If they're from Ward 8. An influx of people from outside Ward 8, let alone outside the District, showing up at a Ward 8 meeting about Poplar Point would probably do more harm than good. That's why the team has asked us to back off from these sorts of meetings for some time now. I would be interested in hearing from the team, though, as to whether they're going to be at this meeting making their case, or whether the stadium is just one of many possibilities that the AWC is going to bring up at the meeting and the proponents for each of those ideas won't actually be there. The team seemed to have a lot of Ward 8 goodwill going for it back when they made their proposal at Ballou over a year ago; I dunno if they're still touching base with the Ward 8 residents.
This was posted by b1968k last week before all the Beckham brouhaha. I endorse this post. This is a WARD 8 COMMUNITY meeting. Unless you live in Ward 8, be as inconspicuous as possible and be alone.
DC United has continued to do tons of goodwill work in Ward 8 - Last years community youth soccer program run by Judah Cooks was targeted for Ward 8 kids - It ended with a big party for the kids and families along with local radio folks, and then selecting several kids for the walk out of the tunnel with the players before the game - The Kick For Kids program (where patrons provide money for tickets bought from DC United) also emphasizes community groups from Ward 8, as well as the whole DC metro area - DC United has done a lot, just most of it below the radar of the rest of us - I hope this makes a difference in perception within the various community groups and citizens who show up at the meeting Two things in a proposal will help - (1) Inclusion of Affordable Housing ('nuff said already about this) - (2) Pedestrian (and Bus) Access to Poplar Point - Don't know if this has been really included or not, but I think this is critical too - I-295 is just a river of concrete and is a barrier to using whatever Poplar Point is transformed into - Expanded Good Hope and one other street will help, but normal people from Anacostia are going to need to have easy access to Poplar Point - This is a necessary part of ANY proposal - I hope its included in the DC United one