The massive golf course renovation currently taking place across the street from Tulane’s campus is actually the work of the Audubon Nature Institute. This self-elected group contracted by the mayor-appointed Audubon Commission to “manage and maintain” the publicly owned Audubon Park has overstepped its bounds, and it’s about time Tulane students took notice.

Plans to renovate the admittedly lacking Audubon Park Golf Course, which called for $6 million in city, state and private funds, were conceived almost entirely in private. The Audubon Institute clearly didn’t see any problem in taking public money to alter a public facility without the knowledge of the public. In fact, most people were entirely unaware of the plans until the park was turned into a huge pile of dirt.

Shocking as this may seem, those who have dealt with the Institute in the past say this is just another slap in the face in a series of attempts by this group to turn the park and other public New Orleans facilities into elitist tourist attractions. It’s no wonder that the group is headed by Ron Forman, a man who was quoted as saying, "I’m very often like a bulldozer with blinders. We don’t have time for people who say no. We just ask them to get out of the way."

Perhaps the only truly shocking part of the situation is that the city council, the mayor and other politicians to which the Audubon Institute should be answerable have virtually relinquished their power to Forman and his lackeys. It’s a sad state of affairs when our elected public officials bow down to a bunch of privately chosen rich opportunists who supposedly look out for the best interests of the people, but who have proven time and again that the only people they’re interested in helping are themselves.

When the Audubon Institute finally decided to inform the public of their expensive plan via a few scattered posters and signs in the park, the information revealed was largely propaganda. Those who are excited about the renovations are probably unaware of the following:

• Meditation Walk and the Heymann Conservatory will be demolished to make room for a new golf green and an 80 to 100-car parking lot. The placement of the lot will increase traffic across the jogging/biking track.
• The beautiful, previously untouched grove of live oak trees is slated to become the site of a new clubhouse and other golf course buildings, which will occupy 12,000 to 15,000 square feet of park space. A 20-foot wide roadway will cut through the grove to connect the buildings to each other and to the new parking lot.
• A grove of about 20 cypress trees, just as beautiful as oaks and longer-lived, must be cut down to accommodate the new 15
• The new highly manicured golf course will require a great deal of chemical maintenance, which will be detrimental to the ecosystem of the park.
• The "executive course" will be expensive to maintain, and green fees are expected to increase exponentially. This means that students and locals who frequented the old course will have to dig deep in their pockets if they plan to use the new one. A fee boost will undoubtedly decrease local patronage, which seems perfectly in keeping with the goals of the project.
• Hurst Walk (a public footpath) will be permanently closed off and its traditional access from the Lagoon Bridge barricaded. It, in addition to the spaces previously occupied by Meditation Walk and the linear park along the inside of the lagoon, are being made part of the new golf course, even though they were not part of the old one.

This city is built upon corrupt politics and run by money-hungry politicians. As individuals, Tulane students may not have the influence to effect change, but we sure as hell shouldn’t sit idly by while our neighborhood park is turned into Disneyland. Visit www.saveaudubonpark.org to sign their petition, and attend the Audubon Nature Institute’s public meeting on Oct. 15. Let’s show those bullies were teed off and we’ve got the golf balls to prove it.