re: Assault on Historic City Park Golf Course

Nashville has a course with a nice walkway around it. Just gotta put up some nets.

Last Night La Rep Dixon McMakin addressed the City Park Patrol HOA along with BREC Commissioner Mike Polito.
According to Dixon Sasaki (the same group BREC hired to do the master plan for City Park suggesting a pitch n putt or par 3 instead of real golf on the existing footprint of HCPGC) sold everyone a bill of goods on the University Lakes Project and that's crap. Here's some excerpts of Dixon's address:
La Rep Dixon McMakin 100% to keep City Park Golf Course Intact

For sure. And I agree. Nashville has such nice public courses.

This whole debacle is so Baton Rouge. We hire this Sasaki group to take on one of (imo) the most important areas in our city (the lakes) and it’s a complete clusterfrick. The highest priority behind the actual dredge operation is the running and biking layouts and absolutely nothing is being done there.

All of the decision making has been behind closed doors. Before the lakes are even close to being complete our “leadership” is trying to turn over a 100plus year old park to them.

The ideas are like a grab bag of random generic park ideas. None of which I believe are worth damaging the current golf footprint. It’s just more concrete parking and building in a nice green area. Who is asking for this but Sasaki, McCollister, and the shoe store lady?

I personally think they are ready and willing to force this on us and we will look back on this as one of the significant frickups in a series of pants shitting moments in BR history.

Notice how the proposed “Big Loop” trail crosses the active freight rail line between holes 3 and 4 on East Lakeshore.
That crossing is never going to happen. Railroads do not—and legally cannot—approve new uncontrolled pedestrian crossings. The liability exposure is enormous, and federal right of way rules make it a non-starter.
This isn’t a matter of opinion. It’s a structural constraint. Any plan that depends on a new at grade crossing is functionally unbuildable. The railroad will not assume the risk, and BREC cannot compel it.
The Sasaki concept treats the crossing as if it’s a design choice, not a legal and safety barrier.
That’s not planning—that’s wishcasting. And it diverts public attention from what the tax dollars were actually intended to do: improve City Park, not redesign it around features that cannot be permitted.
BREC’s dedicated park-improvement funds should be spent on feasible, high value upgrades—not on conceptual drawings that ignore federal safety doctrine and the realities of railroad operations.
A master plan that hinges on an impossible rail crossing is not a master plan. It’s a distraction.
City Park deserves a plan grounded in safety, legality, and stewardship of public assets—not speculative sketches that collapse on first contact with real world constraints.

What is up with the sudden need for amphitheater in Baton Rouge area. City Park, Central, Baker. Who is behind this move? Follow the money.

Beyond taking out a busy golf course that Baton Rouge golf needs, the alternative uses they’ve proposed for the area are sad.

The amphitheater is a lazy suggestion that would get minimal use at best. There is already an area at the clubhouse lawn that has hosted music in the past. Not enough people to justify the expense.

Anything to get people to tic a box on their survey to justify destroying the current park.

It’s shame because the course itself has potential to be really nice but it’s starved of funds and the conditions suffer.

For those who may have watched the PGA Tour Houston tournament, it was played at Memorial Golf Course.

About two to three decades ago, it was in deplorable conditions. The whole park was. It has historical significance, many tour players from that era had grown up playing it before it fell off. Some "elites" felt that the park should be upgraded to a central/amusement park format, and the course was considered "wanting."

Citizens rallied and city officials got the message... upgrade the golf course, make the park more safe, and offer the park as a health building layout.

The course was restored, the police set up substations in the park and put police on bikes and horses, walking/running/horse trails were set up... and boom, Memorial Park became popular and prosperous. Even more so to this day, and it started with keeping the course in tacked and upgrading it. Hmmm... sounds like a good idea. To heck with Austin, lets be more like Houston.

Sasaki Plan for Historic City Park Golf Course

Keep Historic City Park Golf Course Real