'Heart-wrenching' vandalism in Golden Gate Park

[Liberal_in_LA]

Golden Gate Park golf course hit by vandalism

Vandals turned a trio of greens and fairways on the 9-hole Golden Gate Park golf course into an illegal off-road course -- twice.



Park officials discovered the first incident of ''heart-wrenching vandalism'' on Oct. 1.

A vehicle or vehicles severely damaged holes 6, 7 and 8, causing an estimated $75,000 worth of damage to the public course. The seventh green, in particular, was ''destroyed beyond all recognition,'' the department reported.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=73919&tsp=1#ixzz11bZl4NJy

[Turbineguy]

1. For some,

that's their contribution to society.

[RandomThoughts]

2. As long as they didn't get to the 19th green.

I use to golf, and that was my favorite part.

A par game, with a couple Eagles, and a couple Bogies, is fun, but having a beer at the 19 hole is great. :)

[kenny blankenship]

3. Won't someone please save the golf courses?

They are disappearing due to habitat destruction, global economic downturning, and a growing recognition that they are an obscene & ostentatious misuse of land. If golf courses disappear small white balls will have nowhere to go.

[misanthrope]

8. Better golf courses than concrete and asphalt...

...Sadly, those are our choices in the contemporary world.

[Lyric]

22. Better forests, grasslands, meadows, and wetlands than golf courses.

Those are choices too.

[Luminous Animal]

11. Well, we could always allow the park to revert to sand dunes.... miles of dunes...

Golden Gate Park was built on them.

[Xithras]

41. Lol! I had that very discussion with a friend a few years ago.

She was ranting on about the golf course in the park, and how terrible it is that a "manmade" environment like that was allowed to exist in such a "natural" setting. She went on to say that the course should be plowed up, so that the "natural forest" could take it over.

I HAD to point out to her that the western portion of the peninsula was a treeless sea of sand dunes before SF expanded into that area. One of the oldest Spanish maps of the area labels it as a "sandy waste", and the first settlers considered it to be an unbuildable area. If it were left to its own devices, the whole area would quickly revert to that. The City has to scoop up and haul away hundreds of tons of sand a year as it blows in off the beaches and tries to bury the Great Highway. It's only the "manmade" sand barriers and constant human maintenance that allow the forest to exist in the first place.

She shrugged it off and went back to ranting about golf.

[qb]

4. I can't quite get "golf course" and "heart-wrenching" in the same thought.

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. lol n/t

[Tempest]

10. The course is open to everyone and it's dirt cheap to play

$19 for adults and $7 for children.

http://www.goldengateparkgolf.com/course/hours.php

So yes, it's heart-wrenching.

[xultar]

18. Really? A nice public green space open to all and you can't feel

bad about its destruction?

that is sad.

[qb]

34. It's a matter of magnitude. Children going hungry is heart-wrenching.

[TwilightGardener]

19. LOL--exactly.

[Lucian]

38. I share the same sentiment.

"Think of the golf courses!"

:eyes:

I'd rather think of all the forests, prairies, meadows, and natural habitats that have been destroyed due to golf course construction.

[Lex]

5. My heart not so wrenched. nt

[alp227]

6. The homeless did this didn't they? Oh wait...off-road course? Disgusting.

Wonder if SF could create some jobs to restore this area?

[Luminous Animal]

9. We are broke. Between this and people sawing off saplings and rose bushes...

the park has been taking a lot of hits.

[Rebubula]

12. Carlin

Pretty George Carlin would have something to say about this...

[itsrobert]

13. A golf course filled with chemicals

I don't give a rat's ass about a damn golf course. They are killers in my opinion. Also, a massive waste of water.

[Dreamer Tatum]

17. Yeah, and it NEVER rains in San Francisco.

good GRIEF.

[Luminous Animal]

43. City law forbids use of most toxic pesticides

http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-05-30/news/17374451_1_golf-courses-pesticides-municipal-railway

The article was from 2005 and things have only gotten better.

[DirkGently]

14. My god. Someone turned that beautiful golf course into a nature trail. The humanity.

[Dappleganger]

15. Heart wrenching?

Did somebody die or get hurt? Nope.

[Dreamer Tatum]

16. How funny that the collection of tax dollars to supply services is sacrosanct, but...

...this example of destruction of public property and the PUBLIC cost to fix it is scoffed at.

Can this place get ANY more inconsistent?

It's a

PUBLIC

golf course - one of the very few in the Bay Area that the common man can actually play. Public golf courses are public recreation areas. ANYONE can enjoy them for the cost of a greens fee, and those are the only greens fees that a lot of golfers can afford. As someone who has played municipal courses ALL over the country, let me assure you that LOADS of blue-collar, non-rich people play them AVIDLY.

But please, feel free to cluck your tongues. After all, it's golf, and golf is EVIL.

[TwilightGardener]

21. Oh, come on. Just laughing at the headline. There's a difference between

"wow, that's a shame" and HEARTWRENCHING!

[Dreamer Tatum]

23. Some people take pride in keeping up not only the course, but the flora around it.

So I can see heartwrenching, for sure.

[TwilightGardener]

29. OK, then. I see your point.

[Brickbat]

20. As someone in a town that has a beautiful municipal golf course, this chaps my ass.

Some of the comments on this thread are a bit odd, too, and I HATE golf! Why is it, when someone says they are moved or hurt by something, so many of us sit there and go, "HEART-WRENCHING? Nuh-uh, this isn't heart wrenching at all!"

[Dreamer Tatum]

24. Because G-O-L-F is one of the magical incantations that cause many here to FLIP.

Because all golf is played by millionaire Republicans, of course.

[DirkGently]

26. "Heart-wrenching" is in quotes from the *article.* No one stomped on a DUer's expression of pain.

[Brickbat]

27. You clearly haven't read the thread.

[DirkGently]

30. I did, actually. Your suggestion that DUer's feelings were callously mocked is way off.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

25. There are remedies for this

If your ball lands in a tire rut, take a free drop onto some good grass. End of wrenched heart.

A longer-term remedy would probably involve installation of a fence.

:hi:

[smiley]

28. Heart-wrenching?

I'd say building the golf course was the heart-wrenching act of vandalism. Tell the golfers to play through it. Just think of it is a little added obstacle which may in the end make them a better golfer.

[bkozumplik]

32. its going to cause those golf carts to have a bumpy ride

And thats just not acceptable.

Plus its much harder to play with these artificial obstacles. Smooth carefully coifed grass-- not too long, is best.

It may take a ton of water to keep golf courses green, but Eff those other people and their water "needs". I'm all for sharing the water supply with migrating delta fish-- if they want to golf they can reserve a time on the 'sh'edule.

Golf on brown grass or imperfect terrain is an inferior experience. Imperfect experiences are for the yachtless rabble. If we cant take care of the golf courses then by god, I will just not ever leave my walled in gated estate, and the community will not be able to experience my largesse at their quaint establishments. The trickle down from me will stop, and I assure you I tip well. 20% at times-- If I am buying coffee at starbucks I tip exactly 20%, which comes to 79 cents. I carry pennies around to make sure I tip enough. Thats money you poor people can put in the bank.

So take care of the golf courses. Theres plenty of people with no jobs, lets get them hired to guard the place at night, with shotguns if necessary.

Christ, I have to do everything around here, you would think people would have figured solutions out to these problems.
Whats wrong with you people?

[Dreamer Tatum]

36. Fish-eyed Fool Post of The Millenium nominee.

Congrats.

[bkozumplik]

37. thanks

Really, If we are worrying about the quality of the turf at golf courses, we have small time problems.

I know I should care about all problems, but I only have a finite amount of "care". This doesnt make it onto the care list, because its about how pretty the grass is. The golf course is still functional, even if it has rutts. Maybe its not pretty, but it works fine.

tell the park police to keep an eye out, post some signs.

[bkozumplik]

31. is this a joke?

MY god, the humanity of it all.

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. not a joke. Golf course more attractive that the way it looks now.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

35. Apparently, I'm a bad person for thinking "heartwrenching" is hyperbole. -nt

[robdogbucky]

40. Don't feel bad, I thought

that expression was a mixed metaphor, ala:

Heart-breaking

Gut-wrenching

As in a gut can wrench and a heart usually breaks, eh?

But not heartwrenching.

I'm a nerd to think of such things, no?




Carry on, regardless








Methinks. I have been wrong before and I'm happy to be corrected.

[XemaSab]

39. Restore Hetch Hetchy!

:hide:

[Xithras]

42. Smash the dam!

No walls for me!

:hippie: