Protests Against a New Course

[Shamis]

Their concerns sound valid to me.

[Billy K2]

Originally Posted by Shamis

Their concerns sound valid to me.

I agree they have some valid points, but they made up a few points that are obviously meant to turn the community against disc golf.

[Three Putt]

Parks and recreation on the whole has a problem with passive use areas. If you read the stuff they have you read in college to get a degree in parks and recreation, there is a lot of Horace Albright/Aldo Leopold/Frederick Law Olmsted stuff in there that all talks about passive use areas. Passive use is a major component of basic park design.

Then we get out of college and try to cram as many active use areas into the park that we can. Everybody and their brother has an idea on what to do here, there and everywhere. The idea that there are areas set aside that you are not going to mess with and leave for the community to experience nature goes out the window. You need a pool. And playgrounds. And pavilions for picnics with barbecue grills and horseshoe pits. And baseball fields. And soccer fields. And community centers. And designated, paved bike trails. And dog parks. And disc golf courses. Eventually you run out of room and...so you know that passive use area? Nobody uses that, right?

Of course people do use it, but they are doing their own thing. They won't be organized. There generally is no club for people who like to wander alone in the woods and ponder life. Usually when you go after their land, they are sitting ducks.

Sometimes they get organized and they look a lot like this group. Usually the most vocal are people who live nearby, they have a lot of their day to day invested in the passive use land being there.

Stories like this don't freak me out. Communities DO need passive use areas. Not every undeveloped piece of land with trees needs to be a disc golf course. There has to be a balance someplace.

[Cgkdisc]

The question sometimes is whether there might be unsavory activities going on in a passive use area. Then sometimes the community will welcome disc golf if they know that the unsavory activities will move elsewhere.

[PBokor]

Originally Posted by Billy K2

I agree they have some valid points, but they made up a few points that are obviously meant to turn the community against disc golf.

^ Chuck beat me to it.

I guess I have to ask how much use this particular park gets. If it is already heavily used, a DGC might be a tough sell. We convinced our City to put in 18 baskets in an area of our main Park that was only used by dopers, drunks and transients. We chased out the bad element and everyone was happy. Had we tried to impinge on the arborium or maintained trails, our new course would not have been supported.

[Three Putt]

There are a lot of success stories where disc golf pushed out druggies and/or prostitutes and the neighbors were very happy to put up with the occasional dingbat jumping their fence to grab a golf disc as a trade off. It depends on the community. Those things were typically in denser, more depressed urban areas. More rural areas generally don't have that much trouble with the parks, although they can.

[BionicRib]

Originally Posted by zenbot

On the far right.

[zenbot]

Any ideas where the course would go? It's a 225 acre park. I'm not sure that 9 acres would put too many people out.


It looks like there is room near the top that wouldn't interfere with existing trails.




http://www.passaiccountynj.org/documentcenter/view/6464

[sisyphus]

Yeah, but the part that really gets me is that Pavel Andreievich Chekov is against disc golf!?!? (or at least a conspiracy guy?)

Originally Posted by Billy K2

Here's a new article about their recent protest.

http://www.northjersey.com/story/new...rse/313222001/

"..."Why do they do things in secrecy?" said Walter Koenig, a resident of Clifton who attended the protest."

[knettles]

I liked the sign in the video saying "Who will pay for the disc golf course maintenance? Taxpayers!" Clearly, they aren't aware of how little maintenance a 9 hole course through the woods actually requires.