Sometimes it is just too depressing to read the paper and I let someone else break the news to me.
Buttermilk and Molasses
reports via the RTD that not only are the Braves departing the balleyhood mixed use development on the Boulevard, but that the Richmond Kickers and Poseiden Swim Team are leaving for new digs in Chesterfield. In some ways this is more depressing than the Braves departure. The Braves can be replaced. Smaller community based organizations cannot. Once they move to the suburbs, they don't come back. It is a zero sum game, their gain is our loss.
I haven't followed the details of the Boulevard Sports Complex, but the City Admin must have known about the Braves immenent departure and the announcement of plans must have been timed to somehow cover bad news with good. The timing couldn't have been any worse as it only points to the ineptness of this adminstration. I can only hope John's eulogy of Mayor Wilder's future is correct, but the Mayor seems determined to take this city down with his political career.
4 comments:
Let 'em go.
They belong to the old Richmond.
Think bigger.
Let who go?
Who belongs to the old Richmond?
Why?
Bigger than what?
All future comments must be signed.
The Richmond Kickers Pro team remains at City Stadium. The youth organization had no presence along North Boulevard in the first place nor was there ever one planned. The Kickers youth program has long been scattered throughout the area. This new soccer facility will give them more fields, but they aren't consolidating all of their programs there. Poseidon hails from Chesterfield, as do most of the folks that participate on its swim teams, so I was baffled when they even suggested they'd build a facility on the Boulevard (the original plan was to build off Midlothian Turnpike).
I've violated my own policy against anonymous posts since this was a considered reply and not a rant. I will consider future posts on a case by case basis.
In reply, though I will say this does represent a net loss to the city regardless of the details, here was an organization that was will to move FROM the suburbs to the city. Who could blame them for changing their mind.
Chaos does not beget confidence.
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