Time for a late-inning rally
With all due respect to apple pie, I think the cliche should be updated to as American as baseball and the socialized risk/privatized profit paradigm. It's been a while since I posted anything here about the plan for a new baseball stadium in the District to house the transplanted Montreal Expos (who, incidentally, may be the only people currently moving south of that particular border). I'm not as steeped in the details of the city government's wheelings and dealings as I should be, but suffice it to say that public funding for privately owned teams is like a pitcher corking an opposing player's bat for him. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'd love to see more professional teams run on the Green Bay Packers model, where the team is owned by the city. I think it's such a cool idea that I'd personally throw in a few bucks to help fund such a team in DC. But alas, reality (often insidiously manipulated in this city by a certain bow-tied corporate fluffer) strikes back hard.
The mayor's plan for financing the stadium relies heavily on a tax to be levied on the biggest businesses in DC. Short of storming said businesses with torches and pitchforks, taxing them on everything down to their last cuff link is one of the best ways to try to level all the various social playing fields that tend to be angled steeply against the non-cuff-linked. But the problem here is one of priorities. The mayor has shown he has the ability to wring extra money out of city businesses, and what does he feel most merits the receipt of that money? Hospitals? Schools? Seat belts and airbags for the Red Line? No. Of course not. Because those are the priorities of average Washingtonians, and the mayor has repeatedly demonstrated his lack of interest in addressing those priorities.
I spent a few hours yesterday handing out anti-public-funding flyers at a grocery store in my neighborhood, and I had exactly one person argue with me. In fact, he wasn't even so much arguing the details of the plan as he was arguing that a stadium, regardless of how it's funded, would create jobs and that refurbishing RFK would require more money than it's worth. Another man responded to the flyer by saying, almost sheepishly, "But I like baseball." I told him that I did too, that I grew up on it, and that most of the anti's on this issue aren't anti-baseball, or even necessarily anti-stadium. What's at stake fundamentally are questions of city government and economics; baseball itself is peripheral. Overwhelmingly, the folks who talked to me demonstrated various levels of cynicism, frustration, and anger about the mayor's plan. I was truly heartened by the number of people who took the time to ask me serious questions about what was going on, including a few who struggled to converse in English. I only wish I were better versed in the details so that I could have been of more help to them.
I'm more hopeful after yesterday that there is an outside chance that the mayor's plan can be blocked by an oppositional citizenry. Polls have shown that two-thirds of District residents oppose public funding for the stadium. If we kick up a big enough fuss...who knows. For now, I'd like to direct your attention to the site of opposition coalition, No DC Taxes For Baseball. I'll try to get myself up to speed on the issue and post any other worthwhile links here.
The mayor's plan for financing the stadium relies heavily on a tax to be levied on the biggest businesses in DC. Short of storming said businesses with torches and pitchforks, taxing them on everything down to their last cuff link is one of the best ways to try to level all the various social playing fields that tend to be angled steeply against the non-cuff-linked. But the problem here is one of priorities. The mayor has shown he has the ability to wring extra money out of city businesses, and what does he feel most merits the receipt of that money? Hospitals? Schools? Seat belts and airbags for the Red Line? No. Of course not. Because those are the priorities of average Washingtonians, and the mayor has repeatedly demonstrated his lack of interest in addressing those priorities.
I spent a few hours yesterday handing out anti-public-funding flyers at a grocery store in my neighborhood, and I had exactly one person argue with me. In fact, he wasn't even so much arguing the details of the plan as he was arguing that a stadium, regardless of how it's funded, would create jobs and that refurbishing RFK would require more money than it's worth. Another man responded to the flyer by saying, almost sheepishly, "But I like baseball." I told him that I did too, that I grew up on it, and that most of the anti's on this issue aren't anti-baseball, or even necessarily anti-stadium. What's at stake fundamentally are questions of city government and economics; baseball itself is peripheral. Overwhelmingly, the folks who talked to me demonstrated various levels of cynicism, frustration, and anger about the mayor's plan. I was truly heartened by the number of people who took the time to ask me serious questions about what was going on, including a few who struggled to converse in English. I only wish I were better versed in the details so that I could have been of more help to them.
I'm more hopeful after yesterday that there is an outside chance that the mayor's plan can be blocked by an oppositional citizenry. Polls have shown that two-thirds of District residents oppose public funding for the stadium. If we kick up a big enough fuss...who knows. For now, I'd like to direct your attention to the site of opposition coalition, No DC Taxes For Baseball. I'll try to get myself up to speed on the issue and post any other worthwhile links here.
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