FC Cincinnati exec says neighborhood residents only oppose stadium because they’re not “educated” about it

access_time personNeil deMause

And speaking of public stadium opposition, residents of Cincinnati’s West End sound to be really not okay with F.C. Cincinnati‘s attempts to tear down a high-school stadium named for a local African-American community activist, build a new soccer stadium there, rebuild the high school stadium on land previously earmarked for housing, and build the housing somewhere else. Check out these quotes from a community council meeting last night, as reported by Cincinnati Business Journal:

“I wish y’all would go somewhere else,” LaShon Taylor, a lifelong West End resident, said to FC Cincinnati president and general manager Jeff Berding to loud applause. “No one wants y’all here. Please go somewhere else.”…

“A monstrous high-school football stadium, that’s not going to be a good look to be a gateway to a community,” [West End resident Randy] Sroufe said…

“We’re not going to be able to survive,” resident Fericka Smith said. “I love my people. Don’t take our neighborhood from us.”

F.C. Cincinnati president Jeff Berding insisted that most West End residents support the project “as they are educated” about it, adding, “I’m not saying we’ve educated everybody.” So, most residents don’t support the project, but if you only count the ones who support it as “educated,” then there’s a majority in favor? That’s a redefinition of democracy worthy of the Pennsylvania Republican Party. (I could also note that charging that residents of a historic African-American neighborhood aren’t “educated” enough is maybe not the way Berding wants to go here, but I’m too big a fan of paralipsis to say that.)

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13 comments on “FC Cincinnati exec says neighborhood residents only oppose stadium because they’re not “educated” about it”

  1. Clocking in from afar, where the only such worries are how much our village is shelling out to have the Tour de France hurtle through, to salute your work and doff my cap at that last sentence. Keep it up!

  2. So… anyone who doesn’t support the stadium and lives in the West End is stupid? Not exactly what he said, but the link seems pretty clear…

    What is the source of Berding’s claim that West End residents “educated” about the project support it? Numbers on that?

    If he means team officials who are familiar with the project (how could non insiders be familiar with it given the information that has been provided?), yes, I am sure they are supportive of it. Their high paying jobs depend on it.

  5. I am going to take a wild guess and assume that when Mr. Berding is in private he says a much more horrible word that is actually a racial slur as opposed to just “uneducated”.

    1. Why? What is with our garbage culture and its desire to nurse every possible umbrage and assume the absolute worst about our opponents. Don’t give into that shit.

      Sure this guy is likely just a greedy asshole doing his job. But that is not really a reason to think he is some closet racist. People use this asinine device (people who understand the project think it is great!) in all sorts of contexts on development projects where race is not an issue.

      This desire to see the world as the righteous on your side, and anyone on another side must be the worst plausible version of themselves is exactly how we ended up with people like Trump.

      2. At this juncture in American political discourse I find it hard to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. If you still can then that is wonderful and all the power to you. I sincerly hope I am mistaken but I do not believe I am.

      3. Interstates, landfills, incinerators, toxic dump sites and other undesirable but necessary facilities have been purposely built in African American communities with out regard to the residents.

        Yup what the man said is racist. Sorry, not sorry, but it is.

        Let him go build that in the ritzy part of town and see how far he gets.

        1. Either he was dismissing the concerns of citizens as “uneducated” because they’re people of color, or he was dismissing the concerns of citizens as “uneducated” because they’re not Important People like him.

          I guess one of those is worse than the other, maybe?

          1. A third, yet also unpalatable option is that merely anyone who disagrees with him is “uneducated.” And that is the only conceivable option for why someone would not want FC Cincinnati’s proposal.

  6. Bill to limit public funding for sports stadiums appears to be dead

    http://www.glendalestar.com/news/article_a2304dc6-1736-11e8-b686-b719c60ca274.html

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