Stadium News and Speculation VI | Email Fenty at Mayor@dc.gov or adrian.fenty@dc.gov

Its getting to be that time again. With now over 400 Replies in The Part V Thread....

I give you this brand spanking new one.


For those who need the information to email, write or call:

Fenty.Intern@dc.gov
Mayor Adrian Fenty
John A. Wilson Building
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Suite 600
Washington DC 20005
T:202-724-8876
202-727-4043

F:202-727-6561
Email: adrian.fenty@dc.gov
Fenty.Intern@dc.gov



Keep the faith! Don't Give Up! United, we shall stand!

Hattip to The DCenters. Take a look at this tidbit.

Which is the same thing that hogmesh posted below. No need to read both.

brand new article, and it's a hell of one, too:

Barry To Take On Fenty

"This just in to 9NEWS NOW... Ward Eight Councilman Marion Barry and At Large member Kwame Brown will hold a news conference at 3pm today to voice strong opposition to Mayor Adrian Fenty's decision to pullout of an agreement with new DC United Owner Victor McFarland to develop the Poplar Point site in Southeast along the Anacostia river."

"Barry told 9NEWS NOW by phone the Mcfarland group had an agreement with former Mayor Tony Williams. "McFarland has held 30 to 40 community meetings on the project and Adrian Fenty hasn't been to one," said Barry. "He's going to lose on this because whatever developer he chooses must come before the DC Council for approval.""

many more details here: http://www.wusa9.com/news/columnist/blogs/brucejohnson.aspx

i've never liked marion barry so much!

more on the previous (this is from the blog) :

"At large DC Councilman Kwame Brown heads the powerful economic development committee and he is siding with Barry. Word is Chairman Vincent Gray is also lining up against Fenty.

This fight will be huge as there will be no bigger development prize in that part of the city. It's a chance for Fenty to test just how much political capitol he has in his tank. The takeover of city schools was almost to easy. It may also be Barry's last chance to prove he still has a lot of political clout, especially east of the river."

I've got to give up this addiction of mine to stadium threads. NY, SLC, and now DC......I can't take the emotional roller coaster rides anymore.

The finest politician of our time. Perhaps ever.

Maybe it's just me, maybe there's an inside joke that I don't get by being an outsider; but if someone was trying to get me a soccer stadium built, I think I'd lay off the jokes.

NOW I'm starting my stadium-thread-free life.

Yeah, because God knows a several-hundred-million-dollar development deal hinges upon a politician lurking on a soccer fanatic board and not seeing a joke about himself.

Fair enough. Still, like I said, maybe it's just me.

It sounds like Gray and Brown are also on board - and Evans' quote in the Post the other day seemed somewhat sympathetic.

During the short-lived email campaign I contacted my council member - Graham - and the at large members (Gray, Schwartz, Catania, Mendelsohn and Brown) the only ones I heard from were Gray and Brown. Nothing substantive, but they did reply.

Considering he's accomplished one of the greatest (peaceful) political comebacks of all-time and the respect that must go along with it, I'd be disappointed if it did.

I assume they realize it is MacFarlane

Well, well, well. Marion and Kwame taking on the youngin'. This should be good. From my emailing to the council, I've detected support for the DC United plan from Graham and Evans, as well.

For all those who've hated Barry, he's taking up the battle for DC United.

Graham emailed me back and said the matter is not in front of the council at the moment, but that he had seen the DC United plan and was inclined to vote in favor of it.

It's interesting that Vincent Gray maybe on board. He is already the 2nd most powerful politician in the city by virtue of being board chairman. He has already clashed with Fenty most notably by supporting different candidates in the elections for the open city council seats. I wouldn't be surprised if he runs for mayor next term & I can see voting for him based on how he votes on the stadium issue.

I voted for Fenty last time.

I think this is a contination of the line in the sand that Barry drew with the previous administration over baseball, except this time, the stadium deal is the benficiary and not the target. It's a good old-fashioned politics and he's looking to establish his clout.

It would be fun to watch if it weren't our stadium in question.

As previously posted, good work by Channel 9's Bruce Johnson on his blog here:

http://www.wusa9.com/news/columnist/blogs/brucejohnson.aspx

He only has one comment so far though... I think it would be helpful to our cause if we showed there are those of us who care about this developing story.

And as an encouragement to him to continue his pursuit of this story, I think we should show his blog a little love.

At this point they are just posturing - but it does let Fenty and any competing proposals know what they are up against when it gets to the council. Hopefully it will weed out the competition a little.

And Marc Fisher took a Poplar Point question today where he showed his true desire for the area. He doesn't think there should be much development on the Point at all - mostly on private land and redeveloping that part of Anacostia. Of course that missed entirely the point of the land swap - build the tax base of the city.

heh... i wanted to get that comment up before anti-soccer and/or stadium trolls get in on the action.

Graham wrote me back last weekend in response to a message I sent him (and a similar one I sent Fenty) asking that the city work with United to build a stadium in the District even if not at Poplar Point. He said he didn't know what happened, and maybe McFarlane was asking for too much money.

A few days later, I got cc:d on an e-mail from Fenty's assistant to Graham, saying the city was putting out an RFP for Poplar Point on Aug. 6. Presumably, United can submit a proposal.

Maybe this whole thing is just designed to wind up with a stadium getting built but with Fenty looking like he gave the team a tough bargain...

This is yet another positive of DC United starting their grassroots campaign in ward 8 a couple years ago. I don't think anyone would argue that without it, Marion Barry et all wouldn't be coming to our defense.

Same exact thing that Linda Cropp tried to accomplish with the Nationals stadium (and how'd that work out for her career???). Although I'd say Cropp was more transparent than Fenty so far in the process.

Well, I just invited my RSL friends to join in...

Wouldn't be the first time a city government had a handshake deal that was made to look like an open competition through an RFP process.

Wait a sec......your mayor torpedoed a plan for a privately funded SSS that was going to be across the street from a 600+ million dollar publicly funded baseball stadium!? The hypocrisy is beyond words......and I thought stadium politics in Utah was f-ed up.

I just sent your lovely mayor an e-mail about never visiting DC again unless it's for a United/RSL game.

All of us in the Salt Lake camp are pulling for you.....we feel your pain.