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November 09, 2004
D.C. Baseball Update: Riding Cropp
Supporters of D.C. baseball got a big surprise today, when D.C. City Council Chairman Linda Cropp delayed a vote on stadium financing legislation for two weeks, and announced that she had come up with a new plan to privately finance the stadium in league with an unnamed developer. Today's announcement capped a bizzare few days that started last Friday when Cropp announced her own proposal (one the lame ducks on the Council helped reject) to build a new stadium on a parcel of land adjacent to RFK Stadium -- nowhere near the Anacostia site that Mayor Anthony Williams promised to Major League Baseball. As you might imagine, Cropp's antics have driven supporters of the effort to bring the Expos here permanently a little batty. After all, it was only a few weeks ago that Cropp joined Williams and the rest of the City Council at a press conference celebrating the return of baseball to D.C. What the heck happened? Well, as the late Tip O'Neill liked to say, all politics is local, and that's where we need to look to figure out why everything is running off the rails all of a sudden. If you click here for Cropp's bio, you'll find out that her husband was a long-time aide to former "Mayor for Life" Marion Barry. The same Marion Barry who was just elected to another term on the D.C. City Council, the same Marion Barry who is an avowed enemy of Mayor Williams, and the same Marion Barry who has publicly expressed his opposition to the current stadium financing bill. The way I see it, we have one of three scenarios unfolding here: 1)Cropp, upset that Williams and fellow D.C. City Councilman Jack Evans have stolen the spotlight when it comes to bringing the team to Washington, has decided to exact her pound of flesh at the 11th hour; 2)Barry and Cropp are working hand in hand to delay a vote on the legislation until after January 1, when an anti-stadium majority will take control on the Council, thus scuttling the deal and dealing a mortal blow to the political careers of the current Mayor and Councilman Evans; 3) Cropp is right in the middle, using her influence to see who is going to offer her the best deal. Folks, this is why the people at the Virignia Baseball Stadium Authority have decided to keep their doors open until December 31 -- on the off chance that the District would muff its chance at grabbing the Expos. Looks like they were right too. As for me, while I have my own fears about the financing plan, even I didn't think it would come down to this. But after living her for 19 years, I guess I should have known better. POSTSCRIPT: Boy, the Post picked an interesting day to release a poll that said a majority of D.C. residents oppose the stadium financing plan (think that might be why a majority of the Council set to take office in January is against the plan?). Meanwhile, MLB has come up with a name for the team, but not the one a lot of locals are supporting. For more D.C. baseball, visit Distinguished Senators, William World News, Ball Wonk, Capitol Punishment and Washington Baseball Blog. I can hear the screams already.
Eric
12:53 PM
Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsI'm not worried. Williams has the votes he needs, and Cropp won't be able to take items off the agenda when the Council meets in two weeks. Posted by: at November 9, 2004 02:18 PM Linda Cropp is a grandstanding, opportunist, wanna-be mayor who will never, ever got my vote again. Posted by: at November 9, 2004 06:21 PM Bitch set me up! Posted by: at November 10, 2004 04:12 PM What else would we expect from Linda Cropp? This is a person who was on the DC School Board. And we know how well the DC school system does in educating the children of the City. She has skilled the deal for Baseball in DC. She has lied to the voters by saying she was protecting them from having to pay for the stadium. Not a single penny would come from the general tax fund but would be supplied by taxes on large comapanys and from taxes generated by team itself. Cropp I hope is proud that she has screwed the city but what else would you expext from another Baryy hack. Posted by: at December 16, 2004 08:44 AM Post a commentThanks for signing in, . (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) |