Pushing It Through

Washington DC is probably going to lose the new baseball team. A mega-retard from the DC City Council, Linda Cropp, decided at the last second to add an amendment changing several conditions from those to which MLB had agreed--and nine other mega-retards agreed with her. Read the description here. Because of this, the baseball team is most likely not going to stick around unless they make a change, which is unlikely.

Now, as the son of an elected official, I don't pile on easily. But this lady doesn't understand the most important thing about local politics--a lot of times you just have to push something through. People will always complain, the price tag may often get too high, but it's almost always worth getting the deal done for big public projects. They're investments. Some examples:

1. In Washington, DC, there is no Georgetown Metro Station. Thus, it is impossible to get to/from Georgetown and parking is terrible. Many years ago, Georgetown residents bonded together and refused to let them put in a Metro stop--and it definitely has made things suck.

2. In Seattle there is no mass transit system other than buses. Therefore, getting around is slow and annoying. There have been several initiatives to put in a monorail system, but every time somebody complains and a neighborhood group gets upset and there are meetings and people get scared and nothing happens. So people continue to drive and take the slow bus and it just stinks getting around.

3. Boston put all of the highway downtown underground in what is popularly known as the Big Dig. Although largely financed by federal money, nevertheless this project has made downtown Boston a nice place again, with no highway jams or noise and plenty of open, pedestrian-friendly space. I was in Boston last spring, and the only time there was no traffic was when I was underground in the Big Dig. The project was over budget and took a long time, but it's a lot better and worth it.

4. California voters (myself included) just passed a stem cell initiative that will provide $3 billion for medical research. Not only will this create business and industry for California, this will make California a leader in the latest biomedical research, will almost certainly save lives, and may be instrumental in finding a cure for AIDS or cancer. It's expensive, but it's gonna pay off.

Baseball promises to revitalize a crappy part of Washington DC, restore the heritage of America's pastime to the nation's capital, and save residents a commute to Baltimore to root for a terribly-managed team. It needs to get done, and if they blow it because of stupid bickering over relatively small numbers, it'll be a tremendous mistake.