The Robinsons
2004-12-16 08:59:42 UTC
Check out the DC baseball stadium discussion on alt.fan.don-n-mike...
all this have to do with drugs? Unless they mean you have to be
on drugs to embrace the Mayor's baseball stadium plan,
which Linda Cropp and the DC City Council just rejected.
(Yeah yeah I know, what did I expect? Well, I guess I expect
people to set aside their racial hostilities before lecturing
the rest of America about moral values, and which politicians
are a uniter, not a divider...)
Or did they simply see this stadium deal as another opportunity
to pave over a part of the city and provide a clean slate for
urban professionals to move in, like HOPE II is doing nearby?
How angry are these people, really? Are they gonna fight for
baseball to come to DC by doing everything to bring MLB back
to the table, or are they not that invested really in a city
that they think passed them by 35 years ago? Was it all just
a redevelopment boondoggle all along, an opportunity to sieze
a bunch of land for redevelopment and a sport that the
real-estate boosters are not terribly invested in and aren't
going to fight for on any terms beyond those set out in the
original deal? I mean, Virginia FOUGHT to get the Dulles
Metro line funded in the face of seemingly insurmountable
obstacles. The anti-private-fincancing croud are a bunch of
wimps who don't really love baseball. (And this is how the
argument should be framed.)
Why hasn't anyone taken up my suggestion that we offer baseball
Banneker Park to build a memorial stadium on -- on a take-it-or
leave it basis? MLB would be laughed out of every city in
America if they were unwilling to pay for such a site, trust me.
It makes the waterfront site look like just another brownfield
(one better suited for residential development, anyhow.)
Banneker Park is right on the edge of the memorial precinct
(and contains a memorial itself, one that could stand a
total overhaul.) Any other site would probably involve
corporate renaming which is not something we need in DC.
The only people who would object are a few rich townhousers
whose buildings are poorly sited on the edge of the freeway...
They'd object to losing their view. if I were them, I'd
request to be bought out for a $mil each. Acqisition costs
are a drop in the bucket, and if it's a privately financed
stadium instead of a city project... well, let's just say
certain elements of the private sector in DC have more clout
than the city gov't.
Assuming RFK will never become acceptable to MLB because NIMBY's
oppose any and all redevelopment efforts there (even re-opening
DC General)... a privately-financed stadium at Banneker Park is
the only deal that makes sense to me that's likely to result in
a baseball team actually coming to DC. Unless we can somehow
finagle them into staying at RFK past the upcoming year,
as happened with the Florida Marlins.
Regardless of the merits of baseball in DC -- I do not think
a stadium on South Capitol would do more to spur development
than the Nation club has done -- it would just lead to more
fenced-in parking lots in place of buildings-- it's clear baseball
in Loudoun County would hurt DC (& the inner suburbs) tremendously.
The State and Fed Gov't will already be pouring billion$ in
infrastructure into megacities in Loudoun County and Beltsville
in the next two decades, as the new Pentagon security restrictions
kick in for all properties leased by the Federal Gov't... emptying
out the urban core once and for all and leaving it an administrative
precinct dominated by mansions for the elite, like Zurich.
The experiment folks seem to have in mind with what's left of DC
is to turn it into an entertainment-oriented bedroom community
for lawyers and lobbyists. After all, "We just can't leave it
the way it is now... I mean, you got concentrations of poverty
within SIGHT of the Capitol Dome... the symbol of democracy!!!"
Why won't Williams just come out and say he thinks the suburbs
would be a more appropriate place for poor people (or anyone)
to raise a family?
That's not to say I don't think baseball would lead to revitalization.
But if the city were gonna pay for it, why hasn't DC paid for some
other catalyst before now? As Marc Fisher pointed out, this isn't
about housing or some other asset that makes money off existing DC
residents. The stadium brings in people from outside the city who can
afford the ticket prices, and this money gets used to pay for services
for these new residents and business-people. What a great deal!!
Why can't existing residents accept that the city will NEVER
have money left over for affordable health-care or public housing
-- things which will become unnecessary once the population has
turned over completely?
--Brian Robinson in Takoma
"Linda Cropp is a "DUMB ----" who is "more interested
in feeding the bellies of bloated welfare babies with
mothers who use crack cocaine."
"You have no idea how bad this makes DC look in the
rest of the country."
"and the residents wonder why they have no real representation.
look at the people they elect."
"What DC needs is a new government run by highly trained
professionals [instead of] those who are more attuned to
the needs of disenfranchised people who do not want to
help themselves and are contented to wallow in such mediocrity
in the drug culture....
We need a clean breath of air to sweep all these negative thinking
naysayers and bring in a council that is more positive thinking on
the lines of Donald Trump ... when you creaqte new investment
opportunities, you are helping rejuvenating neighborhoods of their
past and creating more opportunities for people to succeed, thus
sweeping out the drugs and bad influences present in the neighborhood."
Code words, anyone? "Moral values" showing any? And what doesin feeding the bellies of bloated welfare babies with
mothers who use crack cocaine."
"You have no idea how bad this makes DC look in the
rest of the country."
"and the residents wonder why they have no real representation.
look at the people they elect."
"What DC needs is a new government run by highly trained
professionals [instead of] those who are more attuned to
the needs of disenfranchised people who do not want to
help themselves and are contented to wallow in such mediocrity
in the drug culture....
We need a clean breath of air to sweep all these negative thinking
naysayers and bring in a council that is more positive thinking on
the lines of Donald Trump ... when you creaqte new investment
opportunities, you are helping rejuvenating neighborhoods of their
past and creating more opportunities for people to succeed, thus
sweeping out the drugs and bad influences present in the neighborhood."
all this have to do with drugs? Unless they mean you have to be
on drugs to embrace the Mayor's baseball stadium plan,
which Linda Cropp and the DC City Council just rejected.
(Yeah yeah I know, what did I expect? Well, I guess I expect
people to set aside their racial hostilities before lecturing
the rest of America about moral values, and which politicians
are a uniter, not a divider...)
Or did they simply see this stadium deal as another opportunity
to pave over a part of the city and provide a clean slate for
urban professionals to move in, like HOPE II is doing nearby?
How angry are these people, really? Are they gonna fight for
baseball to come to DC by doing everything to bring MLB back
to the table, or are they not that invested really in a city
that they think passed them by 35 years ago? Was it all just
a redevelopment boondoggle all along, an opportunity to sieze
a bunch of land for redevelopment and a sport that the
real-estate boosters are not terribly invested in and aren't
going to fight for on any terms beyond those set out in the
original deal? I mean, Virginia FOUGHT to get the Dulles
Metro line funded in the face of seemingly insurmountable
obstacles. The anti-private-fincancing croud are a bunch of
wimps who don't really love baseball. (And this is how the
argument should be framed.)
Why hasn't anyone taken up my suggestion that we offer baseball
Banneker Park to build a memorial stadium on -- on a take-it-or
leave it basis? MLB would be laughed out of every city in
America if they were unwilling to pay for such a site, trust me.
It makes the waterfront site look like just another brownfield
(one better suited for residential development, anyhow.)
Banneker Park is right on the edge of the memorial precinct
(and contains a memorial itself, one that could stand a
total overhaul.) Any other site would probably involve
corporate renaming which is not something we need in DC.
The only people who would object are a few rich townhousers
whose buildings are poorly sited on the edge of the freeway...
They'd object to losing their view. if I were them, I'd
request to be bought out for a $mil each. Acqisition costs
are a drop in the bucket, and if it's a privately financed
stadium instead of a city project... well, let's just say
certain elements of the private sector in DC have more clout
than the city gov't.
Assuming RFK will never become acceptable to MLB because NIMBY's
oppose any and all redevelopment efforts there (even re-opening
DC General)... a privately-financed stadium at Banneker Park is
the only deal that makes sense to me that's likely to result in
a baseball team actually coming to DC. Unless we can somehow
finagle them into staying at RFK past the upcoming year,
as happened with the Florida Marlins.
Regardless of the merits of baseball in DC -- I do not think
a stadium on South Capitol would do more to spur development
than the Nation club has done -- it would just lead to more
fenced-in parking lots in place of buildings-- it's clear baseball
in Loudoun County would hurt DC (& the inner suburbs) tremendously.
The State and Fed Gov't will already be pouring billion$ in
infrastructure into megacities in Loudoun County and Beltsville
in the next two decades, as the new Pentagon security restrictions
kick in for all properties leased by the Federal Gov't... emptying
out the urban core once and for all and leaving it an administrative
precinct dominated by mansions for the elite, like Zurich.
The experiment folks seem to have in mind with what's left of DC
is to turn it into an entertainment-oriented bedroom community
for lawyers and lobbyists. After all, "We just can't leave it
the way it is now... I mean, you got concentrations of poverty
within SIGHT of the Capitol Dome... the symbol of democracy!!!"
Why won't Williams just come out and say he thinks the suburbs
would be a more appropriate place for poor people (or anyone)
to raise a family?
That's not to say I don't think baseball would lead to revitalization.
But if the city were gonna pay for it, why hasn't DC paid for some
other catalyst before now? As Marc Fisher pointed out, this isn't
about housing or some other asset that makes money off existing DC
residents. The stadium brings in people from outside the city who can
afford the ticket prices, and this money gets used to pay for services
for these new residents and business-people. What a great deal!!
Why can't existing residents accept that the city will NEVER
have money left over for affordable health-care or public housing
-- things which will become unnecessary once the population has
turned over completely?
--Brian Robinson in Takoma