[jdinteg]

You sound jaded topdawgy, that's too bad. By your numbers you've been in DG for a while, much longer than I. I'm sure you have faced many frustrations with the state and city hoops to create a course.
An option I have heard and seen work would be considering pay to park or play on destination quality courses. This would pay for the required maintenance person or private landscape firm to maintain weekly. I believe, due to talking to people wiser and more connected than I, that would be a viable solution to create funds to maintain the course once it is installed, and the statistics of usage even at half would still meet the needed funds. With effort, sponsorship can be raised to achieve all necessary permit and equipment fees for the initial install.
I think it really depends on how bad we want to make Vancouver have a great 18 basket course, or if we will all just settle for playing in Portland's back yard, waiting for 5+ minutes Friday afternoon to tee off at Leverich, or just plain sucking wind against Portland's great selection of courses. There is no reason we cannot have a great course, or turn a current one into a full 18 destination quality. Time, Politics, and Money are always the factor no matter what you are trying to build.
If I am not able to get it moving with my efforts, I am willing to step out of the way and let someone with more ambition or connections get there. The city does not have to pay for the models that are working in other areas, no reason we cannot adopt those here. The city also gets motivated by the real statistics of people actually using parks. Leverich is a prime example of success in this area of usage regardless of weather or time of day. Maybe we all need to learn to speak there language to assure we are asking the right questions. What does the city or state want us to do to get a yes? What is in our way of getting a yes on this course? If this area does not work what area could we try to get a yes on? How can we as a DG community solve a problem for the City or State in order to get the yes we are looking for? If the person we are talking to can only say "no" who do we talk to that can say yes?
The parks and rec people love to show there jobs are serving a large segment of the community and are needed for there particular park or area. If we can show a real flow of people, with solid statistics, a viable revenue stream we can get past the initial hurdle. Pie in the sky? Maybe, but I am willing to try because I want a destination quality 18 basket course in Vancouver really bad.