From fiasco to fantasy

Last fall, it was a fiasco that made bad news for the turf-war-fighting mayor at City Hall. That fateful Friday night's confusion revealed a shocking lack of reason at the heart of the government housed in that building.

Today's news at City Hall was maybe a step or so beyond one night's fiasco. Once again it's about turf.

According to a report by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the recently completed Master Plan, calling for professional baseball to continue to be played on the Boulevard, has apparently been blown off.

It seems a newer new plan for a baseball stadium to be built in Shockoe Bottom has trumped the Master Plan. That, even as the new deal ignores a stark reality that suggests way too many baseball fans -- families, Little League teams, church groups, etc. -- won't be comfortable in that raucous neighborhood at night.

The company chosen by Richmond to develop public property along North Boulevard and in Shockoe Bottom has plans for $785 million in construction in those two areas, including a baseball stadium downtown.

Highwoods Properties, in a presentation this afternoon to Richmond City Council, outlined plans for a new, 6,500-seat stadium between East Franklin Street and East Broad Street as part of a proposed $363 million town center in Shockoe Bottom.

Click here to read the entire article at inRich.

To think that this is the proper time, money-wise, to talk about borrowing millions to shoehorn a new baseball stadium into Shockoe Bottom is nothing short of absurd. What's beyond fiasco?

It looks like blithe fantasy, as a parting shot, is the answer this time. With two months remaining in Mayor Doug Wilder's four-year term, what's next?

Who knows?

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Updates:

• "Baseball in the Bottom; new look for the Boulevard," click here to read it at inRich.
• Click here to read what RT-D columnist Michael Paul Williams has to say.