That’s right. I am citing an article in the Wall Street Journal on the Richmond Green Party blog. This is in response to Loupassi and Marsh’s proposal for a Shockoe Bottom baseball stadium, excuse me, “ballpark”. How about keeping baseball on the Boulevard?NO MORE DOWNTOWN CORPORATE WELFARE! SCHOOLS BEFORE STADIUMS!
Wall Street Journal: Sports Mania Is a Poor Substitute for Economic Success
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB123214881023691891-lMyQjAxMDI5MzEyNzExNDc4Wj.html
“Tomorrow the Pittsburgh Steelers square off against the Baltimore Ravens, and the Philadelphia Eagles square off against the Arizona Cardinals. The winners will go head to head on Feb. 1 in Super Bowl XLIII.If there ever was a time to crow about the wonders of rebuilding a city around a professional sports team, this would be it. Three of the four teams remaining in the play-offs hail from cities — Baltimore, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh — that in recent years spent billions rebuilding their downtowns around pro sports facilities and other community “anchors.”Except that there’s a problem. The teams might be competitive, but the cities definitely are not. All three continue to shrink in population, and have stagnant job markets and crumbling public schools.”
5 comments so far
Hey Scott - why don’t you ask and complain to the schools since they have complete control over their budget why they haven’t built any new schools? It’s not up to Mayor Jones it’s up to the School Board. Period. They settled the ADA case three years ago and haven’t completed ONE SINGLE PROJECT.
Tom, thanks for your comment. The short answer is that I have asked. In particular, I have asked for legal authorities to investigate contracts (Oh, Mr. Herring, where are you?). In fact, I have asked for leaders to send in the National Guard to come take over the schools based on the lack of progress on ADA.
But what this is really about is civic priorities. I don’t believe in using public funds to fund sports or arts, except for limited public education needs.
I will throw you a bone though. I am glad to see in the “Shockoe Center” proposal that the City is moving ahead with intermodal transportation for Shockoe Bottom. Here’s another idea: daylighting Shockoe Creek.
How would daylighting Shockoe Creek help the Bottom? That would GUARANTEE that it could never be developed due to flooding potential. FEMA would redraw the flood plain again and make it even bigger.
And it’s the schools problem to settle ADA and build new schools - not the city. The city allocated $150 million to do so but they haven’t done a thing!!
Imagine a nice green walk along the creek, complete with some restaurants and retail on ground level. It could be a much more pedestrian friendly canal walk, that could connect to the larger themed Canal Walk.
As for the school ADA issue, you can blame whomever you want, but it is a RICHMOND problem. Parents move away because the public school buildings are neglected.
Scott - you don’t get it. If you daylight the creek, who would invest and build along that creek? FEMA would make it so darn expensive it would never take place. At least you could take a nice walk through an otherwise wasteland that does not contribute barely a cent to the city or state.
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