Second Thoughts on the Shockoe Bottom Baseball Plan
I should have known: Mayor Dwight Jones’ plan to build a new baseball stadium in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom was too good to be true. Link
View ArticleFunding details yet to materialize for Shockoe slavery sites
Richmond officials have laid out how the financing would work for the Shockoe Bottom baseball stadium and the mixed-use development next to it, but the source of roughly $30 million needed to complete...
View ArticleTHE NEW ENTITLEMENT: SPORTS VENUE TAJ MAHALS
Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones, along with downtown business establishment, want to build a new Taj Mahal for the Flying Squirrels in the Shockhoe Bottom area. A poll of Richmond residents showed...
View ArticleItching for Ballpark Action? Get Ready to Wait.
The council members say they need to talk to voters in their districts before making any decisions. Link
View ArticleArchitecture Review: The Shockoe Ballpark Plan
Richmond’s oldest neighborhood deserves a lot more planning than a rubber stamp for a baseball stadium. Link
View ArticleMayor faces tough questioning at town hall on ballpark
“Mr. Mayor, you said that you were going to consult with the community before you made your decision, but as far as I know that never happened,” said University of Richmond economics professor Jonathan...
View ArticleShockoe ballpark also would be used for concerts
“How do you conceive that it’s proper to have fireworks over a city jail, a hospital and our kids in the East End?” said plan critic Jean Wight. “And have bands and all this other stuff? Have you even...
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Critics say ballpark parking tilts numbers toward Shockoe
See letter below. As Richmond officials considered locations for a new baseball stadium, they relied on different parking assumptions for Shockoe Bottom and the Boulevard, a discrepancy some skeptics...
View ArticleBaliles questions baseball plan in letter to mayor
Richmond City Councilman Jonathan T. Baliles says it will be “difficult, if not impossible” for him to support Mayor Dwight C. Jones’s proposal for a Shockoe Bottom ballpark unless significant...
View ArticleCouncil balks again at Diamond transfer
The ordinances were introduced in mid-October by the administration of Mayor Dwight C. Jones, but the council remained unmoved by the administration’s request for action, voting unanimously to delay...
View ArticleIs the mayor’s ballpark proposal already sunk?
Things are starting to look bleak for Mayor Dwight Jones’ plan to put a ballpark in Shockoe Bottom. Link
View ArticleRMA votes to transfer Diamond to city at end of 2014
The Richmond Metropolitan Authority voted Tuesday to transfer ownership of The Diamond baseball stadium to the city of Richmond at the end of 2014, putting a more concrete timetable on the fate of the...
View ArticleShockoe, Boulevard proposals could cure “retail desert” in North Richmond
“The beginning wasn’t, ‘Where do we put baseball?’ ” Hicks said. “The beginning was, ‘How do we maximize our potential to grow? And where can we put baseball without doing it any harm?’ ” Link
View ArticleCity Council’s Support for Shockoe Bottom Ballpark Wavering
Is this the right priority? “It’s got to be in a place where it makes the most economic sense,” Baliles says… Link
View ArticleA Proposal for the Rehabilitation of the First Market Square
We are convinced that the ballpark plan will negatively affect the quality of the Market Square and its neighborhood. Link
View ArticleRichmond’s Ballpark Controversy: Planning For The Market Square In Shockoe...
This ill-conceived land deal will transform the heart of a gritty, vital urban district into what will be, in essence, a shopping mall development, and an economically risky one at that. It seems to us...
View ArticleMcDonnell asks $11M for Richmond slave history site
In his final, two-year budget that he will formally unveil on Monday, McDonnell will propose $5 million for the planning, design and construction of the Pavilion at Lumpkin’s Jail, $1 million for...
View ArticleRichmond official: ‘No baseball’ not considered
The mayor’s plan assumes that a new parking deck in Shockoe Bottom will be privately funded. Lee Downey, director of economic and community development, said a parking deck [at the Diamond] equivalent...
View ArticleGOLDMAN: Is funding plan for Shockoe stadium illegal?
It is illegal for the Mayor or his aides or anyone else in City government to force anyone to pay more taxes – that is to say a minimum amount of taxes – than would otherwise be due under state or...
View ArticleAre Richmond slave history sites, baseball development inextricably linked?
Ana Edwards, chairwoman of the Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality, said people are realizing that the slavery commemoration can move forward...
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