Plenty of Horne
Board Chair Fights Park Road Closure
Abele would close Brown Deer Park road to expand golf driving range. Lipscomb not sold.
Get a daily rundown of the top stories on Urban Milwaukee
Abele would close Brown Deer Park road to expand golf driving range. Lipscomb not sold. Back to the full article.
Photos - Page 2
Brown Deer Park Golf Course is the most recognized landmark in the Milwaukee County from people outside the county.
It’s known on a national level and represents Milwaukee and all of us.
Why wouldn’t they try to better the place? It a reflection of Milwaukee and a huge revenue source!
Plus these golfers pay their county tax dollars like many of us, and millions more! The handful of golf courses the county has, Brown Deer being the most, helps fund the other 150+ parks they have to maintain.
If people are able to see the big picture, it becomes clear this is an easy decision.
However, Brown Deer and other parks could use a little more TLC. But then I stop and think how much worse they would be without the golf revenue. Simply put, make the golf courses better and the rest of the parks will improve too.
Thanks Michael Horne and UM for covering this issue. Only six people reportedly attended the first hearing, which was apparently not well publicized and made no mention of closing the park road.
Welcome to Milwaukee County’s two-tier system of parks—one for haves and one for have-nots. That’s not unique to us but it is a result of defunding our parks for 30 years. With Brown Deer Park those tiers apparently exist within the same park!
Of course money-making golf courses must be maintained so they can maximize revenue. But so should the rest of the park be kept up to support its other uses. And redesigns should consider all users. It was designed as a large “destination” park to serve residents throughout the county (like Whitnall, Lake, Humboldt, etc.).
Parks, by their nature, are not businesses and are never going to produce enough revenue to earn their keep. Will that mean they simply wither from neglect? Parks are infrastructure, like roads and transit systems, essential for quality of life.
Neighbor being pitted against neighbor (or county residents against each other) to compete for scarce funding will continue as long as the system is starved and lacks dedicated funding. (County residents approved a sales tax for parks, transit and property tax relief in 2008 but state legislators refused to implement it).
In the meantime, golfers and disc golfers may get their spaces maintained and other park areas will keep declining unless park friends cough up cash or find sponsors for capital upkeep. Friends are already holding many parks together by shoestrings through donating labor and sometimes raising funds. Rental of pavilion spaces and picnic areas also provides income for county parks. But some pavilions are so neglected they attract few rentals.
Milwaukee County has the bones of a great park system but unless long-term solutions are enacted it will continue dying a slow death—thus hurting the county’s prospects for economic growth.
In the meeting the landscape architect James Ciha said the parks will request 2 to 3 million in 2017 to redesign & rebuild the road. He said the rebuild “may” include keeping the road as the existing continuous oval by moving the putting green and incorporating the longer range as allegedly envisioned in 1996.
Why not incorporate the larger driving range into the long term 100 year plan he touts as opposed to a one year fix. That question from the audience was ignored. I suspect that once the road is blocked they will say reopening it will cost too much.
The matching funds are phony as indicated above. They are creating a shortfall elsewhere. This proposal is the epitome of financial malfeasence.”Fiscally responsible” I say poppycock to that notion. They’re trying to run a scam for the benefit of the few.
The real goal is to block the golfers from having to mingle with the great unwashed. Then one can get the country club experience without those pesky membership fees.It was humorous to hear one proponent instruct the crowd to look at the putting green to see diversity. Sort of like Trump pointing to his African American in the crowd.
To see diversity go there today. The group at Picnic area 8 looks diverse or black. Same with the volleyball courts, Hmong. Heaven forbid “those” people walk or drive by the course.There were 3 people on the range though. There were 5 at 6:00PM yesterday
I hope the county board asks some hard questions and gets some facts. Incorporate this with the 2 to 3 million that they are going to be asked for next year.
Reader, Milwaukee County indeed has a long history of trying to keep certain people segregated, including at park pools. Your suspicions seem justified.
Your assessment that there may be a bait-and-switch after the road is closed seems plausible too.
The Park People funding would be from some community donor. As a nonprofit umbrella for friends groups they serve as a pass-through for donations to designated parks.