A New York-City backed effort to build a golf course in the Bronx is eight years and $100 million behind schedule, the New York Post reports. The New York Sun reported on June 27, 2002, that the cost of the project had ballooned to more than $40 million from $22.5 million, in part because of the costs of environmental remediation. Various Web sites (here, here, and here) estimate the private-sector cost of building a golf course at anywhere from $2 million to $6 million. It raises all sorts of questions, including:
If it costs this much and takes this long to get something done in New York City, where at least three citywide daily newspapers watchdog the government's operations and the government is led by a businessman, Michael Bloomberg, who has a reputation as a good manager, imagine how bad it must be in places with bad politicians and less press scrutiny?
Why is the government in the golf business to begin with? Why not leave golf-course construction and management entirely to the private sector? Why should non-golfers be taxed to support golfers?
If this land belongs to the city, why not sell it to the highest bidder to do what the bidder wants to do with it, and use the proceeds to reduce taxes, rather than taking money from taxpayers and using it to build an expensive golf course? If the bidder wants to build a golf course or apartment buildings, the cost of the building and the timing of it then become the private owner's responsibility rather than a public obligation.
(Need it be said?) If it costs this much to build a golf course, imagine how much it will cost (and how long it will take) once the government takes over health care.