
A new golf club in New York City is set to open on a desolate stretch of the Hudson River in 2019, and it’s already drawing the ire of locals who say the owners are neglecting their local park and a community that desperately needs new recreational facilities.
As the Times reported, the club, called Midnight Club, will offer golf courses, water slides, a boat ramp, a fire pit, and an amphitheater for the city’s growing homeless population.
The neighborhood is home to many homeless families, and many have long complained about the noise, trash, and other distractions caused by a nearby construction site.
The club’s plans to move in next year, when it will open in October 2019, are a big deal to local residents.
But for some, the plans are a bit far-fetched, and even for those who are excited about the club’s arrival, the proposed amenities could be a bit of a surprise.
“I’ve been hearing for a few years now that there’s some kind of new resort going to be coming,” said John Hagan, who lives on a nearby street.
“The fact that this new resort will be coming to my neighborhood is very significant.”
Hagan said the resort would likely attract some of the same people that have complained about noise from construction sites and the trash and litter they have to deal with, and that he hopes to see some improvements to the neighborhood that will attract people to live there.
“It’s a new project, so it’s not the kind of thing that would attract people that would have been attracted to my old neighborhood,” he said.
Hagan’s neighbor, Paul Smith, was equally skeptical about the project, and said the neighborhood would be better off without it.
“What the hell are they doing?”
Smith asked, referring to the proposed hotel, which he said would create more congestion and be “dangerous” to the area’s homeless population and the surrounding neighborhoods.
Smith said he’s been waiting for years to see the project come to fruition, and he thinks it will be a welcome addition to the city, which has been dealing with homelessness issues for years.
“We’ve had a very hard time dealing with people coming here, especially homeless people,” Smith said.
“There’s been a lot of homeless people, a lot in the neighborhood, who have been in there for a long time.”
Smith said that while he thinks the hotel and the club are both good ideas, he believes that the neighborhood needs more affordable housing.
“If we can’t get affordable housing, we’ll just continue to move to a place where we can be at the very least able to afford our rent, but it’s probably not the best place for everyone,” he added.
“The people that are here, they’re the ones that I think are most worried about the development, and the people that can’t afford to pay rent are the people I’m worried about.”
The project’s developers, American Greeting, have not responded to requests for comment.