General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[panamaniac]

They don’t have to be. City-owned golf courses are for the benefit of the citizens of the City; if a greater benefit can be had by opening them for walking than by opening them for golfing, then they should be for walking.

Full disclosure:  I have never played golf and have no intention of ever playing that game.  As Mark Twain once said, "golf is a good walk spoiled."

I would go much further than ijmorlan and say that all golf courses within the city should become public parks.  When Rockway (public) and Westmount (private) golf courses were established, they were on the edge of the city.  And that is where they belong today.  It just makes sense.  Once a golf course is surrounded by the city they should be turned into parks for all to use.  Can you imagine how awful KW would look like if Victoria Park and Waterloo Park were golf courses?  

I doubt if turning golf courses into parks is on anyone's agenda but perhaps it is something we can think about.  

There has been thought from time to time at the City level about what the future might hold for Rockway.  The risk, of course, is that the land would be looked at just for its monetary value and be sold off to developers.  That would be a tragedy.  The main issue in the area at the moment, aside from whatever redevelopment is to take place at the seniors' centre, is the condition of the rockery in Rockway Gardens - I understand that it has been shifting for years and needs to be repaired/rebuilt but this is something the Horticultural Society could never afford and I don't know if it's even on the City's radar.  The Rockway Gardens will be 100 years old in 2033, so maybe somebody can tackle it as a centennial project ....