for-golf/. This program “guides golf facilities in protecting natural resources and enhancing the environmental quality of their property. Participants work on projects to improve wildlife habitats, conserve resources, and engage in sustainable practices.” But, the certification of Hiawatha and Columbia has lapsed. The suburban golf courses are still certified. The Park Board talks about sustainable practices and promoting ecological practices on their properties, yet they have abandoned these practices on the two golf courses that are actually within the Minneapolis city limits. Why? Are the suburbs more important?
Another theme that stood out in the comments was the unrealistic expectations that people have for the Hiawatha golf course property. Some want it to be the Theodore Wirth of South Minneapolis or like Brookview in Golden Valley, while others want a big event center, plus everything under the sun at the clubhouse. We found that the whole of Wirth park is larger than Hiawatha park and golf course and Nokomis park combined (759 acres versus 646 acres). We also found that Wirth park and golf courses have a very large percentage of physical land (89%) versus water (11%), while Hiawatha and Nokomis parks have much less land (60%) versus water (40%). If the new Hiawatha Links plan turns half of the golf course into water, this would further decrease the percentage of physical land (49%) compared to water (51%). The Brookview property is 248 acres, over 100 acres larger than Hiawatha Golf Course. Based on this information, we see that the Park Board has given the South Minneapolis community totally unrealistic expectations of what could be done with the golf course property.
People also showed much concern for the homes that would be at risk of flooding (55 responses). One person said, “I think it is totally irresponsible for the park board to even consider a risk of flooding to nearby homes.” Another said, “I encourage the MPRB commissioners to sufficiently explore all water management proposals and to proceed with the best solution to avoid culpability to MPRB and liability to Minneapolis taxpayers.”
Another important theme that stood out was how important Hiawatha Golf Course is to the community. Here are some comments:
“I think the fancy uppity-ness of golf needs to go and perhaps one of the reasons Hiawatha has been successful, deeply loved and well-used is because it’s not like the other, fancier places.”
“Yes! An 18-hole legacy Black golf course with a successful history and an important and well-used, well-loved present should not be something changed or re-configured by a Park Board. SIGNIFICANT public outcry, time, effort and expense should have been enough for this Board to understand the need to keep the 18 holes, and move on to other projects. Shame on the MPLS Park Board.”
“The best way to respect and value history is to preserve it. Documenting peoples’ stories while you destroy the place they love is nothing but lip service.”
Some final comments from the survey: “I have been to so many of these meetings that I am EXHAUSTED,” and “Why do you have to destroy a South Minneapolis institution for just Musich’s satisfaction, which we all know is the main reason why this project is still wasting golf money, while putting at risk the homeowners [like] us across the street from the golf course. Enough is enough!!!!”
It is time for the Park Board to follow the responses to their surveys and end this plan. Instead, start work on fixing the watershed problems so that South Minneapolis, Lake Hiawatha and Hiawatha Golf Course are no longer being used as the toilet bowl for the whole watershed. And, re-institute and expand the Audubon Certification for Hiawatha Golf Course!
