a statewide housing shortage of roughly 300,000 units and a rental vacancy rate of just 1.4% in the city, maintaining New York City’s 11 full-size, publicly owned, and municipally operated golf courses — which comprise roughly 1,400 acres of dedicated greenery spread across the city’s five boroughs (not including the enormous 2,772 acres of park and greenery at Pelham Bay Park), more than 0.7% of the city’s total acreage — is hard to justify. This doesn’t even include the publicly owned but privately operated courses, which brings the total to over 1% of the city’s land. The municipal courses are managed by the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, and Manhattan is the only borough without one. It will run you a fairly reasonable $66 to play 18 holes on a weekend morning, a price that’s roughly equivalent to the national average. But by all accounts, people are using these courses less than ever — total “green fees” paid by New Yorkers to play on the municipally operated courses have declined by 17% since 2008. La Tourette Golf Course on Staten Island alone saw a 33% drop in green fees between 2008 and 2018. That’s a lot of acreage dedicated to a game New Yorkers seem to be losing interest in.

New York City comptroller Brad Lander estimates that housing for 50,000 New Yorkers could be built on just four of the city’s municipal golf courses, along with other new developments like parks, open spaces, small businesses, and schools. Perhaps Mayor Zohran Mamdani will take up the crusade.

Queens