I know that there are much more important outrages out there; I have a stack of saved URLs of blood-boilers for blog use. But for some reason here’s what gets my goat today. The US Open golf tournament will conclude today in a final round of play at the L.A. Country Club.
As it happens, I drove past the club just a couple of days ago (thankfully, against the “flow”* of traffic trying to access the tournament) and I can attest that it is a beautiful piece of land in a beautiful setting, in and around Beverly Hills. The club is famous as a long-time bastion of white exclusivity–and by white, I mean WASP–until the late 70s, no Jews need apply. As for Black people? Try 1991 for the first Black member.
What truly pisses me off, beyond the simple exclusion and racism, is that all of us who don’t or didn’t meet the very particular criteria of what it takes to be human enough in the City of Angels to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose are subsidizing the insufferable (as in, “the insufferable in pursuit of the inevitable”**). How’s that? This is how:
It shouldn’t make economic sense for the L.A. Country Club to still exist, given what you’d expect it to pay in property taxes—it’s less than a mile down Wilshire Boulevard from downtown Beverly Hills. Property tax appraisals are calculated based on something called “the highest and best use,” meaning that use which yields the greatest monetary benefit given the size and location of the property. The highest and best use of 313 acres straddling Beverly Hills (median home sale: $3.6 million) and Holmby Hills (median home sale: $5.7 million) is pretty obviously not a golf course. Not even a golf course that costs a king’s ransom to join; according to the online sports newspaper Diario AS, initiation fees range from $300,000 to $500,000, and annual dues from $20,000 to $30,000.
Nobody really knows how much the land the L.A. Country Club sits atop is worth, because you can’t identify any of what a realtor would call “comparables.” But Malcolm Gladwell has suggested $9 billion, which, according to theL.A. Weekly, means the L.A. Country Club should be paying $60 to $90 million each year in property taxes. Instead, it pays about $300,000, according to an article posted Thursday by Ben Orbison on Defector. [links in the original.]
I’m not a golfer, never have been. I don’t really get the appeal of the sport, either to play or watch. But I got no problem with those who do. De gustibus and all that. Golf is broadly speaking an ecological crime, so I’d be all for restricting the sport to links courses, (especially in deserts like LA!). But I don’t see why I or you or any of us must cover with our own taxes the bill that the pampered few should be paying for their fun.
Eat the rich. (Seriously: it’s long past time for a referendum to reverse the sweetheart deal in CA described in the linked article. And yeah–it’s long past time for confiscatory estate taxes. Every billionaire is both a policy failure and an ongoing threat to democracy going forward.)
PS: by ancient and authoritative internet tradition, no post even tangentially about golf can be posted without a link to this definitive description of the game.
With that, this thread is far more open than the competition under way in LA.
Image: Lemuel Francis Abbot, The Blackheath Golfer, 1790.
Like Everything Else, Dads Are Not All the Same
trollhattan
Is that some consequence of Prop 13? I can’t tease apart the aspects specific to homes from commercial property, just know that any attempt to correct its vast list of problems and shortcomings is as welcome as a storm that rains ticks. Blue California has our blind spots.
MobiusKlein
@trollhattan:
It will be Prop 13 one way or the other.
Blue CA knows it, but as our founding brother Howard Jarvis knows,
CREAM.
Another Scott
I played 9 holes at a public course in Dayton, OH with a friend once. We were in high school and apparently were doing it wrong by trying to do it quickly, as we got lots of dirty looks by people trying to do the traditional stuff. It was obvious that “we didn’t belong” there.
Golf might make sense as a sport in places where water and land is cheap and would only be used for corn or soybeans otherwise. In LA? Where affordable housing is needed? Where water is precious? Naahhh. There it’s offensive conspicuous consumption.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
StringOnAStick
Our tax structure has been lobbied into a shambles, and that willingness to do the ultra wealthy ‘s bidding is why we are in the spot we’re in. I’d say it’s international too, with Putin money joining other rich bastard money to manipulate the system so they can keep even more $. People who already have more than they could ever spend and yet want even more; it’s a mental illness and will be the end of human habitation of this planet.
Betty Cracker
We’ve been watching the US Open (hubby is a golf nut), and I’m so glad you posted this because we were wondering what the story was behind that course. Yeesh!
I haven’t played golf in several years, and I never played well except this one time when I chipped into the hole on an elevated green from a bunker where I couldn’t even see the pin! (Was dumb luck.) But I do enjoy golf and intend to get back into it at some point when I have more time. I ask you, what other “sport” allows participants to ride around in carts and drink beer? ;-)
Parfigliano
@StringOnAStick: The ultra-rich keep pushing and it will be the end of their habitation of this planet.
oatler
Why haven’t the MCU guys given us a hero who goes after oligarchs? No Robin Hood comparisons, just a small boy whose parents were fatally mugged by oil barons,the decided to help His wheels grind a little more fine…
Plus, Gal Godot.
MattF
Just a reminder that TFG regards himself as a masterful golf player— except that he cheats. And not just a little once in a while, but a lot, all the time. Go and Google ‘Trump cheats at golf’.
bbleh
@MattF: like so many other things with him, it’s about domination. He cheats — openly — and demands implicitly that the people he plays with let him get away with it, and they do, so he wins the dominance game. Bragging about being masterful is just rubbing it in, icing on the cake.
Dagaetch
That entire Robin Williams performance (Live on Broadway 2002) remains quite possibly the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. The entire show is available on YouTube for anyone who could use 90 minutes of laughing.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
It’s not just Prop 13. There is apparently some other loophole in the California tax code that allows golf courses to be taxed only on their value as golf courses rather than on their highest and best use. So it wasn’t taxed at anything like the rate it should have been even when Prop 13 passed. Of course Prop 13 exaggerates the effect, since it’s still taxed based on what it was valued as a golf course in 1978 (with minor adjustments for inflation).
That’s not to say that there can’t be golf courses in the LA area. Even in LA, there are areas that more or less have to be left open for one reason or another. The course closest to me is on a flood plain and thus couldn’t be developed for housing or commercial use in any case. I still think it would be better as a general use park that would allow more than a handful of people to use it at a time, but recreation is probably its best and highest use.
Shalimar
The golf course I live on in Florida has been declining for years in terms of both maintenance and use, so it isn’t much of a surprise that the latest area plans include replacing most of it with high rises and shopping centers over the next decade.
bbleh
@Roger Moore: only on their value as golf courses rather than on their highest and best use.
[Thurston Howell voice:] but my dear boy, don’t you see, restricting access to beautifully landscaped land in the middle of a densely populated area to a few very wealthy individuals (not to mention avoiding yet more “housing” for the hoi polloi) IS its highest and best use. [sniffs]
Baud
It seems like highest-and-best-use taxation could get out of hand in a rapidly growing area. Of course, the cure may well be worse than the disease.
Phylllis
At least The Masters packs them in once a year to bring some economic benefit to the greater Augusta area, including up the road here in our parts. We’re about an hour NE by interstate and hotels, restaurants, & folks who rent their homes out see the uptick.
smith
This country has a strange attitude toward mobster-oligarchs. On the one hand, they are invariably played as villains in movies and TV, and that portrayal is very popular. Not surprising, given that so many of them could play those roles without even acting ( Musk, Thiel, etc., etc.).
On the other hand, there’s the idea that if you are super-rich you’re some kind of genius, and not merely a pathological greedhead. That’s what got a not-very-successful conman who played an oligarch on TV elected by a bunch of easily led Goobers (though, of course, the fact that he scratched their racist itch didn’t hurt either).
We’re going to have to make up our minds before we go all the way down the road to a full-fledged kryptocracy. Unfortunately, political campaigns now cost an obscene amount of money, making it almost inevitable that politicians will be bought. And, we have the headwind of Citizen’s United to work against, as well as a Supreme Court that is apparently all in on barely-concealed bribery. Those barriers are going to be very difficult to surmount.
azlib
I confess, I am an avid golfer. I play 4 times a week at a local public course here in Scottsdale. I understand all the problems with trying to maintain a course in a desert. I play because the game is challenging and is also a good mental and almost spiritual discipline. The game is very Zen like. Read the first chapter of “Golf in the Kingdom” by Michael Murphy.
Here in the desert the game will have to adapt. We will see more desertification of course where all but the greens and fairways are left as desert. At least the course I play on is built in a natural wash area which has little value for development since it is all 100 year floodplain. Yes, it does rain here in Scottsdale and often times with a vengeance that floods the washes.
One of the projects my course does is put in hurricane wells to help recharge the groundwater. One of the things I wish the course would not do is overseed with rye grass in the winter. The groundskeeper here says over time it weakens the Bermuda grass which goes brown and dormant in the winter. Unfortunately, the tourists want there golf courses to be green all year round.
Overall golf is a dying industry. Course are closing all over the country. The game is expensive and difficult.
JustRuss
Here’s a fun one: The PGA itself is tax exempt, and a whopping 3 percent of its revenue goes to charity. Its executives , of course, make millions.
Baud
@JustRuss: IIRC, all or almost all of the sports leagues are tax exempt. The teams aren’t, but the leagues themselves are.
Another Scott
@Roger Moore: Good points.
OTOH, … Phys.org:
People are weird, and too many whites get especially weird about property.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
tokyokie
I believe Groucho Marx was briefly a member of the L.A. Country Club and when told that his family could not use the swimming pool, he asked, “My daughter is only half-Jewish; can she get in up to her waist?” But the ostracization by the area’s country clubs prompted a group of Jewish businessmen to start the Hillcrest Country Club, which Groucho and the rest of the Marx Brothers, along with pretty much every Jewish entertainer in the area joined, and it became the favored hangout for many of them. George Burns regularly played bridge there several times a week, right up until a couple of days before he died. Screw the golf part; being invited to hang out with the crew at the Comedians’ Roundtable would be far cooler than anything the L.A.C.C. could offer.
mrmoshpotato
@StringOnAStick:
Since this is regarding golf, don’t forget Bonesaw Arabia.
PREACH!
JMG
Golf courses, especially the ones associated with housing developments, were wildly overbuilt in the aughts due to 1. Tiger Woods’ impact leading to a mini-boom in golf interest and 2. The real estate bubble. The subsequent closing of courses is really more reversion to the mean than anything else.
I love golf and play every day I can at our town’s nine hole muni and at some of the other public courses here on the Cape, which is crowded with courses ranging from the humble to some of the snootiest clubs in Massachusetts (setting the bar real high). Said course is smack dab in the middle of town and if it wasn’t town property, would be gobbled up for overlarge mansion-like second homes. So I feel no guilt.
One last thought. Los Angeles Country Club was founded in 1898, before there were cars in that town, before motion pictures were invented. Founders probably got the land for a nickel an acre.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I played a bunch of golf when I was younger. I haven’t played a round in about 10 years and doubt I’ll ever play again. I think it’s a stupid fucking waste of time. The fact that the same rich assholes who complain about high taxes pay crazy dues to be part of an exclusive club boils my blood
Edited for spelling.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
Fishing? Even though they’re water carts aka boats. 😁
mrmoshpotato
@oatler:
Bruce Wayne?
Betty Cracker
If I were queen, all decommissioning golf courses would be automatically converted into bird sanctuaries that are open to the public. Birds already love golf courses!
JMG
@tokyokie: Hillcrest is an excellent golf course, championship quality. The legend goes that during its construction, they struck oil.
Baud
@JMG:
At least they didn’t have to go far to move to Beverly.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
There it’s offensive conspicuous consumption.
Like we’ve never had that in California before…..
JWR
@azlib:
That’s what I’ve been thinking, that golfers should be allowed their greens, possibly a bit larger than usual, but that the rest of the course should be left dirt, covered with crushed granite to keep the dust down in dry months, and (mostly) mud free in the wet, while reducing the need for industrial strength riding mowers. Like the infield of a baseball diamond.
raven
And besides that it the “MARINE LAYER”! They are just showing a clip about Charlie Sifford and the “shameful PGA policy.
Ruckus
@MattF:
If ShitForBrains didn’t cheat he’d actually be wealthier. But he’s been a cheat all his life. How do you think he got started?
raven
@Phylllis: An hour away and you’re in the Augusta area, I guess we are in Athens too. There certainly are plenty of folks who stay here and commute for the Masters. I’ve lived here 38 years and was in the lottery for 20 and finally got tickets to the practice round!
I got a nice shot of Rory eating a candy bar!
Steeplejack
@raven:
LOL, I just saw that. It was a good thing, but the announcers made it sound like it was up there with something involving Martin Luther King.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: You could also mandate that the golf cart drive trains be converted for use in electric airboats. And then require that those be used on your river instead of gas-powered boats. Sort of a pilot program.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Well maybe the birds will shit on the LIV players, so that would be a plus.
Steeplejack
I’m with everyone here on the ecological dubiousness of golf, but I enjoy watching it in a “background video wallpaper” way. I am attracted to sports that I have experience with. I played golf briefly (and dreadfully) as a yoot. But I’ve got vestigial muscle memory and can appreciate the skill of what the pros do. (At the other end of the spectrum, hockey makes my soccer-ravaged ankles hurt just watching it, plus I have a hard time following the puck on anything less than a gigantic HD screen.)
COVID got me out of the habit of watching a lot of sports, because they disappeared, but pre-pandemic the Golf Channel was great on Thursday and Friday because they would show the opening rounds of European tour, PGA and LPGA events. Always beautiful scenery and low-key announcing unless something extraordinary broke out.
Which reminds me, I’ve got to start prepping for the Tour de France, another major video wallpaper event, which starts on Saturday 1 July. Highly recommended.
This final round today looks to be epic. I think the top three players in the world are in the final two pairs, and there are a number of players who are close behind them. Kind of weird that the last two pairs won’t even start their rounds for another 30-40 minutes, but that’s West Coast/Best Coast time for you.
raven
@Steeplejack: At least they said “shameful” but I’m sure it was scripted.
raven
This is pretty old.
The Getty Center is the most valuable piece of property in Los Angeles County yet again, and by a lot—the County Assessor decided that the Richard Meier-designed campus was worth $3.853 billion in 2013.
Newer
The 10 Most Valuable Properties in L.A. Based on 2019 Assessed Value, According to the Los Angeles Business Journal
Chevron Refinery, El Segundo
J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles
LAX, Los Angeles
Universal Studios, Universal City
PBF Energy Torrance Refinery, Torrance
Westfield Century City, Los Angeles
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles / Valero Refinery, Wilmington (tie)
Tesoro Carson Refinery, Carson
Steeplejack
@raven:
😹 I might have detected some gritted teeth.
Somewhat similar, I read today that, while the PGA touts their “awesome” charitable programs, only about 3% of their revenue goes to that. The executives make millions, of course.
ETA: Like every other professional sport, I should point out.
Sparks
Groucho Marx used to have a great quip about one of those places (you will have to look it up, I’m not doing it for you). That a Black person was finally admitted in 1991 at L.A.C.C. should be the shame of the city, maybe even worse than Daryl Gates. It does remind me LA is too close to Bakersfield. Then again, there’s plenty of ugliness in CA. I used to play golf, but I wouldn’t set foot on anything but a public course.
raven
@Steeplejack: Yea, I’m a sports person and the entire world is totally fucked up so I can’t get all upset about it.
raven
@Sparks: You should have been there in the summer of 65. . .maybe you were.
OGLiberal
@Dagaetch: i have seen so much Robin Williams, but I never saw that show or the golf bit and I was near tears. My gosh, that man was hilarious.
Mike in NC
We live on a golf course in an area that has dozens of them. The game never interested me in the slightest, and after four years of reading about Fat Bastard waddling to his golf cart just about every day, I’m pretty sure I’ll never play a round.
Citizen Alan
@StringOnAStick: The most important thing to understand about politically active billionaires is that they feel a far greater kinship with billionaires in other countries than they do for their fellow Americans outside the 0.1%. I am still waiting for J.B. Pritzger to reveal what awful monstrous things he’s doing behind the scenes while pretending to be possibly the only decent and upright billionaire in the country. Because as an article of religious faith, I literally cannot believe that he’s as rich as he is and is still a good guy.
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack:
At least the TdF riders have to make an effort (they totally bust their asses).
Enjoy listening to Phil and Bob. RIP Paul.
Snarki, child of Loki
The “highest and best use” is a combination upper-crust golf course and rifle range for peons.
Every hour, a peon gets to practice with a sniper rifle on the 1%ers.
Win-win, and 2nd Amendment goodness also too.
eclare
Oh that bit with Robin Williams is hilarious. Such a genius.
azlib
@JWR:
Some desert courses have oil sand greens which must be raked before putting. Not sure if that is a great environmental solution, though.
One other point is a number of Scottsdale golf courses are irrigated with reclaimed or treated water. Same for parks. Arizona actually has some of the toughest water conservation laws in the country. For example if you cannot provide a 100 year source of water you cannot create a subdivision. There is unfortuntely, a loophole in the law which allows lots to be divided into less than 6 lots without providing the proof of a 100 year water source. Republicans in the legislature here are of couse blocking getting rid of that loophole. See the Rio Verde debacle which is a wildcat subdivision without a 100 year water supply.
Another curious point about the Phoenix metro area is it has more canal miles than Venice and a number of the irrigation canals date back thousands of years. Also a lot of the canals have walking and biking paths along them. You can literally go from one side of Phoenix to the other without riding or walking on a street.
Grumpy Old Railroader
I think the that those fees and dues should at a minimum, be subject to sales taxes. It is not like those members can’t afford it. Specifically a “targeted” sales tax that is used to feed and house the homeless
SomeRandomGuy
Keep in mind that a sport isn’t intended to be an athletic competition played at a high level – a family volleyball game where a *great* player on either team can keep the ball in the air, and move it toward the net, in an generally upward direction, is more “sporting” than a professional volleyball squad demolishing a gang of middle-schoolers, because sports are meant to be entertainment and fun-creating, more than about winning and losing. From that perspective, if you’ve had fun knocking balls around a miniature golf course, you probably know more about the appeal of golf as a sport than you realize.
One funny thing about golf. Groucho Marx is famous for the line about “I refuse to belong to an association that accepts people like me as members.” It’s funny, self-deprecating humor, right?
Most folks don’t realize how political it was. He was refusing to belong to a country club that would make an exception to “no Jews” for Groucho Marx. It’s not that they had something against Groucho, see, it’s just, “C’mon man, people just won’t belong to a country club that admits Jews as members.”
“People like me” was not just a self-deprecating barb – it was that special *twist* of the knife caused by anti-semitism, made a bit visible.
Roger Moore
@JMG:
Sure, but that doesn’t mean it makes sense to keep a golf course there. One of the advantages of a sensible property tax system is to discourage inefficient land uses. Giving a special tax break to golf courses means we have a golf course where there could be thousands of homes. Given how bad the housing crisis is in California, that’s ridiculous.
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack:
Yes and no. The leagues in the big professional team sports are considered to be trade associations, which are normally tax exempt as 501(c)(6) corporations, the same category as something like a chamber of commerce. They do bring in large amounts of money, but most of that is passed through to the constituent teams or, in the case of the PGA, as tournament prizes. I agree that the executives are overpaid- most executives seem to be overpaid these days- but it isn’t fundamentally unreasonable for the organization to be tax exempt.
kalakal
@azlib: I lived in Qatar for a few years in the 60s & 70s. Used to play on a golf course at Umm Sa’id. At that time the greens were raked sand, the fairways soft asphalt and the rest desert. Sort of zero water use landscaping once built.
SomeRandomGuy
@Ruckus: Hell, during the 2008 fallout, people discussed “cramdown” which is to say, if a bankruptcy court finds that a bank will be *better off* with a reduction in mortgage principle, than in a foreclosure, the bank would have to accept the reduction in mortgage principle, because (once again) IT WOULD BE BETTER OFF THAN IN A FORECLOSURE.
It was defeated, burned to the ground, and the ground was sown with salt.
*NEVER* assume the rich aren’t stone cold stupid about certain things. As you say, an honest operator can usually work better.
Craig
@Steeplejack: to prep for Le Tour I recommend the new Netflix series on last year’s tour. Great overview on how cycle racing works.
FastEdD
I am so not a golfer, to the extent I have a large sticker on one of my guitar cases that says “I Really Really Really Love Golf.” Everyone who knows me knows that is the exact opposite of the truth.
And I agree, Eat The Rich. Motorhead version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh3t49NsWBA
OTOH, it is crazy out here in SoCal. A drummer friend of mine mows lawns for a living and was grateful to keep his modest house after his divorce. He said, “I guess that means I’m a millionaire. I don’t feel like a millionaire.”
Roger Moore
@SomeRandomGuy:
The reason people were so worried about cramdown rules was they believed it rewarded people for taking out crazy loans. It makes sense if you look at it in isolation- there really is a risk of moral hazard if you reward people who take out unaffordable loans by making them affordable- but it was utter nonsense in light of the broader situation. We were bailing everyone else out after their mistakes, so it seems unreasonable that we weren’t willing to do the same thing for homeowners. I guess moral hazard is fine when I’m the one benefiting from the bailout, but not when you or Those People are.
Steeplejack
@Roger Moore:
I don’t necessarily have a problem with the tax exemption. I was talking about the hype-to-actual-charity ratio.
karen marie
Both of my parents were and are horrible people. Well, my mother is still horrible. My father is dead a year and a half now. I found out a month after he died when I saw my nephew’s post on Facebook.
What makes me most angry about both of them is their utter refusal to take any responsibility for the many ways in which they abused me. Telling me both “it never happened” and “you’re an adult, get over it.”
Some people should not have children.
My parents are the reason why I never had children myself. I did not want to bring more people into the world to suffer the way I did.
Steeplejack
@Craig:
A friend recommended that to me, and I will check it out. But all I really need is the gorgeous scenery and the soothing voice of Phil Liggett.
Jay
catclub
@JustRuss:
Also the national Football League Organization. Well known charitable org there.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: You know I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but Phil Liggett and the (unfortunately) late Paul Sherwen were the best English-language sports announcing duo of any sport anywhere.
I have followed pro cycling since Eddy Merckx days, so it’s more than just video wallpaper for me.
NotMax
George Carlin.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC: Let’s not forget about the fat orange fascist shitstain stuffing himself into a golf cart at the G7 summit while everyone else walked through Sicily.
HinTN
@azlib: I am looking forward to visiting the Desert Botanical Garden before we fly out of Phoenix in early July.
Baud
@karen marie:
Did you intend to post that in the prior thread?
I’m sorry your childhood was unhappy.
Jay
@Roger Moore:
And the reason there were so many “crazy loans” out there was because a bunch of Banks and Brokers took advantage and preyed on people, so that they could “securitize” those loans and mortgages.
Decades ago, when I worked in Milwuakee, I helped a coworker get her family and her their first house. It was not in a “good” area, (racially segregated), but it was a good house. They had a good mortgage.
When that whole crap started to happen, she emailed me almost every day, because she was basically being harassed by her Bank and various Brokers to refi, (with crap mortgages). Her mortgage was resold 7 times in one year and each time, she was pressured to refi.
NutmegAgain
@FastEdD: Thumbs up for Motörhead~
HinTN
@kalakal: We had raked sand greens here in my little corner of paradise until the late fifties, maybe the early sixties. By the time I was playing at age 12 they were grass.
SomeRandomGuy
@Roger Moore: Yes, but the ultimate insanity stands. A bankruptcy court doesn’t decide what’s good for the homeowner. It’s supposed to look out for the benefits of the *creditor*.
Banks were actively hostile to the idea that some people would make them more whole, by continuing to make lowered payments, with far less expense than re-selling a house.
I could be wrong, but I feel very strongly there’s a strong bit of “but *Black* people might use that provision!” energy that ran through the opposition.
JoyceH
I played a little golf decades ago – my excuse is that I lived in Hawaii, where EVERYBODY golfed. There was this shabby little municipal course that didn’t require membership; that’s where you’d see the local boys playing in shorts and flip-flops. I’d mainly go to the driving range, because it was open late and had those big lights like for night football. Place was overrun with flea-bitten stray cats, and the staff would catch them and put flea collars on them. They didn’t want to get rid of them, because they needed them. The big lights would attract bugs, which attracted frogs that ate the bugs, which attracted the cats that ate the frogs. Circle of life… Of course, you had to accept the fact that your drives would sometimes bonk the frogs.
karen marie
@Baud: Yeah, I was so angry, I didn’t realize I was in a new thread.
Thank you. If only the damage were limited to my childhood.
Splitting Image
California golf made at least one contribution to higher culture. One of Stan and Ollie’s last silent movies involved a day on the golf course, with Edgar Kennedy along for the ride. Disaster ensues, but since everyone is a golfer, most of them are presumably deserving.
Should Married Men Go Home?
Baud
@karen marie:
No worries. Just thought you might want to post it where folks could see it in context. It’s a very moving thread.
Ramona
@karen marie: I am so sorry that the people who should have cared for and protected you when you were young and vulnerable abused you! The pain from such early abuse is so difficult to overcome. I commend you on your choice to not continue the cycle by not having children.
Old School
@catclub:
The NFL was never a 501(c)(3) (charity), but they were a 501(c)(6).
However, they gave that up ten years or so ago and now pay taxes.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
The Mortgage Relief Act bailed out tons of homeowners by relieving them of a good chunk of their mortgage debt. This act also applied to farmers and to some people with rental property.
Many people still lost their homes because they could never afford them in the first place.
From talking to tax preparers and some taxpayers, it was interesting to see how often banks knowingly wrote bad loans because the banks would still make out like bandits on fees. But there were also people who were overly optimistic or who just were willing to play into a crazy system who refinanced at ridiculous unsustainable rates in order to buy rental property or homes for their adult children. Too often the whole thing collapsed and all the properties were lost.
I suppose a law could have been passed to just let people keep their homes
mrmoshpotato
@Craig: Well, I know what I’m watching tonight. Thanks!
Sparks
@SomeRandomGuy: No, the rich are just generally stone cold sociopaths. There are a few good ones, but even some of those just have good press.
prostratedragon
@Jay: As I recall — maybe someone can correct me if needed — if the banks accepted a cramdown it would be a realized hit to their asset positions. Much better for them to retain the pretense until the YBGIBG* point.
____
* You’ll be gone, I’ll be gone.
Sister Golden Bear
@JMG:
Entirely possible, there’s still active oil wells in Beverly Hills that are maybe a mile away.
Geminid
I saw three interesting news items, two foreign news.
In the good news department: Yemenis making the pilgrimage to Mecca flew to Saudi Arabia directly from the Yemeni capital of Sanaa for the first time since 2016. A sign that the ceasefire in Yemen has taken hold.
In the better-late-than-never department: Japan passed legislation revising its rape statute. One of the provisions raised the age of consent from 13 to 16.
And in the get-your-orders-in-early department: 340,000 UPS workers voted to authorize a strike on August 1 if there is no new contract by then. The United Teamsters Union said the vote was 97% in favor.
kalakal
@SomeRandomGuy:
The UK has/had* a sensible idea after a previous housing crash ( maybe the late 90s one, there’s a well established boom bust cycle there that somehow catches everybody by surprise with every bust) whereby the banks & other lenders can’t actually own the properties they foreclose on, they have to sell them on in a matter of weeks. In a major slump that amounts to a serious money losing firesale for them. Basically they have an incentive to keep people in their houses till it gets better. One solution was temporary interest only mortgages.
2liberal
nominated as a rotating tag
Suzanne
@azlib:
That whole linear park system in Indian Bend Wash (golf course, the Wedge skate park, etc.) is designed to be the wash area for that whole area of Scottsdale and east PHX. It’s not natural at all — early plans and renders from the Army Corps of Engineers show it as a giant concrete trench, stretching for miles. Turning it into recreation space is definitely an improvement! The problem is that there’s so much grass and that requires watering. The rain isn’t sufficient. But it can never be anything else than parks of different kinds.
Odie Hugh Manatee
When I lived in Spokane, WA Indian Canyon golf course was a great place in the winter. Long clear curving slopes with gentle terrain = gonzo inner tubing! Load up a Thermos with some hot cider and Jack Daniel’s (not too much, just a nip!).
sab
Las Vegas Nevada used to have a thing called Nature Park, which was a big chunk of the original oasis, left in its natural state, and donated to the city to keep in its pristime state for historical interest. By the mid 1990s the city had converted it to a public golf course with greens fees approaching $100s. The mayor ( Jan Jones) used to give at free passes as political favors. Just tragic.
El Muneco
The key to golf as a sport is that, at its best, it requires the player to execute 45-60 full-effort shots with the grace and timing of a top-class ballplayer, intermingled with 15-25 putts executed with the precision of a top-class darts player, all while walking 4 miles over rolling ground, preferably carrying their own clubs.
I played competitively in high school and juniors, and the year I made it to state in my age group (finished 2nd to last!), dragging ourselves over a hilly course in 100-degree heat combined with the stress of competition literally broke a couple of us – kids who had been competing for years up to that point.
Steeplejack
@El Muneco:
Thanks for putting it in perspective. It’s too easy to dismiss golf. “Is it really a sport?”