Port Townsend City Council, enough already. The debate over the future of the golf course has gotten uglier and you, council members, have a responsibility and duty to temper the rhetoric and end a process that has gone on long enough.

This is what your constituents are saying:

“...is there a ‘sport’ more representative of patriarchial [sic] affluence?”

“I equate the golfers to the slave owners in the south when the civil war started.”

“...the contingent of entitled people who buy up the town...”

From the beginning, class warfare has run through this debate. Maybe not as blatant as those racist and sexist quotes, but starting when housing was the goal. Take from the (wealthy) golfers and give to the (salt of the earth) workers. The golf course was seen as easy pickings and fed a mindset of class warfare.

The golf course charges $1,275 for an annual family pass. The swimming pool charges $960 for a family (two adults plus kids) annual pass plus a $50 membership fee. That’s $22.08 a month difference. Is that the line between the “entitled people” and everyone else in Port Townsend? The price of lunch? Municipal courses are affordable courses. They are family courses. They are generational courses.

The alternatives to not preserving the golf course as is seem driven by a desire to take something, almost anything, from the course. Cleaving it for a dog park and nature trail makes little sense. How many miles of trails do we have in town already? How well are they maintained? At what cost? How many more miles at Fort Worden and Fort Townsend?

A golf course is more than a collection of greens. It has a flow and tempo. Changing it is not as simple as rearranging the furniture and will diminish it. A driving range is where new golfers get their first lessons. It’s essential for lessons, practice, and generates revenue. Revenue lost if it’s turned into a dog park.

The Central Park plan? Show the budget for maintaining it. We have more park land than most cities our size already, so adding more seems like a good idea? And one has to wonder if that would bring the same issues as Kah Tai with it.

We have a crown jewel in the golf course. We are lucky to have it, and we have it because it’s a golf course. A dog park and nature trail are not a higher and better use of the land. And take a stand against the online vitriol and bigotry toward those who enjoy “a good walk spoiled.”

Erik Poulsen

PORT TOWNSEND