January 22, 2006

D.C. cuts glass, still short of council demands

Heck continues to pop in D.C., where former Detroit mayor and godfather of Comerica Park Dennis Archer has taken on the role of mediator in the Washington Nationals lease talks. And there's certainly plenty to mediate: Council chair Linda Cropp has nailed a new 12-point list of demands to Mayor Anthony Williams' door, while city officials scramble to trim $15 million from stadium construction costs by using less glass. And Cropp, mind you, is one of the pro-stadium councilmembers; at a recent mayoral campaign debate, she got an earful from a would-be constituent who demanded, "How come we see you on the news every night trying to get a backdoor stadium deal when our schools look like Nazi camps?"

Williams still claims this will all be resolved shortly, but given the council's insistence on a hard cap on city costs - Cropp's latest missive sets this at $611 million, and current project estimates are at $667 million and rising - I don't see that happening anytime soon. The next showdown date: February 7, when the council will either vote, or not, on the latest iteration of the Nats lease.