Friday, October 24, 2008
No Ballpark on Martins and Market!
The Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper had for its oversized headline "No Ballpark for Boulevard", meaning that Richmond has decided to go ahead with a plan to build a new stadium in Shockoe Bottom instead of at Boulevard. It would be bounded by Ambler St, Crane Street, Broad Street, 18th Street, and Franklin Street just to the east of downtown Richmond, Virginia, and adjacent to the railroad tracks and Main Street Station. If you get off at I-95 there, you would head straight into the ballpark. If you stop off the train at the Main Street Station, it is an easy walk. However, I find this plan unacceptable.
I find this plan unacceptable because it would destroy the 17th Street Farmers' Market, and it would destroy the roosting grounds for the tens of thousands of purple martins that converge in Richmond every August. The Farmers' Market is a good place to get locally-grown food, and destruction of this would mean more food shipped from elsewhere, using up precious oil and putting more CO2 in the atmosphere. This place needs to be kept, so we don't have to go out somewhere to a big supermarket to get food brought in from California or Chile.
The plan would also destroy the purple martins' roosting grounds. This has turned into one of Richmond's star attractions. Every August tens of thousands of purple martins descend on the city, going into a line of pear trees to roost for the night. It has become a star attraction and a magnificent spectacle. The ballpark would eliminate the trees that they roost in. Where would the martins go? Would they go elsewhere? Or would they remain there, roosting in the roof of the stadium and pooping all over the place nearby, as well as interfering with baseball games being played there (easy flyout turns into bases-loaded triple when the ball strikes a purple martin…). It would be another case of depriving a bird of its natural habitat.
Further, it would make a difficult parking situation impossible, when you add maybe 2,000 or more parked vehicles to the area.
So I say don't build the stadium there! Find somewhere where we don't interfere with entities that represent the planet or are helping it.
I find this plan unacceptable because it would destroy the 17th Street Farmers' Market, and it would destroy the roosting grounds for the tens of thousands of purple martins that converge in Richmond every August. The Farmers' Market is a good place to get locally-grown food, and destruction of this would mean more food shipped from elsewhere, using up precious oil and putting more CO2 in the atmosphere. This place needs to be kept, so we don't have to go out somewhere to a big supermarket to get food brought in from California or Chile.
The plan would also destroy the purple martins' roosting grounds. This has turned into one of Richmond's star attractions. Every August tens of thousands of purple martins descend on the city, going into a line of pear trees to roost for the night. It has become a star attraction and a magnificent spectacle. The ballpark would eliminate the trees that they roost in. Where would the martins go? Would they go elsewhere? Or would they remain there, roosting in the roof of the stadium and pooping all over the place nearby, as well as interfering with baseball games being played there (easy flyout turns into bases-loaded triple when the ball strikes a purple martin…). It would be another case of depriving a bird of its natural habitat.
Further, it would make a difficult parking situation impossible, when you add maybe 2,000 or more parked vehicles to the area.
So I say don't build the stadium there! Find somewhere where we don't interfere with entities that represent the planet or are helping it.
