Neighborhood Parents Worried by Nationals Opening
For Immediate Release:
28 March 2008
Parents Worried that Development Following Nationals Opening Neglects Neighboring Communities and Threatens Quality of Life: Ask City and Developers for Help
Washington, D.C.— On the eve of the opening of the Nationals stadium, a newly formed southwest Washington parent group is urging the city, Nationals owners, and other developers to preserve the quality of residential life and to promote certain family-friendly projects in the neighboring community even as they roll out the new stadium. The activists have twofold demands, for aggressive precautions to protect neighborhoods bordering the new baseball stadium, and for an initiative that would build safe playgrounds in a community whose public play structures are few in number, poorly maintained, and unsafe.
While many baseball fans can’t wait to see the first baseball fly across the pitcher’s mound of the new stadium, which stretches along the Southeastern side of South Capitol Street, residents from neighboring Southwest communities fear the parade of problems that typically follow sports fans to residential neighborhoods: traffic congestion, public drinking, and poor enforcement of parking restrictions.
“This is a pretty low key community with the occasional drinker stumbling home on a rare Saturday night from waterfront clubs, but with stadium games two, three times a week and added to that drinking and crowds it will disrupt our fairly peaceful neighborhood streets.” stated one of the group’s co-chairs Melody Webb, an attorney and a resident of Southwest DC.
The stadium’s construction has spurred limited commercial development in near southeast and southwest, however, community benefit plans said to be in place are not easily accessible, seem to be shrouded in secrecy, and are reportedly not enforceable. In the past year, the southwest side of the M Street corridor has seen Waterside Mall and Arena stage demolished, with plans for modernized structures underway.
“I’ve been told that the city and developers created community benefit plans but I’ve approached community leaders and officials to no avail and may have to pursue FOIA requests to acquire them” said Webb. “The question remains: who is getting what out of all the development taking place? When FedEx field was built, Redskins owner Dan Snyder paid for it, and to boot gave the children of Landover that state of the art Curry Sports Complex. The city built this Nationals Stadium, I’m paying for it, and as far as I can tell, my children are getting nothing out of it.”
The southwest community west of the Anacostia river hosts 8 playspaces, only two of which are accessible to the public all day 7 days a week, one of which is indistinguishable as a playspace and the other of which contains a single small slide and a sand pit often littered with drug and other paraphernalia. “The city calls the stadium the nation’s pride, the public playgrounds in its shadow are the nation’s shame!” said Webb.
The parent group consisting of several parents who reside in the community has come together to encourage neighborhood developers, city officials, and friends to support the construction and maintenance of safe, beautiful playgrounds for children, families and friends of the southwest neighborhood west of the Anacostia River.
For more information on Friends of Southwest Parks visit www.friendsofsouthwestplaygrounds.com.
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