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 Blue chromis on a delicate coral off of Great Guana Cay |
Even today, as we motor along the coast, two celebrities are being wined and dined at the Baker’s Bay Club’s north end; a luxury tent community in place to woo during initial construction phases. At night, the sales crews take them by golf cart to the island’s settlement. “Things went crazy last night when Lance Armstrong was at Nippers,” explains a witness. “His Baker’s Bay entourage grabbed at his shorts while he went tabletop.”
Kate Hudson is here too. Getting names like this is big-time for Baker’s Bay. Signing up celebrities means sales. In the world of gated golf developments for the mega-rich, a star is like a good book review. And Meldman wants good book reviews. The website for one of his developments advertises this, “from unsolicited, free car washes while they’re out on the course, to sliced tenderloin at the 10th tee box, Meldman makes certain his customers have everything they could possibly want…need a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs? No problem…”
Meldman grew up in Arizona during the same era that the gated McMansion community was popularized in the state. I read that Mike’s favorite executive jet is a Dassault Falcon 2000 and his favorite car is a Bentley GT Continental. He likes the BMW X5 and his favorite wristwatch is a Rolex Submariner. His favorite actress is Angelina Jolie and his hunting rifle of choice? A Tikka T3 30-06. Mike's favorite pet is his chocolate lab, "Shadow."
Mike explains his development philosophy in Executive Golfer Magazine, “There are several ideologies that we strictly adhere to when making a determination of whether or not to invest in and develop a property…we pursue projects with minimal entitlement risk…we try to avoid protracted zoning and approval processes that make it difficult to predict when you will be able to bring your product to market…we are able to move swiftly and are able to judge market conditions on that day…Typically, we are grading or under construction within a very short time period after purchasing a property.”
This explains a conversation in Marsh Harbour between a Baker’s Bay construction manager and a contractor: If it takes us less than 10 years, we get filthy rich. If it takes us 10 years, we break even. If it takes us more than 10 years, we lose money.
And so, in an island environment where things sometimes happen at their own pace, the Baker’s Bay Club executives appear entranced by a single motivating factor – speed, and lots of it. Speed is money. If anything gets in the way, make sure it gets eliminated.
Our small boat floats north to Joe’s Creek. As the main mangrove channel of Great Guana Cay, Joe’s Creek is the island’s estuary. Tiny adolescent sharks and barracuda breed here. Hundreds of species of coral reef fishes and marine invertebrates begin their lives in the safety of the tangled mangal net. Bonefish also breed here.
Here in the Bahamas, the type of plant that creates the densely tangled subaquatic forests is the red mangrove tree. The complex interlocking root system that dips in the saltwater forms an environment – though detested by tropical developers – that is one of Earth’s most essential ecosystems. Only in the last 10 years, with catastrophes like the Boxer Day Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, have nations begun to take seriously these strange forests that have literally evolved into a platform as the bulwark of land against sea; and at the same time, protectors of the sea.
The mangrove forest protects small islands from devastation in violent storms, but also filters out nutrients from land to sea – their existence is vital as nursery and liver to the coral reef.
The Joe’s Creek outflow creates a shallow whitewater lagoon; full-sized bonefish parade this water. Great Guana Cay is not a bonefisherman’s destination, but for years casual bonefishers would fly their lines in the water. According to a local, “Earlier today, a pair motored up to the Joe’s Creek flats. A Baker’s Bay boat appeared, circled them, and commanded them to leave. This water is public property, no construction is taking place anywhere near Joe’s Creek.”
I said, “That doesn’t sound legal.”
“There are no police here, Baker’s Bay can do as they please. They act like they own the island.”
The Joe’s Creek area, which sits on Crown and Treasury Land, will be saved the bulldozer. But the total mangrove acreage preserved is absurdly small; the majority of the mangrove forest has been gutted in the rush of opening up the new marina by later this year. Continuation of construction of the marina, and the further destruction of the mangroves, is one ingredient in the recipe for the coral reef’s demise.
In 2005, Baker’s Bay Club was producing pamphlets that stated, “Contrary to prevalent rumors, Joe's Creek, the mangroves and the Guana Cay bonefish flats will all be preserved and not altered by development." Guana locals were enraged, because as Baker’s Bay was distributing this material to prospective clients, they were tearing down mangroves.
I was asking myself, how can this be? How can they say that? It was one of my first lessons about the aggressive marketing tactics of golf developers. I would soon learn that words and money could indeed erase facts.
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