A Baseball Stadium Cautionary Tale For Miami

            The cautionary tale from the Washington Post came too late for Little Havana.

Post reporters Dana Hedgpeth and David Nakamura had trouble finding all the shops and restaurants and bars and the entertainment district the public was promised in return for putting $700 million of its tax dollars into a new baseball stadium.

The Post found plenty of dormant construction sites. Of course, Miami already has a few of those.

      The Post story begins (while Miami shudders):

      Baseball stadium backers promised a lively entertainment district when the D.C. government poured nearly $700 million into building Nationals Park: a hub of bustling shops, restaurants, hotels, condos and office towers to draw patrons year-round.

      But as the Nationals take the field for their second season at the ballpark, there won't be much entertainment outside. In a few weeks, a developer expects to set up a lonely beer tent on an empty lot across the street.

     Fans approaching the ballpark along Half Street will pass an empty office building and a 35-foot-deep hole in the ground owned by Monument Realty, which has put plans on hold for shops, residences and a hotel. One block north, another office building, built by Nationals owner Theodore N. Lerner, sits vacant in search of a tenant.

      Link to the story at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/11/AR2009041102036.html?hpid=artslot

Comments

[BeauB, Miami, Florida]

Only in Miami would you see school budgets cut so a new sports stadium could be built - without a vote of the citizens. I thought we'd seen the last of that old attitude "We don't care what the people want, we're doing it anyway" when George Bush crawled out of the White House. Too sad. Mayor Carlos Alvarez should be ashamed.