June 02, 2004
D.C. stadium bid irks locals
The Washington Post has revealed why D.C. councilmember Jack Evans backed off of his proposed legislation to acquire land for a city-funded baseball stadium: Evans was "inundated over the Memorial Day weekend by telephone calls and e-mails from city residents opposed to the legislation." Though Evans' amendment was focused solely on one site, the Banneker Overlook in Anacostia, it looks as if opposition is building to the city's stadium plans in general: councilmember Sharon Ambrose, whose district includes all four proposed stadium sites, told the Post, "If at some point we were, by some miracle, to get a baseball team, we could take it back to the community and talk about it," but that "we've got to get the buy-in of the neighbors." That doesn't quite sound like the "move them and we will build" pledge that Evans has been offering to MLB as an enticement to win the Expos lottery.
