You need to speak up if you want to save Portland's muni golf courses

[wingedfeetxc]

In the wake of the Portland Diamond Project offering $50 million for Red Tail golf course, the city tried to push them to develop Rose City instead. See OPB: https://www.opb.org/article/2024/03/28/portland-major-league-baseball-sports-stadium-lloyd-district-multnomah-beaverton-rose-city/ 

 

It seems like Portland's current leadership does not value the city's excellent public golf system, which includes Great Blue and Greenback at Heron Lakes, Eastmoreland, Rose City, Colwood and Red Tail. They keep pushing plans to sell off the courses, and they're not getting enough blowback to make them change course. They're going to keep going down this road unless something changes.

Portland could easily lose *all* its muni courses: Red Tail subsidies the rest of the golf program. If the city goes through with selling it for a baseball stadium, the rest of the program will become a money loser. Portland's muni golf courses don't receive tax money, and they have to support themselves. Remove Red Tail – the course that subsides the rest – and they'll eventually be forced to sell off the other courses, likely to be developed. 

 

If you don't want to see this happen you *need* to reach out to the Mayor's Office. You can do so here: [email protected] . Just send a short and polite email letting them know that you value Portland's golf courses and you don't want to see Red Tail, Rose City, or any other course sold off. Let them know if you're a Portland resident and voter. 

Happy to answer any questions you might have. I've had conversations with mayor's Chief of Staff about this, and I'm familiar with the golf program's finances. 

 

 

[Seamus_MacDuff]

That surprises me that Red Tail subsidizes the other courses. I would have thought that Heron Lakes would have been the more financially stable operation. 

[wingedfeetxc]

9 hours ago, Seamus_MacDuff said:

That surprises me that Red Tail subsidizes the other courses. I would have thought that Heron Lakes would have been the more financially stable operation. 

 

Yes. Basically, the five eastside courses (more or less) cover all the costs of operations and administration, and then all the profit comes from Red Tail (the range / teaching program / pro shop do very well there). This is important: Because the golf program is an enterprise fund, it must fully support itself. The program can't just "break even" -- it has to cover its costs during the slow winter months, or other downturns. That profit that Red Tail provides is the buffer that keeps the golf system going. Remove it, and the golf program becomes unsustainable longterm.

 

An additional consideration: Like the rest of the Parks department, the golf program has a lot of deferred maintenance that needs to be addressed. Tens of millions of dollars worth. Most of the irrigation systems are at, or far beyond, the end of their life. Removing the money that Red Tail brings in basically precludes those pressing issues from being addressed. 

 

The tl;dr of all this is: If you want Portland to have a muni golf system in ten years, and if you want to ensure any or all of those golf courses still exist then, you *need* to speak up and let the Mayor's Office know they're important for you. They're throwing out all these proposals to redevelop them and they're not seeing much blowback, so they're learning they can do this and get away with it. 

[Seamus_MacDuff]

This sounds like a project that the Oregon Golf Association should be involved in, providing a voice for golfers who wouldn't otherwise know about the issue nor how to effectively be involved.  Have you or others reached out to them?

[Jeff58]

Allow me two representative images please. Just IMO.

 

Once the economic incentive becomes sufficient, the public’s interest is characterized in terms of its revenue potential.

 

The effective way for individuals to affect Portland.

 

[spud3]

The Redtail site should be disqualified simply on transportation issues, so I don't understand why the Diamond Project keeps pushing that location.  It seems like there are better locations, mostly outside the city center, that would be much simpler to develop and extend existing MAX lines to.

 

Given the financing structure, I do hope that Redtail survives.  Not because I like it or play there (I don't - never liked that course), but because that would mean all those golfers would be spread amongst the other courses in the area.  If the sale should go through, I would also hope that a chunk of that money would be reinvested in the existing courses in the area, making them fully current and sustainable on their own (irrigation issues solved, renovations, maybe finally getting Heron out of that double-wide clubhouse).

 

Having said all that, I just sent an email to the mayor.  Whatever happens will undoubtedly take years for plans to even finalize.  Interesting that the article states that the process would be long and slow, with lots of public input and hearings, etc., then mentions that the Diamond Project and the Mayor's office both declined to comment...

[kaschreiber]

As someone that lived in Portland, now lives in the Seattle suburbs, Portland's public golf scene, at least as far as I'm aware, is special and it would be a shame to see that affected in that way. (I also don't understand the point @spud3 brings up with traffic management to that area). Email sent. 

[wingedfeetxc]

4 hours ago, spud3 said:

The Redtail site should be disqualified simply on transportation issues, so I don't understand why the Diamond Project keeps pushing that location.  It seems like there are better locations, mostly outside the city center, that would be much simpler to develop and extend existing MAX lines to.

Portland Diamond Project wants Red Tail because they want the maximum amount of land they can develop, which is what Red Tail provides. Look at the new Atlanta Braves ballpark and surrounding developments for what they're envisioning. I guess this is obvious, but the Portland Diamond Project wants a MLB team because it's a good way to make a lot of money, especially by owning the surrounding land you develop.

The fear I have is they'll get ahold of the Red Tail land but they won't end up getting a MLB team (which is a long shot imo), so they'll just shrug and develop it anyways. They're in this to make money and while having a baseball team makes that easier, it's not a necessity. If that happens, we have no baseball team and no muni golf system. I think there are enough issues that make a MLB stadium on Red Tail unlikely. But Red Tail being sold for a team that never materializes is a very real risk. 

[spud3]

I basically said as much in my email to the mayor. 

 

Personally, I think there are other cities that are way ahead of Portland in the race for the two expansion teams, for a number of reasons.  If it shakes out like you (and I) fear, the golfing community should really be stepping up to advocate for a good portion of the proceeds to be spent on upgrading the remaining courses/facilities. 

 

I've often thought that, with proper investment, Heron Lakes could be made into one of the best course complexes in the region.  Couple that with the historical significance of Eastmoreland (which also needs some serious capital investments), updating Rose City and Glendoveer, and finding and developing a new course on the west side to replace the huge number of rounds lost to the Redtail sale, you could have the cornerstones of turning the Portland municipal golf system into a real gem.  

 

Knowing the Portland political scene, though, they'll probably use the money to refinish the Portlandia statue...

[doc52]

It was my understanding that when the Diamond Project announced their renderings/ aspirations for Red Tail last year the group had not even formally notified the City/never submitted a letter of intent for the property.
 

It was communicated that their announcement was to test the waters and gauge the public’s interest again for an expansion team after the Port of Portland’s site for the A’s failed to gain any traction. With the current state of permitting in Washington County, as well as the ongoing 217 transportation issues, their concept is a pipe dream that will never happen. 

[spud3]

Washington county can’t even figure out how to get an In-n-Out situated.

A stadium would make their heads explode…