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Please note that JDLand is no longer being updated.
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Near Southeast DC Past News Items
- Full Neighborhood Development MapThere's a lot more than just the projects listed here. See the complete map of completed, underway, and proposed projects all across the neighborhood.
- What's New This YearA quick look at what's arrived or been announced since the end of the 2018 baseball season.
- Food Options, Now and Coming SoonThere's now plenty of food options in the neighborhood. Click to see what's here, and what's coming.
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- Anacostia RiverwalkA bridge between Teague and Yards Parks is part of the planned 20-mile Anacostia Riverwalk multi-use trail along the east and west banks of the Anacostia River.
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- Virginia Ave. Tunnel ExpansionConstruction underway in 2015 to expand the 106-year-old tunnel to allow for a second track and double-height cars. Expected completion 2018.
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- Rail and Bus Times
Get real time data for the Navy Yard subway, Circulator, Bikeshare, and bus lines, plus additional transit information. - Rail and Bus Times
Get real time data for the Navy Yard subway, Circulator, Bikeshare, and bus lines, plus additional transit information. - Canal ParkThree-block park on the site of the old Washington Canal. Construction begun in spring 2011, opened Nov. 16, 2012.
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- Nationals Park21-acre site, 41,000-seat ballpark, construction begun May 2006, Opening Day March 30, 2008.
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- Washington Navy YardHeadquarters of the Naval District Washington, established in 1799.
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- Yards Park5.5-acre park on the banks of the Anacostia. First phase completed September 2010.
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- Van Ness Elementary SchoolDC Public School, closed in 2006, but reopening in stages beginning in 2015.
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- Agora/Whole Foods336-unit apartment building at 800 New Jersey Ave., SE. Construction begun June 2014, move-ins underway early 2018. Whole Foods expected to open in late 2018.
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- New Douglass BridgeConstruction underway in early 2018 on the replacement for the current South Capitol Street Bridge. Completion expected in 2021.
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- 1221 Van290-unit residential building with 26,000 sf retail. Underway late 2015, completed early 2018.
- NAB HQ/AvidianNew headquarters for National Association of Broadcasters, along with a 163-unit condo building. Construction underway early 2017.
- Yards/Parcel O Residential ProjectsThe Bower, a 138-unit condo building by PN Hoffman, and The Guild, a 190-unit rental building by Forest City on the southeast corner of 4th and Tingey. Underway fall 2016, delivery 2018.
- New DC Water HQA wrap-around six-story addition to the existing O Street Pumping Station. Construction underway in 2016, with completion in 2018.
- The Harlow/Square 769N AptsMixed-income rental building with 176 units, including 36 public housing units. Underway early 2017, delivery 2019.
- West Half Residential420-unit project with 65,000 sf retail. Construction underway spring 2017.
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- Novel South Capitol/2 I St.530ish-unit apartment building in two phases, on old McDonald's site. Construction underway early 2017, completed summer 2019.
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- 1250 Half/Envy310 rental units at 1250, 123 condos at Envy, 60,000 square feet of retail. Underway spring 2017.
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- Parc Riverside Phase II314ish-unit residential building at 1010 Half St., SE, by Toll Bros. Construction underway summer 2017.
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- 99 M StreetA 224,000-square-foot office building by Skanska for the corner of 1st and M. Underway fall 2015, substantially complete summer 2018. Circa and an unnamed sibling restaurant announced tenants.
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- The Garrett375-unit rental building at 2nd and I with 13,000 sq ft retail. Construction underway late fall 2017.
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- Yards/The Estate Apts. and Thompson Hotel270-unit rental building and 227-room Thompson Hotel, with 20,000 sq ft retail total. Construction underway fall 2017.
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- Meridian on First275-unit residential building, by Paradigm. Construction underway early 2018.
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- The Maren/71 Potomac264-unit residential building with 12,500 sq ft retail, underway spring 2018. Phase 2 of RiverFront on the Anacostia development.
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- DC Crossing/Square 696Block bought in 2016 by Tishman Speyer, with plans for 800 apartment units and 44,000 square feet of retail in two phases. Digging underway April 2018.
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- One Hill South Phase 2300ish-unit unnamed sibling building at South Capitol and I. Work underway summer 2018.
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- New DDOT HQ/250 MNew headquarters for the District Department of Transportation. Underway early 2019.
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- 37 L Street Condos11-story, 74-unit condo building west of Half St. Underway early 2019.
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- CSX East Residential/Hotel225ish-unit AC Marriott and two residential buildings planned. Digging underway late summer 2019.
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- 1000 South Capitol Residential224-unit apartment building by Lerner. Underway fall 2019.
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- Capper Seniors 2.0Reconstruction of the 160-unit building for low-income seniors that was destroyed by fire in 2018.
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- Chemonics HQNew 285,000-sq-ft office building with 14,000 sq ft of retail. Expected delivery 2021.
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JPI is not wasting time with their plans for a big residential development at 70 I Street, SE; they're going before ANC6D on Monday, and the Bureau of Zoning Adjustment on March 14, and today they've submitted a building permit application for the project. Plans are for two towers and 700+ units; the company has said in various news articles that they plan to start construction this summer. As soon as I can get my hands on a rendering, I'll create a new page for the project.
The city council has released the four-page Stadium Cap amendment passed in the wee hours on Tuesday night. A 4:00 pm Post story about the release says that as of early today, baseball officials said they had not seen the legislation; don't know if that has changed.
UPDATE, 5:55 pm: An AP wire story says that MLB has now received the documents, but that they will not issue a response until Friday, at the earliest. But who knows, someone might whisper to someone, and we'll hear about it sooner.
UPDATE, 10: 55 pm: The print version of the Post's story is now available, now including some choice words from Bud Selig: " 'When it comes to demagoguery, a lot of what happened down there would have made Huey Long blush.' "
UPDATE, 2:20 am: And here is the WashTimes story, " MLB Receives Stadium Lease Papers." On the issue of a new team owner perhaps being on the hook for cost overruns: "Last year, MLB accepted bids from eight groups for the team, and settled on a $450 million sale price based on terms that included a ballpark fully financed by the city. If MLB accepts the cap legislation, it might then ask bidders if they would still meet that price, even if they are vulnerable to being responsible for cost overruns. 'This might knock that [$450 million] price right out the window,' said one bidder."
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Let's see if I can remember how to post an entry that doesn't have to do with the stadium... ANC 6D has posted its February Meeting agenda, which has a number of Near Southeast items. First, there will be a presentation by the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation on their plans. Then there will be a (re?)discussion of the proposed alley closings on Square 743N petitioned for by Faison to allow for the construction of two towers on 1st Street. There will also be presentation on the BZA application for the planned JPI residential project at 70/100 Street SE, which should give us our first peek at what's being planned for that site. Finally, there is a public space permit application by the Courtyard by Marriott hotel at 1st and L streets SE for a sidewalk cafe (which might be just fancy talk for an outdoor seating area connected to any food service the hotel will be having). The ANC meeting is on Monday, Feb. 13 at 7 pm, at 65 I Street SW.
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100 M, 70/100 I, ANC News, Anacostia Waterfront Corp., faison, jpi, Courtyard/Marriott, mnorth, Onyx, Square 743N, zoning
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I can't believe how many times and in how many places I've read in the past few days that the new baseball stadium will be built in Southwest DC, which is 100% incorrect. So let's all review the following, commit it to memory, and make sure to tell your friends, neighbors, enemies, local reporters, etc.:
The new Nationals baseball stadium will be built in SOUTHEAST DC. Thank you. We now return your to your regularly scheduled programming.And:It will NOT be built in the "Anacostia" section of Southeast DC; it will be near the Anacostia River, but will be WEST of the river, not EAST.
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The Feb. 10 DC Register includes the following: "The Council of the District of Columbia hereby gives notice of its intention to take action in less than fiften (15) days on PR16-641, the "Design Build and Completion Guarantee Agreement fo the DC Major League Baseball Park Approval Resolution of 2006". The Council needs to act on this resolution expeditiously in order to avoid delays in the planning and construction of the ballpark."
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WTOP is reporting "Court Ruling Clears Way for Stadium Plans": "In the appeal, the Siegel Group asked the court for an injunction in D.C.'s eminent domain case, citing that the city does not have the right to take land from owners and that the District under-appraised the value of the land. In its ruling, the court said decisions about eminent domain rest with the mayor and the city council and that courts do not have the authority to second guess the city's decisions. The court also ruled that the District's estimates of the land value were made in good faith." There is still the Feb. 24 court hearing on "the District's motion to take possession of the disputed land parcels. The judge in that hearing will determine the date that owners must vacate the land so the city can begin construction. After the Feb. 24 hearing, subsequent valuations trials will be held to determine the fair market price the city must pay land owners." UPDATE: Here is the Mayor's press release.
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The WashTimes Day 2 story also has actual information about the stadium construction, which of course is all I was ever really interested in :). "The construction team [...] has told the city it would like to begin preparing the site for construction by March 1. But first, the city must gain possession of 14 acres at the ballpark site. It filed a court order in D.C. Superior Court asking a judge to force out property owners by last Tuesday, but a ruling is not expected until Feb. 24. The city is focused on acquiring land in the south section of the ballpark site first because that is where the heaviest construction must take place. Meanwhile, in a somewhat surprising development, consultants hired by the sports commission to handle environmental remediation on the ballpark site have reduced their fee from $8 million to about $6.3 million because initial tests of the site do not show as much contamination as expected[...]. Heavy environmental problems had been expected because of the presence of an asphalt plant, trash transfer facility and other industrial buildings."
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We'll kick off with Marc Fisher's Thursday Post column (available early on the web), "Stadium Wrangling in Drama City."
UPDATE, 7:49 pm: Another column, this one from the WashTimes's Thom Loverro ("Late Reversal Nothing New")--and, for the heck of it, here's the WashTimes's Wednesday piece on the lease approval.
UPDATE, 10:17 pm: The Post has "Reeling and Dealing on Stadium," with some good old-fashioned DC fingerpointing between the Mayor and the Council and a little amongst council members themselves as to how the lease agreement came so close to falling apart.
UPDATE, 10:54 pm: Here's the Post's main stadium story for the day, "Stadium Lease Deal Leaves Questions." The main points: MLB still hasn't received the full documents and are saying they are "very concerned," and the city CFO has not yet reviewed the cap and may not be able to sell construction bonds for another 4-6 weeks. Then there's the construction timetable, with the not-really-surprising statement: "Some city officials have begun talking about the possibility that the stadium will not be ready for the Nationals until the middle of the 2008 season, around the All-Star Game break." And of course there's the choice of an ownership group for the team; " 'Baseball has told us it will be done expeditiously,' said Mark H. Tuohey, chairman of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. 'I interpreted that to mean a matter of a few weeks.' " We'll see whether any of this is more than just the little potholes we've gotten used on this long, strange trip. And check out the fun timeline graphic!
UPDATE, 1:44 am: And we close out with the WashTimes's "Ballpark Lease Concerns Baseball," quoting the same written statement from MLB that the Post used, plus a bit of analysis: "MLB's support for the cost cap likely depends on whether officials believe the team owner will be stuck with overruns. The cap legislation allows for the team's owner to pay for overruns but does not require it. Overruns also could be paid for by other outside entities, such as the federal government or private developers, or through savings on the construction of the stadium's structure." And: "If MLB approves of the lease and cost cap, the league could name an owner within weeks, Tuohey said. Other city and industry sources were more skeptical, believing the league will name an owner only after construction of the stadium is under way."
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Another babystep forward: " District officials say Major League Baseball is pleased with the final vote taken by the D.C. Council on the proposed stadium lease. Mayor Tony Williams says some final details remain to be worked out, but he believes MLB officials will sign the lease soon. Williams says groundbreaking at the stadium site is likely to come some time this spring. "
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The Washington Blade has posted "Graham withdraws bill to aid O St. clubs", explaining Graham's realization that he was incorrect in believing that "changing the citys liquor law could clear the way for the O Street clubs that offer nude dancing to move to a zone similar to the one in which they are now located. Graham said he has learned since introducing the bill that the city's zoning regulations prevent the clubs from moving anyplace other than the central business district and nearby streets, and they must obtain a special variance from the D.C. Board of Zoning Appeals to move there." In related news, there's been no word as to whether Judge Zeldon has ruled on the city's request to order the eviction of all occupants of the stadium site.
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So, what does all of the torrent of words below mean? The short of it is, after initially defeating the stadium lease agreement 8-5 at 8 pm, the DC Council returned to the chambers at 10:00 pm and worked through the emergency cap legislation enough to satisfy council members Schwartz, Gray, Brown, and Barry, who switched their votes to allow the legislation to pass 9-4 at 12:40 am. The gist is that they passed the stadium lease agreement as given to them by the Mayor and MLB, but added an amendment to it capping the city's costs at $611 million. If the Mayor and/or MLB do not indicate their acceptance of the cap amendment by March 6, the council's approval of the lease will be invalidated. So now we wait for that shoe to drop. The stadium saga is not finished yet, but it's also not circling the drain, like it looked to be earlier this evening. And, if MLB does agree, look for a team owner to be announced quickly, and also (I'm guessing) a floodgate of new development plans and deals in Near Southeast, which have been on hold awaiting the stadium resolution. Then there will be the design, and the zoning, and the eminent domain fights, and yadda yadda yadda.... But let's not think about that right now.
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Okay, rewind, reset. Let's now bring together the stories about the stadium lease passing, with a $611 million cap. The AP's story is "Council Reverses Course on Stadium Lease Deal," with a good overview of what happened and why. The Post right now has "Council Closer to Deal on Stadium" (no doubt to be updated with the final outcome of the evening), as well as "After Day of Talks, Council Ends Up in Chaos", explain how an 8-5 defeat at 8 pm turned into a 9-4 passage at 12:40 am. Of course, this is all still contingent on the Mayor and MLB saying that the council's legislation is acceptable, which they have until March 6 to do. And even though it was written before the turnaround, you should still read Boswell's "One Horribly Botched Play" to get a feel for the anger from MLB over the initial defeat of the lease. The WashTimes currently still has its pre-approval story, "Council Rejects Stadium Lease," although it was written after the council returned to re-open debate and so includes some details about the eventually successful cap amendment. What a wild day. Now we wait to hear from MLB.
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UPDATE, 12:43 pm: And now the stadium lease agreement passes, amended to include the cap, 9-4.
UPDATE, 12:20 pm: The revamped emergency cap legislation now passes, 9-4 (or at least it will, in a few seconds ;-) ). There will be plenty of stories about what is in it, but I'll just note that it says that the Mayor and MLB have until March 6 to indicate that they agree with the cap legislation, otherwise the lease is disapproved.
UPDATE, 11:19 pm: The council is still going....
UPDATE, 10:13 pm: Hey, wait a minute, the council is back in chambers, talking about the stadium again!
Tracking the stories on the failed lease vote: Here is the first full AP story, "DC Council Says No to Latest Stadium Lease Proposal." And, while it's opinion and not news, Marc Fisher's Raw Fisher blog entry on the vote, "No Joy in Mudville," is worth a read.
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And just like that, the lease vote failed. They didn't vote on the emergency cap bill, went to the lease agreement, and it failed, 8-5. I will leave it to the Post and other media outlets to tell us What It Means, and will post their stories. Until then, the BallparkGuys.com Nats board will be discussing it in detail, I imagine. UPDATE: But I will add, before people start flinging themselves off of buildings, that the Nats won't be packing up tomorrow. There is still arbitration to go through, and MLB would have a hard time finding another jurisdiction that will give them a deal anywhere close to what DC offered. For those who wanted this settled NOW, this is a bad day, but there is still light at the end of the tunnel. Besides, maybe now Bud Selig will just go ahead and name an owner for the team, which would change the negotiation dynamic considerably....
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Stadium Vote Updates thread.
UPDATE, 8:24 pm: They're back in the council chamber. Turn on the feed.
UPDATE, 8:20 pm: Now approaching the 2.5-hour mark in their 30-minute recess. The AP says that the councilmembers have spent the past two hours "haggling over the wording of emergency legislation limiting the cost of the project." I hope they're haggling to get the reference to MLB out of the cap, otherwise all this will be for naught.
UPDATE, 7:47 pm: No, they're not back, but if you couldn't watch the session earlier today (or couldn't bear too), Just a Nats Fan was live-blogging.
UPDATE, 7:40 pm: Still in recess/private session. I haven't abandoned you :-).
UPDATE, 6:25 pm: The council is in recess after a very contentious session. They may come back to vote on the emergency cap, otherwise a vote on the lease agreement itself tonight would appear to be doomed (Vincent Orange having said as much to the Associated Press). The council is now in a private session.
UPDATE, 4:19 pm: It appears that the lease agreement (PR-619) is starting to be discussed at the council right now, but this could just be an initial procedural move. Turn on the feed :-).
UPDATE, 3:35 pm: The Post's DC Wire blog has an update from David Nakamura--I can't even summarize it, it talks about Cropp's cap bill possibly putting MLB on the hook for cost overruns, which will be unacceptable to the mayor and to MLB, so it would be possible that the pro-stadium forces would vote the cap down, then just try for an up-or-down 7-votes-needed vote on the lease. But negotiating is still going on....
UPDATE, 2:49 pm: The Post has an updated version of last night's story posted, now including all events since last night. A quote: "By packaging the council's cost cap with the lease, Cropp said the council will take just one vote on the stadium deal today and it will require nine votes among the 13-member body for approval."
UPDATE, 2:05 pm: A Reuters story quotes Linda Cropp: "The citizens need to know where the council stands on baseball in the District of Columbia. We will vote up or down today." The article also says: "The emergency legislation requires the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission to certify by March 7 that any hard construction costs over $300 million be paid by the team owner, savings from re-engineering or federal, private or other non-local funds."
UPDATE, 1:03 pm: A story on WTOP's web site says that Adrian Fenty believes there are enough votes to pass the (emergency?) legislation. And, just to add to the fun, the article also says: "But if the District cannot pass the lease, WTOP has learned that Virginia is ready to make a move. A spokesman for Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine tells WTOP he would be interested in pursuing the Nationals for Northern Virginia if D.C. is unable to approve the lease."
UPDATE, 11:56 am: Mayor Bow Tie is not happy with the consultant that the Council picked to review the lease and construction agreements, because he also worked for the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority when Virginia was trying to get the Expos. Here is the mayor's press release.
UPDATE, 11:44 am: AP reports: "Members of the D-C Council may not vote on a proposed stadium lease today. Councilman Marion Barry says the lease proposal could be tabled in favor of a proposed emergency session. That would enable the Council to consider emergency legislation capping the District's costs for a new ballpark. Barry says if there was a vote on the proposed lease right now, there would not be enough votes to pass the measure. Councilman Adrian Fenty says he doesn't know if there are the nine votes needed to approve emergency legislation to establish the cap. Councilman Phil Mendelson says that could amendments might have to be introduced during the emergency session to get enough support."
UPDATE, 11:24 am: Go ahead and get your lunch, and maybe your dinner--it appears that the council will handle all of its other business first, then move to the stadium.
10:30 am: According to David Nakamura on the Post's DC Wire Blog, the council chambers are beginning to fill up, and the session should get underway soon. He also says: "Council staff, along with Mayor Williams's aides, the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission and a council-hired consultant, worked late into the night and early this morning on the new stadium cap that Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp wants her colleagues to approve." He says it's unclear whether Cropp has the 9 votes needed to pass the cap as emergency legislation. According to David, the emergency cap vote should come first in the session, with the lease vote coming later in the day.
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The Washington Times has a piece today (which had better be a column and not a straight news story) called "Stadium will rob neighborhood of its history", detailing what it says is all of the history that will be lost in "Southwest" because of the stadium and other development. I must say I would give the article a bit more credence if it realized that the stadium, St. Paul's church, the Navy Yard, Ken Wyban's house, and Capper Seniors #1 are all in fact in SouthEAST, not Southwest. And it's wrong about Capper/Carrollsburg residents needing $80,000 incomes to return to the new public housing to be built. (It's rather stunning that this level of misinformation and outright error can get into a paper.) It does mention that a lecture will be given by Carroll R. Gibbs called "Vanished Past, Hidden Present: The Black History the New Stadium Will Hide" at the MLK Library on Feb. 21 at 7 pm and again at the Lamond-Riggs branch on Feb. 23 at 7 pm.
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In case your weekly appointment to have bamboo shoots stuffed under your fingernails has been cancelled, you can get the same result by watching Tuesday's DC Council stadium proceedings live, either online or on DC Cable 13.
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An alert from the Associated Press: "D.C. Council Chair Linda W. Cropp will introduce emergency legislation on Tuesday that would cap the city's contribution to a Nationals baseball stadium at $300 million." The question is if this is just on the construction agreement, or the stadium lease agreement. If it's the lease agreement, there will probably be trouble with MLB; if it's the construction agreement, then there's probably room for maneuvering. Will post more as it comes along. UPDATE: Here is the Post's article, "D.C. Council Insists on Own Stadium Cost Cap." From the article: "The legislation, Cropp said, would cap the city's payments for labor and materials for the ballpark at $300 million, along with an additional $20 million that MLB promised in December. Williams (D) offered the same cap last week, but council members said the mayor's cap has loopholes. The council is also considering capping the project's entire cost at between $589 million and $630 million, council members said. Emergency legislation would require nine votes among the council's 13 members for approval." And: "If the council does not approve the lease today, baseball officials might choose to pursue full arbitration, which could take up to six months to resolve." And, my own personal favorite: "During the council's closed-door meeting, which grew louder as it progressed, Cropp could be heard admonishing her colleagues. 'I'm sick of this,' she told them. 'Every time we move somewhere, you keep adding something else. I'm sick of it. I want you people to either vote it up or vote it down.' " UPDATE: Here is the WashTimes story, covering most of the same bases.
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A quick note that the Post has started a blog on DC politics called "DC Wire", and one of the first entries today was from David Nakamura about the baseball stadium (although the entry itself has been somewhat scooped by the events of this evening).
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The FY2007 Federal Budget, released today, includes $20 million for upgrading the Navy Yard Metro station, one of the many sticking points for council members as they fought to make sure that no money from the city's general fund will go toward any of the costs of the new baseball stadium. Here is the mayor's press release.
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