To be perfectly honest, I am a golf fanatic.
For years now, I wake up at the crack of dawn every Monday and Tuesday and dial into the L.A. city golf reservation system with one phone in my left hand and one in my right.
Sometimes I get straight in when the system opens at 6 a.m. but more times than not it takes me dozens, even hundreds, of redials before the recorded voice says: "Welcome to the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks teetiime reservation system....to reserve a teetime press one..."
It's so bad that Francois our cockatiel does perfect imitations of a busy signal. But I am an expert at making reservations and almost always able to get one of the earliest teetimes for Saturday and Sunday for me and my pals.
I am not an expert golfer. In fact, I'm terrible and I cheat all the time. But I do love the game. It gets me out of my head, connects me with the birds and the trees and the sky above and with my friends for a few hours.
There's a fraternity among golfers, and that's especially true among municipal course golfers, a camaraderie that comes from playing on working class facilities where the sand traps are like concrete, the greens bumpy, and the fairways covered with bare spots and muddy patches even in the heat of summer.
I'm not complaining, a cowpatch would be fine with me. But that's not true for all municipal course golfers, the ones who take it seriously and have the skill to hit the ball straight and far. They are given to bitching about the marshals who drive around oblivious to slow players, the condition of the courses and the soaring fees the city is charging.
Right now, with City Hall paralyzed by its financial mismanagement, they are up in arms over plans to price city courses out of the market, cut back in maintenance and give away a contract for golf carts that fails to maximize revenue to the treasury.
Their concern is that the Rec and Parks Commission is about to award a 10-year contract for golf cart services to Ready Golf which runs the concessions at the Encino/Balboa courses in Sepulveda Basin and doesn't do a very good job of it.
The biggest problem there is that there aren't enough golf carts to go around so by 11 a.m. on busy weekend days, golfers are standing around waiting for the early birds to finish playing so they can get a cart.
Activists like Ted Winship, head of the Hansen Dam Senior Men's Club and a member of the city's golf advisory board, have done a lot of research and believe that the city could have new carts, enough carts for everybody and make a lot more money by running the cart business themselves.
Two million dollars extra is the number Winship puts on it.
He points to the small Harbor Park course where the city does manage the cart busiiness as a model and does a good job of it without adding a lot of costly extra staff to the city payroll.
But when Rec and Parks people looked at self-operation, they of course padded the payroll costs with management that would get regular step raises and benefits packages that made the idea unworkable.
Craig Kessler, head of the Public Links Golf Association, has a different idea.
He believes the city should go the way of the county which contracts out the whole operation of its courses to a private company, American Golf, which maintains the courses in far better shape than the city's and delivers a lot more money to the county treasury than the city gets.
I raise this issue because, well, I am a golf fanatic and because it shows exactly what's wrong with the way City Hall operates.
When the city provides services, there's too many managers and too much staff paid too much and the services they deliver are all too often inferior.
And when the city contracts services out to private companies, it's all too often on the basis of connections without regard to the quality of the services provided to the public or the revenue generated to the city.
So here's a chance for the Rec and Parks Commission, which keeps putting off a decision on the golf carts contract, to make a stand for the taxpayers and the golfers by doing the right thing: Either privatize the whole operation or have the city run it smartly.
Surely, that isn't asking too much and just might start a trend throughout city government to put the public interest first. Isn't that why we have government in the first place?
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the Naitonal Enquirer.
Just reading your tale of the golf carts...makes me crazy because it is so indicative of what is wrong with this city and with the entire country! We are suffering Bureaucratic Fatigue!
Ron, you say either "privatize the whole operation, or have the city run it smartly"...You are giving the city way too much leeway...they could NEVER run ANYTHING 'smartly'! Stick to privatization!!!
If the golf cart situation is such a mess....can you imagine what it will be like if the State and/or the Federal government tries to socialize health care? God help us all and keep us healthy!
I almost fell off my chair the other day when I happened to catch Maxine Waters chastizing the oil companies. She actually started to say "We should 'socialize' the oil companies and let the government run them...but she stopped after uttering the first syllable of 'so-cialize'! It was hilarious!
We MUST get government out of our lives before we all succumb to the fatal disease called "terminal bureaucratic lymphoma"!
I bet if you work in City Hall and know the right people, you don't need to get up at 6 a.m. to secure a tee time. In fact, I know if you work in City Hall and know the right people, you don't have to get up at 6 a.m to get a tee time. In fact, if you're a really special person who works at City Hall and knows the right people, you don't have to get up at all. You can play Bel Air, Riviera the LA Country Club, or one of the other exclusives. No problem getting a cart and you may even get lunch!
Golf, either "socialized" by public subsidy or "capitalized" by private subscription, is a bad waste of good horse pasture.
I'm sorry Ron, I just can't get up any sympathy for you duffers. You've got a lot of facilities for your favorite hobby at the expense of others who have different interests. A pox on you all. Though I am of Scots descent, I wish my ancestors had invented another pastime between beating up the English or themselves.
Colf carts? Isn't the definition of golf 'a pleasant walk, spoiled'?
Once again, you've proven that corporatism is alive and well, even in dear ole L.A. If they're going to privatize this, that and the other involving Parks and Rec, then we should demand a reduction in the taxes we pay for that department.
Yeah, right! There's as much chance of that happening as never having a rooster crow in L.A.
P.S. Have you ever considered one of those golf tours at the Arctic Circle while there's still ice up there and before it morphs into its former tropical self?
Odd...that acutally looks like fun to me. Anyone have left-handed clubs I can borrow?
L A should give preference in booking, rates etc. to L A residents/ taxpayers, as many other cities do with their public facilities, like tennis courts and rec classes for kids. Beverly Hills gives residents a one-two day advantage on booking courts and lower rates; Santa Monica, San Marino and other cities restrict non-residents, on the sound idea that those who pay the local taxes should benefit. Right now, their residents and those from other cities come to our golf courses and get the same rates and treatment -- none of them have their own golf courses. Then you're discriminated against if you want to play tennis in their cities, or enroll your kids in summer camp or a class, or walk your dog in a Santa Monica dog park.
Ron, the City may mismanage its courses elsewhere, but I feel obliged to say that my home course of Roosevelt is fairly well manicured. It's also hard to manage the Los Feliz Par 3 course, what with all the eucalyptus trees, but that course definitely sharpens short games.
It's good to know you cheat all the time. I'll remind myself to watch for that when we get out there. I now have carpal tunnel in the left wrist in addition to the achey hands, so I'll be counting on you to give me my mulligans.
Hi Ron,
Since we now know what an avid a golfer you are, we invite you, (and whoever else is interested) to join our Save the Verdugo Hills Golf Course Committee. We need to insure that our children will always have a place where they can learn to play the sport and also assure that facilities will be available to play. They will also need the Course for education. They can learn teamwork as well as how to negotiate in order to make those "great deals" while playing. They will find that training useful when they grow up!
My father taught both my son and I to play at Studio City Golf Course on Whitsett, that the Weddington family has been wanting to develope,
the Driving Range at Whittset and Van Owen that is now longer there, the Driving Range at Alameda and Buena Vista that is not longer there either, and of course, Verdugo Hills which is now in danger of being developed into 225
Condos. If Verdugo Hills is destroyed, the only Verdugo type courses that will be remaining locally are DeBell in Burbank, Scholl in Glendale and the Van Nuys executive course .
Our all volunteer membership is regional and knows no community boundaries. We hope to have VHGC turned into a regional park. There is enough land for other recreational activities as well.
I should also mention that once the course is cemented over, we will also lose a major acquifer as well as an integral portion of what is considered to be a part of the the Rim of the Valley. It will also have a devasting affect the on wildlife we presently enjoy seeing when we play golf, due to additional air pollution and traffic. Has anyone ever heard a development or a parking lot taken out in order to allow the property to go back to is natural state? Probably not, the pristine land will be lost forever!
Presently, Councilmember Wendy Greuel and Supervisor Michael Antonovich are looking for funding in order to purchase the VHGC for preservation. Our Foothill Communities are asking everyone to write to your representatives and ask them to help support and protect our environment and the open space of the VHGC.
So, if there is that much camaraderie out there on the golf course, perhaps I should learn to play and then I can go out there where those City Hall employees go (without getting up at 6 for reservations)and Lord knows what I might learn. Great idea. Follow them around.
Hi, Nina, I forgot you were also a Valley Girl. You're right on target about the Verdugo Hills Golf Course. The proposed development would cram 229 units into the 28 acre footprint of the golf course and driving range. That's about 8 units per acre. Lots of pavement, miniscule yards, and major traffic headaches for the already congested Tujunga Canyon Boulevard/Honolulu Avenue corridor (which has become a de facto extension of the Lowell Avenue 210 freeway access ramps).
By the way, golf carts? Who needs 'em? At the VHGC you not only get to practice your short game but you also get some great exercise. No carts on this course.
For more information about the Verdugo Hills Golf Course and the efforts to not only save the course but expand the properties recreational potential, visit http://www.savethegolfcourse.org
P.S. And for all you Duffers out there...come on up and play the course!
Nina and those of you concerned about development at Verdugo Hills: check out the thread here on AB212/Felipe Fuentes, with support of Alarcon (Las Lomas ring a bell?), Cardenas, Reyes, etc. Also Joe Mailander's blog has a post about it -- Seems there's a guy, Handel, a major developer, who wants to develop it and is involved with these guys on AB212, I just know what I read -- Wendy was clearly blindsided by the bill last week.
But I do know that this group is behind putting low-income, high- density projects in every part of the city, and want that bill to steamroll over all zoning, community and even Councilmember objections. So Verdugo Hills is just apparently the "urgency" part of the bill, which will have vast, negative repercussions for the whole city.
Thanks you for the additional important details for saving the VHGC Karen.
The preservation of golf courses will always be dear to my heart. I worked all through my school years, as well as some thereafter, at Dino's Pizza Villa, my Dad's restaurant located at Victory Blvd& Coldwater Cyn.in No. Hollywood. They were long hours so during the light business hours, he would grab some R&R by taking me and/or my son to the driving range around the cornor at Whitsett and Van Owen, or to the three par on Whitsett & Moorpark. My Dad's love for Golf provided us an inexpensive way and a great opportunity for us to enjoy family bonding together, while having a good time. Even though Dad has passed on, when I have the opportunity, I still have some great silent conservations with him at the driving range, where I can feel his presence.
It's a shame that Bowling Allys and Golf Courses, that encourage family participation, are rapidly disaapearing because of land value. This is so sad!I hope we can stop the maddness.