Their mention might help the future Charlotte landscape historian. In general, it is difficult to find people who think about land with an historical perspective. Managers of golf courses, city planners and even folks in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Park and Recreation had a hard time understanding what they had in their possession that could help me. Another problem was that these folks did not always have in their possession anything that could help me. Park and Recreation, having gone through structural changes so many times in the last century, has not maintained a clear paper trail beyond the last ten years.
Golf courses change management and ownership.
Some private clubs seemed reluctant to talk with me at all. These frustrations aside, I do think that the paper raises interesting questions in its inadequacies. One foible I lament most, for my own sake really, was that I did not personally visit more green spaces myself during this yearlong project. What one park critic wrote in a source of mine rings loudly in my ears. Above all, good design should reflect experience not theory.