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The following is an edited transcript of correspondence received from one local resident who
thinks we are clearly wrong on all the issues, from public input to public parking.
October 3, 2001 - greedy lawyers and intrusive walkers
A letter about various golf course issues. This one was rather long and has been edited down for this page, you can
see the Full text here.
If your organization actually manages to stop construction of the new
golf course @ Audubon
Park, it will be another great victory for the attorneys of this city,
and another big defeat for
The people of New Orleans.
In my opinion, the only loss to the public by these badly needed
improvements is the loss of the Hurst Walkway. This walkway should
have been removed many years ago. The main problem with putting any
public walkway through any part of Audubon Golf Course is that some of
the "non-golfing" public will not remain on the walkway, they like to
"wander". I have seen thousands of tourist and locals alike, walking
through the marked fairways of the old golf course after gaining access
from this walkway. They did this without paying a required Greens Fee,
and were completely oblivious to the danger they were putting themselves
into from flying golf balls.
These constant intrusions from these walkers were very disruptive to the
people who were trying to play a round of golf. It was this access to
the golf course from the Hurst Walkway, along with some of the
"non-golfing" public's lack of respect or understanding for the game of
golf(emphasis added), which caused these disruptive intrusions.
November 16, 2001 - Public Input
In response to our unsuccessful lawsuit to force a public hearing on the demolition of the Heymann Conservatory
Thank you for wasting the Audubon Institutes money and time on a legal defense,
and our tax dollars on court costs for the frivolous lawsuit brought on by your
"pro-bono" attorneys. I was wondering when your one sided and closed minded
organization would try to use the courts to stop or slow down the construction
of the Audubon Golf Course. I sure you will try again soon.
I was
also wondering if your organization could help me to preserve another Historic
Landmark in my own neighborhood. It is a Historic Pothole on the 900 block of
General Taylor Street. I believe it was donated to the City by the General
Motors Corporation about 5 years ago. The City is planing on filling this in
soon, WITH OUT EVEN A PUBLIC HEARING!!!!
This pothole is very
architecturally significant, as it has many of the same design elements found in
the Historic Heymann Memorial Conservatory at Audubon Park............Lots of
Rubble and broken glass.
Most of us in the neighborhood have become very attached to this pothole, and
a "vast" majority of us want to keep it just the way it is. Some of us also
believe that the decision to ruin this important structure may have come during
a closed door meeting involving Ron Forman and a man named "Steve".
We were thinking about starting a "grass-roots" organization similar to
yours, do you have any suggestions? or should we just start getting signatures
before the city destroys another Historic Landmark? Please HELP.
October, 2002 - Not enough parking?
A ding-dong battle over parking on the North side of Magazine St. Apparently there is parking
congestion over there now (who could have predicted that?) - of course its our fault for campaigning
to keep new parking to a minimum. It is not apparently ANI's fault for moving the clubhouse and parking
from Walnut St to the already congested Magazine St entrance...
October 22
I was just at the newly renovated Audubon Park Golf
Course and it is absolutely beautiful, but it has been built with inadequate
public parking. The rest of the non golfing public is now forced to compete for
what few spaces remain . I suggest you change your organization to "Pave
Audubon Park.org" and see if we can't get the public what is now desperately
needed.
We replied
I am afraid you have us confused with some other organization. We have been
fighting to keep the amount of parking within Audubon Park down, so we are not
able to help you.
I think you probably meant to contact Ron Forman and his friend "Steve", they
will be happy to oblige you I am sure...
October 22
Is your organization opposed to any additional parking within Audubon Park?
We replied
Not necessarily, we dont have a position on any future theoretical
developments.
But we did oppose increasing golf course parking from around 50 (on the old
Walnut St site), to 100 on the Magazine St site as it was not justified by
projections about golf-course usage.I think in the end, the number of new
spaces was somewhere between those two numbers.
October 23
I seems to me we are now faced with this problem because of your groups
opposition to adequate parking for the new golf course. Is your organization
now willing to help fix a problem it has directly caused? Or will it take a
park user being killed crossing Magazine Street for your organization to take
action?
Please help us get more golf course parking, so that everybody may
enjoy Audubon Park.
We replied
I must disagree, Andrew, and remind you that we did predict this problem and
consider it to be one caused exclusively by the Audubon Institute's insistence
on putting the clubhouse on the north (St. Charles) side of Magazine Street
rather than the south (zoo) side (which already had ample parking), with a
traffic light at the subsequent Magazine St. golf cart crossing. Had that been
done, all of these "problems" you cite would have been moot, and regular
park-users would not have been inconvenienced even one iota. A short-term fix
could be to allow only park-users and not golfers to park in the new lot, with
golfers directed to park across Magazine St.? After all, there are many, many,
many fewer golfers than there are general park-users. Perhaps you could suggest
this to the Audubon Institute.
Perhaps you should also consider forming a new organization to address this
problem. Your earlier suggestion of "PaveAudubonPark.org" would be a lovely and
appropriate name, and I'm sure the Audubon Institute would support your goals
with gusto.
Good Luck!
October 30
After speaking with many Audubon Park users, and listing to your illogical
arguments, I have decided that your organization is nothing but a joke. I can
assure you that most within my uptown community feel the same way. In fact we
now can use it as an example of what is wrong with New Orleans; people afraid of
change.
p.s.The new Golf Course is
fantastic for all Park users, too bad it is causing so many parking
problems.............thanks.
Our thanks to Andrew Brott for taking part in this discussion and for so vocally supporting the cause of
parking in Audubon Park.
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