"Sharp Park Golf Course"

A letter-to-the-editor from Gary Fulmer, Pacifica Tribune 3/23/11.  

"Regarding the ongoing argument over the future of Sharp Park Golf Course; I've noticed that stating "studies show" or, better yet, "scientific studies show" has become a popular phrase used to convince people of the merits of your opinion. But careful analysis of the referenced studies often reveals biases either in the study itself or in the reference to the study. This appears to be the case in the "study" cited by Jeff Miller's guest column two weeks ago in the Tribune. As was correctly pointed out in Alan Wolfson"s excellent letter to the editor (March 16, 2011), Mr. Miller is hardly un-biased when it comes to the golf course issue. Neither is Brent Plater as the leader of the Wild Equity Institute. Mr. Plater and Mr. Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity are both extremely biased against the continued existence of the golf course and the seawall. This was explained in detail by Paul Slavin in his guest column that appeared in the Tribune on March 16, 2011.

One of the main arguments that Mr. Miller, Plater, and other lawyers for the CBD and WEI make is that the seawall must be torn down to prevent water being trapped behind it and flooding Fairway park homes. This is ludicrous. If Plater and his friends are correct, then San Francisco should tear down its seawall and elevated Great Highway from the Cliff House to Sloat Boulevard to protect all the houses in the Sunset District from the water that will be trapped behind when the seawall and highway berm are breached. What hogwash!

For hundreds of years people have built seawalls, levees, and dikes to prevent flooding valuable property. The benefits of these structures are so obvious that to argue against them as the CBD and WEI do makes me suspect that they have a hidden agenda. In my opinion, Plater and his associates are trying to scare the residents of Fairway Park to further their own agenda which appears to be the removal of all man-made structures so that the Coastside can revert to what it was hundreds of years ago. Is this your vision of the future?"

Submitted by Gary Fulmer  

Posted by Kathy Meeh