Black Town To Be Converted To Golf Course?

The African-American-focused news site NewsOne For Black America says that Benton Harbor, MI will be turned into a golf course:

Black Town Stripped Of Political Power To Turn Into Golf Course

A black town near Lake Michigan may be taken over and turned into a golf course by an “emergency financial manager.”

Emergency Manager Joe Harris was appointed by then Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm to “correct financial problems” and save the city from complete financial disaster. What Harris did was come to Benton Harbor – an 85.5 percent black town across the river from 89.5 percent white St. Joseph – and completely remove power from all the elected officials in the city

While there’s an awful lot to hate about the new “emergency financial manager” law Michigan’s governor and legislature, I don’t think it’s a conspiracy to convert black towns to golf courses. I do, however, think that it’s no coincidence that Benton Harbor—a majority black town—is the first to lose its sovereignty. While there surely are white-majority towns in as large a financial crisis as Benton Harbor, I doubt any of them will so completely lose their sovereignty. Instead, I predict we’ll see the complete takeovers applied to towns and school districts like Detroit, Flint and other areas with high minority populations and lower political clout. But then, I’m a cynic.

The converted to a golf course reference is to the Harbor Shores development, which includes hotels, conference centers and a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus. The course covers three jurisdictions—Benton Harbor, St. Joseph and Benton Charter Township. The entire thing was build on brownfields, and completion of the course required the removal of 170,000 tons of debris and contaminated soil. There also was some controversy over the building of part of the course in protected lakefront areas.