No one has ever disputed that the golf course and park are badly in need of a facelift. Quite the opposite, in fact: many people blame the Institute for the poor maintenance conditions that have plagued the park and course for years.

Those of us who oppose the Institute's present plans do so not because we want everything to stay decrepit or never change, but because we profoundly disagree with what the "golf course renovation" has become, and sincerely believe that the public should and does have the right to impact a project that uses millions of dollars of public money on a parcel of beloved public land.

We believe that one of the primary attractions of New Orleans, for residents and visitors alike, is its unique and authentic character and charm. The ambiance of the old Audubon Golf Course and of Audubon Park itself are in keeping with the city’s languorous beauty. In many cities throughout this country, the haste to embrace change for short-term gain has created the Anytown USA phenomenon which New Orleans has proudly and uniquely avoided. Now, we find that those same cities are looking for ways to restore the splendours of long-erased historic spaces and architectures, to turn the clock back to a time before urban sprawl and surface glitz.

The Audubon Nature Institute and its Houston and Atlanta based planners and architects are clearly out of step with this current trend to preserve or restore local character and "human scale."

Audubon Park is one of the most historic and gracious public spaces in this city. It belongs to the people of New Orleans, not the Audubon Institute. The $6 million dollar plan to reconstruct the Audubon Park Golf Course impacts ALL the users of the Park, not just the golfers and immediate neighbors.

We believe it is not too late to prevent the Audubon Institute from further sacrificing Audubon Park for the almighty dollar. We are your average daily park users-- bike-riders, skaters, runners, dog-walkers, stroller-pushers-- concerned about the overall impact of this project on the park. We are golfers, concerned about the destruction of the historic Audubon Golf Course. And we are citizens, concerned about the Audubon Institute's lack of accountability.

After a frustrating meeting with Dale Stastny of the Audubon Institute on Friday September 18 and our Protest in the Park on Saturday the 19th, the unrelenting response of the Audubon Nature Institute to those who oppose their plans for the park continues to be: the Institute knows what's good for us better than we do; we'll just love it when it's done, so please be quiet; and of course, the time-honored "our opposition is based on misinformation." Period. There is never even a glimmer of recognition that they may in fact have gotten a few things wrong themselves.

We've all been children, some longer ago than others, so we all recognize that attitude for what it is. In an attempt to give the ANI the benefit of the doubt, we have spent the past two months bringing the widespread opposition to their plans to their attention, thinking that, despite all their apparent subterfuge, perhaps they really didn't know what people wanted or thought, and once they knew, they would happily correct some of their more glaring mistakes!

Well, unfortunately, we too have come to recognize something that seemed unfathomable at the outset of this controversy: the executives of the ANI firmly believe that they and the 56 members of the Audubon Commission and the Audubon Nature Institute Board not only adequately and accurately reflect the views of the general public, but genuinely have the right to make unilateral decisions about the publicly owned Audubon properties without any actual input or discussion with the public. And despite all of the opposition, all of the phone-calling and letter-writing, and all of the publicity of the past two months, they STILL believe this!

Herein lies the problem, and the challenge. We must continue to state our opposition loudly and clearly. We must get our elected representatives to respond. And we must take advantage of every opportunity to be heard. The next such occasion is the ANI's Public Meeting on October 15th. They will try again to stack the deck against the general public by having as many of their 3000 employees there as possible, so it is important that everyone plan to attend. The next, perhaps final, opportunity will be the Audubon Commission Meeting on October 24th.