I’m gonna catch hate for this but I enjoy golf. I don’t play often, 5-10 times per year at most however nothing beats a day out with the boys, plenty of beer and joints, and smacking lil balls around with crooked sticks.
Having said that my local muni 5 min down the road has 3 18 hole courses. They shut one down a little over 4 years ago and didn’t know what to do with it, so in the meantime, being county owned land, they turned it into a park. They didnt change anything. The first year was odd, it felt like you were walking on a golf course with a broken lawn mower. Now, 4 years later, it’s completely wild and I love it. Some trees have begun to crack and grow through the pathways and there is so much wildlife everywhere from deer to coyotes to birds and so many small mice and chipmunks.
It really is quite peaceful and beautiful out there. The county decided to permanently leave as a park and it feels like a small escape from everyday life. There are about 5 miles of trails as well as a connection to an adjacent park with a couple more miles of wooded trails and a small lake for catch and release fishing. The maintenance there is next to zero and it rarely ever has more than 4 or 5 cars in the lot, making it rare to see anyone out there. I take my dog out there at least 2-3 times per week.
I fully support returning unused land back to nature. It’s quite exciting to see it slowly transform over time.
Voice my opinion and participate in local government? Preposterous! /s
They had some public forums on it a couple years ago. I did not go but they did release a survey online shortly after that I completed. Took less than 5 min and I did submit my preference to keep it undeveloped as a park.