According to the developers, the resort would create over 800 jobs during construction, and 350 permanent jobs plus some 150 seasonal jobs. But most of these would be poorly paid service jobs such as chambermaids and dishwashers. Thus there would be relatively little spin-off to other local businesses. The only thing that would be sure to trickle down would be the polluted water. We're all familiar by now with an example of the economic muscle of a large corporation.
Golf courses can bring environmental benefits, when they are built as a way to reclaim brownfields.
Fairwinds Golf Course in Fort Pierce, Florida, was constructed on a landfill and irrigates using recycled water that is purified as it filters through the system. Widow's Walk Golf Course in Massachusetts is on an old quarry, and the Harborside golf complex in Chicago lies atop a former industrial site. There may be more appropriate places in Ulster County to build new golf courses that could benefit their neighborhoods economically as well as environmentally. Many residents of Shandaken have expressed their preference for small-scale, sustainable investments in tourism, arts and crafts, and new technology. We need to expand an already vigorous debate to make sure that our decision-makers take the people's views into account.