Golf Range Vs. the Growing Needs of One Community
After reading the article on the successful, productive community gardens at Leisure World (June 26), a letter regarding the organic community garden at Golden West College is in order. Golden West’s garden has been in existence for over 10 years. During the last six months, the gardeners at the college have been actively working toward the preservation of this community amenity.
In December, 1988, we were sent a letter that the garden was to be closed as early as June but by Sept. 1, 1989, for certain. They were only allowing those enrolled in the fall 1988 semester to continue until the closure. This was the first any of us knew of the plan. Golden West College officials would like to see the area converted into a golf driving range. There already exist three golf driving ranges within five miles of Golden West College. In an even larger area, there exist no community gardens.
I believe that the college deviates from its mission when it additionally suggests that not only will it develop a golf driving range, but is also considering apartment buildings or a commercial center at the southwest corner of the campus. What is happening to the community college system? Aren’t these campuses sacred from the overwhelming need to cover every inch of open space with concrete structures? Similar proposals have been initiated by Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.
At the heart of the matter, as the June 26 article reiterated, is the fact that the community gardening is beneficial in many ways to those who participate. Participants who have no other place to garden gain exercise, healthy fruits and vegetables, opportunities to socialize that may not be available otherwise and general mental renewal from the act of gardening. Time after time the National Gardening Assn. surveys find that gardening is the most popular leisure-time activity.
Our immediate goal has been to reopen the garden to everyone on a semester-by-semester basis, to use the garden to the fullest until this development plan is actually formulated. As of this writing, the college is uncertain about how it will develop the campus, however it refuses to reopen the garden to everyone. It will allow the few who were not scared off by the closure letter to remain but will not let others partake in this renewing, ever-popular activity.
I thought community colleges had a responsibility to serve the needs in their community. I am disappointed in the lack of the community college district to address the full range of community needs. Without forward-thinking planning for the whole community, urban life will continue to produce symptoms which are even more expensive to repair than the buildings at Golden West College, which is the cited motivation for these development plans.
SUZANNE F. MORLOCK
Huntington Beach
