And, I Don't Mean Donuts

To make the scam work, Mayor Jones has promised a slavery museum will be adjacent to the new baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom and a massive shopping center will appear on the Boulevard. Not to mention -- new jobs galore. Now he’s throwing in a children’s hospital.

To be against Hizzoner’s plan for a Shockoe Bottom baseball stadium has been/is being seen by supporters of the mayor’s plan as tantamount to opposing all those goodies and more. Like, who wants to sick kids go untreated? So far, Jones hasn't announced whether unlimited free donuts will be available at Shockoe Stadium. Nor has he publicly said who he might support in 2016 as his replacement at the mayor's desk.

Some of Jones' backers seem to be able to squint and see him as Gov. Terry McAuliffe's replacement, next time around ... especially, if he can make the scam work and further enrich the right people.

Truth be told, it has never mattered to the mayor's supporters whether the voters wanted to back his Shockoe Stadium scheme.

From those on the mayor’s bandwagon we've heard the chuckles, "So what?"

To those aboard the bandwagon, it has never mattered what the many citizens who have wanted to protect Shockoe Bottom from such a wrongheaded development have said, either.

Their whispers have been audible, "What can they do?"

Nor has it ever seemed to matter what most baseball fans preferred, either.

We've read the comments boosters for Shockoe Stadium have written under related articles, "Like, who cares what a bunch of rubes, mostly from the suburbs, want?"

One gets the idea that those on the bandwagon think they can simply mint a bunch of new fans, to replace those who will refuse to go to Shockoe Stadium. For the last year, all that has really mattered in the mayor's camp has been lining up the needed votes on City Council, to facilitate ramming it all down our throats ... and, I don't mean donuts.

Convincing one or two members of City Council to sell out is what the LovingRVA campaign was all about. It sought to create an air of inevitability. And, when you look back over the last year's stream of double-talk from City Hall, flipping a Council member or two is precisely what all the arm-twisting and plan-revising over Jones' so-called “revitalization” proposal has been about.