After winning the battle to bring Major League Baseball back to D.C., Mayor Anthony Williams might be in for his biggest fight yet with city activist groups and D.C. council members over his proposal to build a nearly $500 million stadium on the east Anacostia waterfront.
Last Tuesday night, Williams met with a large neighborhood crowd at the Pennsylvania Baptist Church in Ward 7. Unlike the gleeful atmosphere that greeted him at the press conference to announce the return of baseball to the District two weeks ago, the mood was full of opposition, according to The Washington Post.
Many in the crowd worried that Williams is fighting to put money into baseball rather than schools, hospitals, libraries and affordable housing.
While the mayor's office insists that none of the money to build the stadium will come out of D.C. taxpayers' wallets, some groups and city councilmembers do not see that as a possibility.
Ross Weber, deputy chief of staff for councilmember David Catania, said no stadium has been publicly financed in 13 years and that at some point the burden of paying for it will be placed on D.C. residents.
"The deal the mayor agreed to is just a giveaway to a monopolistic organization," said Weber of the clause in the mayor's plans to tax the most prosperous corporations in the city for the ballpark. "It's a corporate giveaway."
Weber said Catania thinks consumers and renters will be indirectly responsible for paying taxes on the stadium. "My boss [Catania] is confident that the cost will go above the $500 million the mayor has said it will be," Weber said.
However, the mayor's office said that the proposal is realistic.
"The way we've structured the deal is that the ballpark will be paid for in three ways: taxes on the city's big businesses, a lease on team owners, and revenue captured at the park," said Chris Bender, director of communications for the office of planning and economic development in the mayor's office. "That's the great part of the deal. Not everyone pays, but everyone gets the benefits."
Those benefits, according to the mayor's Web site, will be the creation of thousands of construction jobs and increased revenue to a struggling area of the city for public services.
In response to the opposition to the mayor's plan, Bender said, "We agree with them that it's critical to find creative ways to get more money for libraries and hospitals." But he contested the claims that money will eventually come from residents who don't use the ballpark, even if prices on the stadium rise.
"In every development project, costs always change," said Bender. "But we promised the community that not one dime will come from residents, and we'll keep that promise."
The new D.C. team, formerly the Montreal Expos, is scheduled to play in RFK stadium for three seasons while the new stadium is built.
Former mayor Marion Berry, a recently elected D.C. councilman, thinks RFK should be the team's home. Baseball supporters on the council, like Jack Evans, say that is impossible because it would break the contract with MLB and send the team elsewhere, according to The Post.
A public hearing at City Hall is set for Oct. 28 on the issue.
Many whose homes are threatened by the new stadium have demonstrated against the mayor's plan. The New Black Panther Party and Black Lawyers for Justice have called for many rallies to stop what they see as an emergency for the people in the area.
Activists and lawyers Malik Shabazzand and Donald Temple said they fear that the mayor's plans to tax businesses will ultimately come full circle and negatively affect consumers.
Through it all, the mayor's office remains confident that baseball will return and prosper in D.C. for the first time in 33 years at the start of the 2005 season. "We can't make them agree with us, but they are talking on facts that are wrong," Bender said.
