Marc Fisher wrote a column in today's Wapo entitled A Warning from Cleveland: Could Baseball Fail in DC? The sense of the article is that building new stadiums in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Detroit have not brought about economic development to these cities in the manner described in stadium proposals and this could happen to DC as well.Apples and oranges.
I read the Raw Fisher blog from time to time, and well, this time he failed. I realize it's a blog post, but come on, all he's doing is feeding the anti-stadium crowd with misconstrued ideas based on his apples to oranges comparison.
I don't know much about the city of Cleveland, though I have been to several games at Jacobs Field. I don't know much about the city of Detroit, either. But I do know that they are located in a part of the country that has seen better times. And I do know Cincinnati and the problems they are having in getting the Banks development project underway. Just last week an article appeared in the Cincy Post about the Cincinnati Planning Commission's decision to allow height changes to the buildings in the Banks area. It's been one petty thing after another that has stalled the project. It seems like construction may actually start before the end of the year, though. So there's that.
It's also been the economy, stupid. As people who live in Ohio can attest to, things ain't all George Grande in the Buckeye State. And Marc, both Cleveland and Cincinnati fit inside that mangled heartshaped piece of the Northwest Territory, you know? Ohio is one of the states in the transition phase from what is known as a "smokestack economy" to a "new economy," and while Ohio was ranked 29th in the Kaufman Foundation's New Economy Index, its residents aren't exactly rolling in disposable income these days. In comparison to other states, Ohio has been in a persistent decline in economic performance for years. Companies are leaving to go to more prosperous states. Employment has stagnated, and there's been a brain drain as a result. Part of the reason is that the state's policymakers continue to focus on traditional manufacturing sectors rather than supporting initiatives that would bring the state into the 21st century. (Why is that? Because Ohioans keep electing the same old fools into office, but that's a whole other can o'worms.)
Contrast that with the DC area, which continues to enjoy substantial economic growth despite national trends, even regarding the housing market, which has been the bane of the United States economy of late. DC is the place where young people flock to, young people with disposable income and an appetite for nightlife. Marc has seen with his own eyes what building the MCI Center has done for Chinatown, those same eyes which noticed nothing around the baseball stadiums in Cincy, Cleveland, and Detroit. Ten years ago, that area of DC was pretty much the red light district. Now it is a thriving place to spend, spend, spend. It's strange to see him write about how a baseball stadium may not bring the same.
Marc, your column just didn't make sense, sorry.
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