The 2012 Senior PGA event will be held on what was until lately a City of Benton Harbor PUBLIC PARK

[Bozita]

Let's hear it for the fucking privatizers!



Last Updated: September 08. 2011 5:52PM
Tom Watson hopes for tough conditions at '12 Senior PGA in Michigan
Tom Markowski/ The Detroit News


Benton Harbor — The oldest major on the Champions Tour will be played in Michigan for the first time next year.

The 2012 Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid will be at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores, a Jack Nicklaus-designed course, May 24-27. The par-71 course will play to 6,861 yards through the Paw Paw River with stunning views of the shores of Lake Michigan as a backdrop.

Tom Watson, the 2011 and 2001 Senior PGA champion, is expected to headline a who's-who list of Champions Tour veterans, and a host of former major champions from this tour and the PGA Tour. Watson won this year's Senior PGA and a first-place prize of $360,000; the tournament was at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville.

more...
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110908/SPORTS04/109080477/Tom-Watson-hopes-for-tough-conditions-at-’12-Senior-PGA-in-Michigan#ixzz1Xb2k9Fuw



Video from Rachel Maddow's show is at the link below.

TUE APR 19, 2011 AT 05:12 AM PDT
MI Gov. Rick Snyder's takeover of Benton Harbor tied to shoreline development - what Rachel missed
byEclectablog


Last night on her show, Rachel Maddow connected some very important dots in the situation that led up to the Big Government TakeoverTM of Benton Harbor, Michigan by Joseph Harris, aka "The Czar of Benton Harbor".

But she didn't connect ALL of them.

In her piece we learn these facts about Benton Harbor and its twin city next door, St. Joseph.

St. Joseph Benton Harbor
Population 8,508 10,235
Demographic 89.5% white 85.5% black
Per capita income $33,034 $10,235

We also learn that one of the best parts of Benton Harbor is Jean Klock Park, donated by wealthy benefactors years ago with the stipulation that it be used for the public good and that it remain "the children's" park.

We also learn that Whirlpool, in an effort to recycle some old manufacturing land on the shore of Lake Michigan, a brownfield, if you will, decided to build a $500 million golf course & residential development, Harbor Shores, on its land, part of which would heavily impact Jean Klock Park. Note that Whirlpool pulled its last manufacturing out of Benton Harbor in March of this year, driving the final economic stake into the heart of this otherwise depressed area.

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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/19/968278/-MI-Gov-Rick-Snyders-takeover-of-Benton-Harbor-tied-to-shoreline-development-what-Rachel-missed

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. Much of that was debunked previously...

You might want to do a search before you repost it.

- Snyder did not force a EFM on BH, the prior Democratic governor did (reluctantly)
- BH is seriously screwed up and still has a ways to go to get healthy

The park last time I checked was still a park

[Bozita]

2. It's not the same park since all this “Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course” shit

I really didn't mean to mislead with an EFM post. This is all about that park.



http://savejeanklockpark.org/index.html




NEWS » NOVEMBER 19, 2007
Saving a Public Park
Benton Harbor citizens fight to stop Whirlpool’s luxury golf course
BY PAUL STREET

By most measures, the citizens of Benton Harbor, Mich., are not materially wealthy. The city’s residents are predominantly black—92 percent—and the median family income is $19,250, barely two-thirds of the minimum basic family budget, as calculated by the Economic Policy Institute.

One of the few sanctuaries for the city’s working-class residents is Jean Klock Park, a popular public beach that offers spectacular views of Lake Michigan. But if the city’s other large constituency, the home appliance manufacturer Whirlpool Corporation, gets its way, the park will be turned into a private golf course.

Whirlpool, its developer allies and their front group, known as the Cornerstone Alliance, have persuaded city commissioners to approve a plan to turn the park into three holes of a “Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course.” The City of Benton Harbor approved the “conversion” without meaningful citizen input last January. The golf course would be attached to Harbor Shores, a proposed $500 million development with 850 housing units, two hotels, four marinas, a water park and commercial and retail space.

Turning the public park private is essential, insists course designer and golf legend Jack Nicklaus. After visiting Benton Harbor last August to see the projected site, Nicklaus claimed that it would be impossible to attract golfers without the marvelous lake vistas afforded by the enclosure of the park. “If you took Pebble Beach’s ocean holes away,” Nicklaus explained, “it would be just another golf course. … To not use the lake or some of that area, you would lose 90 percent of your power to attract people.”


more...
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3412/saving_a_public_park/

[Bozita]

3. Kick for the rich folks whose exclusive golf course REQUIRES world-class scenery