Confusion Reigns…

I don’t really understand Colbert I. King’s objection to the DC Uniter Poplar Point Stadium Project.  Some rich guys want the city to improve its infrastructure around the site, and in exchange they’ll develop the land… and apparently is the catch is that the rich people don’t want to do this because they are humanitarians, but because they want to be wealthier.  This IS how land development works in all non-sports related ventures as well, right?  Mr. MacFarlane is even going one step further than Major League Baseball and the Lerner family went, and willing to actually risk their own money on constructing the sites themselves.

I’m sympathetic to the idea that DC does not pay enough attention to the welfare of its communities in many instances, particularly those across the river.  But it seems more than practical, no matter how liberal-egalitarian one gets, to still say that we ought to "give to welfare what is welfare’s and give to business what is business’."  This seems to me an eminently reasonable business deal.   The objections… well I just don’t get them.   Let me go through some of them.

1. MacFarlane and partners care more about money than improving Ward 8.  – As long as they give resources to people in Ward 8 and let them do with them as they will, does it matter why?  I mean, maybe Ward 8 should hold out for MORE than a soccer field or two, but that requires tougher negotiating, not moral indignation that this deal might be struck in the first place. 
2. "Oh, yes, the new soccer stadium and development rights could be awarded to MacFarlane without competitive bidding."  -  gwah?!?  MacFarlane OWNS the soccer team!  how can you have competitive bidding for developing a stadium that a: MacFarlane is paying for and b: for a team that MacFarlane could simply elect not to move into the stadium if someone else wins development rights?  As an aside, this is not MLB, flush with cash, bullying poor DC around.  This is Major League Soccer, a league whose economic situation is so precarious that it needs to have its owners in possession of their stadiums because the franchises cannot be profitable any other way.  MacFarlane owning United and not owning the Poplar Stadium is simply out of the question given the MLS financial situation. 
3. MacFarlane has hired lots of insiders to make sure the deal goes through.  – Yes, which means that he’s learned from the debacle that was the Nationals Stadium funding.  Let’s not forget to mention that United has been, long since MacFarlane came on board, trying to acquire the land for this site for several years, patiently clearing many bureaucratic hurdles and sitting on the sidelines while the Nationals got their park first, and shared RFK with the Nationals because the city made them.  DC United has been pretty fair and accommodating to the District.  Why wouldn’t they hire some inside people to make sure that they finally seal the deal? 
4. One of these "ringers" received campaign donations by a company that has now hired his services and in which many of the members donated the maximum amount of money for his campaign for the school board.  – What exactly does this evidence?  This is a very, very thin, and very unfair accusation of impropriety.  If you have instances where inappropriate behavior has taken place that’s one thing, but you cannot have corruption without corrupt acts. 

I have no idea who is getting hurt based on Mr King’s arguments, or even why they are getting hurt.  All I know is that the city is being forced to improve its infrastructure in yet another part of the District, there will be more business development, DC United will become a profitable franchise, there will still be cheap entertainment available to the public that actually has broader appeal to its Latino residents than the majority population, and it will, as I understand, help alleviate parking problems in near Southeast by providing shared parking opportunities between the stadium sites (connected by a city funded walking bridge – heaven forbid the city create another way to cross the Anacostia into far Southeast).   Perhaps the money for the infrastructure could be going somewhere else…  but the lesson here, it seems to me is that the city is improving this part of Far Southeast because certain business and political interests are MAKING them.  Southeast residents should learn that they need to transition from telling the Council they OUGHT TO care about Southeast more to they HAVE TO care more, that’s the only successful way to do business with the District Government.  The sooner that residents figure out ways to fashion this for themselves, the more of their development will be controlled by them, and not San Francisco real estate tycoons.