To the editors of The Indypendent:
You recently published an opinion piece titled “Disc Golf Drama: Highland Park Users Dismayed at Being Overrun by Outsiders Flinging Dangerous Metal Projectiles.” Those who read it (past tense or present) deserve the opportunity to also read this.
I am not writing to rebut the author’s valid safety concerns that exist whenever disc golf is placed in a multi-use public park, nor complain about your factually incorrect and inflammatory headline. The sport’s “Projectiles,” while plastic and not metal as the headline states, are indeed potentially dangerous, in the same way as baseballs, footballs, basketballs, and even softballs. You don’t want to be struck by any of them, especially as a non-participant. Park officials and the NYCDGA are likely already discussing remedies.
The bulk of author Sophie Golnick’s story after that identifies something else to be of even greater concern— gentrification. As she is an Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU and lives near the park in question, perhaps she couldn’t resist commenting publicly on the issue (and taking the position expected of her). Her “analysis,” however, lacks finesse and ignores facts.
A screen capture from the Indypendent story in question. Somewhat amusingly, the author admits that she herself is white and from elsewhere.
When you learn the truth about disc golf, her closing line — “I am not partial to the view that cities should be preserved in amber, but changes to the existing fabric . . .” — is revealed as a classic NIMBY line in sheep’s clothing.
The story has one large pull quote early on (see screenshot), and it sets the tone for everything that follows. She writes: “The disc golf players are overwhelmingly white, male, and from elsewhere.” A subhead further down reads “When the Colonizers Arrive.”
Sometimes absurdity must be called out as irresponsible, and that is what I am taking the time to do today.
To be clear: Efforts to introduce residents of New York City to the sport of disc golf are not part of an insidious plot to displace people from homes and businesses, one park district at a time. Quite the opposite.
Disc golf as a sport gives far, far more than it takes. It is golf, elevated above and beyond all the negatives normally associated with the word ‘golf’. Terms like exclusive and exclusionary, environmentally irresponsible, cost prohibitive, and insular are alien in the world of disc golf. What remains are the time in nature, the exercise, the camaraderie, the personal challenge, and the mental gymnastics. The blend of joy and anguish singular to golf.
The cost/benefit breakdown is so compelling, in fact, and its courses so adaptable to available terrain and maintenance-free, that while disc golf is now embraced nearly everywhere it is presented, disc golf-related non-profits focus on areas where free and low cost wellness options can have the greatest impact.
New York City is a bit of an outlier for the Paul McBeth Foundation, the mission of which is to “develop and introduce sustainable disc golf experiences in underserved locations with limited or no access to the sport.” More typical locations are in Mexico, Colombia, Uraguay, Uganda, Kenya, and Bulgaria. Those places are ideal because, for many there, funds for any kind of leisure activity are nonexistent. Like futbol, very little is required to play the game at the most basic level. The population density of NYC offers the opportunity to reach a more diverse population in the U.S., which is also important, and the appeal of free or nearly so seems to be just as relevant to students, families, and many seniors in New York City.
Getting back to that pull quote. The White-Elsewhere-Males alluded to were likely there responding to a call from the parks department to come play the course and provide feedback. Undoubtedly they shared details about the sport with anyone who asked, and a few who didn’t.
An impressive percentage of those who play disc golf eagerly recruit others to the sport without hesitation precisely because it is supremely accessible and available to everyone. They have discovered a wonderful thing and feel obligated to share it. Sounds corny, but it’s true. They’re hoping you and your neighbors (especially those with kids) at least give it a try.
Over the summer I had the opportunity to work with the Helen Rucker Center for Black Excellence on the CSU campus in Monterey, CA. I and others shared disc golf as part of a STEAM summer camp for local teens. Last week I did the same with a group of 50 neuroscientists from a Bay Area biotech company.
Both groups had a great time, and I know from experience that multiple individuals will play again soon. None of them will be shut out due the cost, or being made to feel unwelcome (unless they run into Ms. Golnick in Highland Park), or any other reason other than not having a course near enough. If they get hooked, they might even push their own local leaders to install a course. That is essentially how the sport has grown so steadily for the past 4 decades: A grassroots network unlike any other.
More than 10 years ago local disc golfers in Watsonville, CA installed a course in a community largely populated by Hispanic agriculture workers. They raised funds for the equipment and spent hundreds of hours clearing brush and hauling trash.
It took a little time, but the mix of people playing the course now looks like the community itself. Two young Hispanic players from the area who discovered disc golf there now play the sport professionally. One of them volunteered at the Helen Rucker Center event I just mentioned, teaching other teens disc golf.
Go ahead and raise the alarm if the disc golf course straddling Brooklyn and Queens endangers other park users or signage is insufficient. But complaining about a small area of your park being set aside for disc golf (between two larger areas already set aside only for softball), well that is just weak and transparently selfish, and frankly lazy for a supposed expert on social and cultural analysis.
To go further and insinuate that disc golf courses are some kind of Trojan horse designed to help outsiders breach the walls of “your” community? Well, that’s just absurd.
