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# T’d off about anti-golfing law
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/td-off-about-anti-golfing-law-editor/
- Published: 2004-08-03T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:47:24.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless

*By Lori Emerson Santa Monica*

I see that City Hall is, as usual, looking out for my best interests as a taxpaying citizen, trying to live and survive in (what should be) a clean, safe and secure city. Not.

Let’s see, this week’s hedge police type trash legislation is going to make it illegal for me to work on my golf skills because I might disturb a picnicker? (SMDP, July 28, page 1). For the life of me, I cannot remember when the last time was that I saw a picnicker amongst the crowd of sleeping, smelly, transients, specifically at Reed Park. How was I supposed to practice my swing when I can’t even find an open spot because the homeless are two feet apart on the entire grass area? They are congregated in groups (gangs) now, sitting in their beach chairs, harassing anyone walking by.

Should (or when) I have the courage to take my metal club to Reed Park to practice, it’s far more likely that I will/would be using the club as a defensive device. I need to carry the club because when I walk through the grassy area, I am bombarded with the rude, drunken, filthy, crazy losers that continue to cost this city millions of dollars a year.

Ms. Polahcek sites that the new anti-golf legislation is due to citizen complaints. Has anyone pointed to the citizen complaints about the ever-growing and resource-draining transient problem? Please log my complaint into your system.

Ms. Polachek says “it sounds goofy, but there’s a safety concern in the parks.” There is nothing “goofy” about thousands of people peeing and pooping all over the parks and this city. If the city doesn’t want anyone to get hurt, why don’t they address the intimidating homeless loitering in the parks, along with the sanitation problems they create?

The article goes on to state that selling and distributing food is illegal in the parks. So, here we go with selective enforcement again. I can’t practice my golf swings, but it’s OK that Palisades Park is full of 150-plus homeless people, being fed while an ordinance is in effect that the police and the city will not enforce? I guess it’s going to become a new useless rule that I can’t practice my putting, but feeding the bears, (oops) I mean bums, in the parks will continue, unregulated and un-policed. I will get a ticket and they will get a sandwich.

Since I can’t stay up past about 10 p.m. to attend the City Council meetings, (because I have a real job), I want to know if I can still carry my club with me for protection? If I don’t have a golf ball or a tee with me, I can’t be cited, right? If I carry a wooden club, rather than a metal one, or if I practice with a hockey stick or baseball bat, am I exempt from prosecution relating to the golf legislation? When I practice in an area next to an oversized hedge abutting the park property, who gets the bigger ticket, me or the resident who hasn’t trimmed his bushes? Is the city going to put up new signage warning potential golfers of the law and fines? If I get hit in the head with a golf ball (as an innocent picnicker), can I sue the city?

Ms. Polachek closes the article with “we apply all of our park use rules consistently, regardless of whether someone has a house or doesn’t have a house, etc.” Blah, blah, blah.

No you don’t, and no you won’t. You and your co-worker city officials need to stop lying and spewing untruths about how the laws are enforced in this slum by the sea. Laws that protect citizens when it comes to transients are not enforced. They have never been enforced, and we all know, it’s par for the course.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 3, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080304.pdf?ref=smdp.com)