Baseball Inside the Beltway

If Washington, D.C. gets a new stadium, what will the city lose?

1 minute read

May 16, 2006, 1:00 PM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


You can "learn some things about our cultural and political trends from the plans being made for a new Major League ballpark in our nation's capital.

The target market for this ballpark is not the suburban, minivan-driving, middle-class family raising today's Little Leaguer who might become tomorrow's big leaguer. It is the urban yuppie, the K Street lobbyist, and others who have made their peace, or who are making deals, with big government.

...an architecture critic for The Washington Post recently indicted RFK as a "spaceship in a parking lot." The stadium pleads guilty.

...The new stadium, which will cost Washington more than $600 million, is designed to have 41,000 seats but only 1,225 parking spaces. Instead of parking lots, it will be surrounded by a new "entertainment district" featuring restaurants, bars, and retail stores."

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