Assault on Historic City Park Golf Course

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Writing in his new e-mail news site RedEye, publisher J. R. Ball says:
“A park with unusual potential: City-Brooks Community Park may be the most consequential decision in the current wave.
• At roughly 150 acres, it's one of Baton Rouge's largest public spaces. Its rolling hills—believed to be remnants of ancient Mississippi River dunes—are unusual terrain for south Louisiana.
• That topography creates rare possibilities: scenic trails, natural overlooks, amphitheater-style spaces and varied recreation zones. BREC's master plan process—led by Sasaki—will force a long-deferred answer on the golf course and set a long-term direction for one of the city's largest public spaces.
• The decades-long debate over the historic 9-hole course has never been simple. Golfers want it preserved. Park advocates want the acreage repurposed for broader public use.
o Sasaki designer Josh Brooks is signaling the decision doesn't have to be "binary"—suggesting some version of the golf course survives in the redesign.
o Don’t expect such framing to please either side. Golf purists may bristle at a reconfigured or shortened course. Park advocates may see a compromise as a missed opportunity to fully reimagine what the space could become.
The park is underperforming its potential. The master plan is the best chance in decades to change that.”

“If more than 28,000 rounds a year is ‘underperforming,’ then words have lost their meaning.”
City Brooks is not an idle green space waiting to be reinvented. It is a 100 year old, walkable, tree canopied course with real shot values, a design shaped by rare Baton Rouge topography, and a steady stream of actual users. You cannot replace that with a diagram. And once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
What is underperforming is the planning exercise itself.
Sasaki’s plans shrink the course on paper, misstate basic facts, and label an active, heavily used historic facility as “passive.” The entire framework treats beloved public land like a redevelopment site rather than a living landscape with a century of civic memory and continuous use. The bias against the course is unmistakable.
A master plan built on errors and assumptions cannot produce a credible vision for the future of City Brooks. Baton Rouge deserves a process grounded in facts, transparency, and respect for the landscape we already have — not one that begins by erasing it.