If you live in Chesterfield, the idea behind "regionalism" in the last few years has met with resistance by the masses throughout the greater Richmond area. Its no wonder given the complete inability for the City of Richmond to release itself from the stranglehold of city politics. Whether we are are talking about City schools, budgets, the politics of personal destruction and its latest inability to get a deal for Baseball in the Bottom. Residents of Chesterfield and Henrico County in the last decade have seen the City of Richmond as more of a problematic liability than a partner in the future.
The latest development that casts the City of Richmond in a dark shadow is the development out of Loudoun County regarding the potential for the Kincora development at the intersection of Rt. 7 and Rt. 28. The proposed site is home to some 424 acres of mixed-use development with a proposed 5,500 seat Baseball stadium for an Atlantic Minor League baseball team supported by the likes of Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson.
The model of success for such proposals in terms of Baseball is the Long Island stadium where the Ducks in the Atlantic league play and have contributed to greater economic development for the community.
Given the demographics of Loudoun County, it is no wonder why many residnts of Chesterfield are asking themselves why Chesterfield couold not be a wonderful home for a minor league baseball franchise. After all, the Braves franchise moved from Richmond to Gwinnett County in the suburbs of Atlanta. Chesterfield has about twice as many people as Loudoun County with a very similar demographic, though the adjusted gross income may be slightly higher in Loudoun. Chesterfield, however does have more children involved in community athletics such as youth baseball, soccer, football, swimming, volleyball, tennis etc than Loudoun.
It really makes you wonder why there has been all this concentration with baseball in the City when their appear to be viable alternatives in suburbia in the greater Richmond area.
Would you be willing to support a Chesterfield-based franchise over a City-based one in terms of regular attendance at the ballpark?
One key aspect to the Kincora plans is the stadium has NO public funding. Translation; no tax payer funding.
Given the upcoming sessions of the Steering Committee looking into providing guidance for the new Chesterfield Comprehensive Planning, we must make sure that we leave in our planning the opportunity for the County to be a home to such a project like Kincora should it ever come our way.
12 comments:
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Building in the County means seeing a game without paying tolls to get there.
This could work in the new private olympic sports park.
No tolls, no tax dollars either. Where is the vision on the BOCS that would seek out these kinds of developers who are looking for just such an area with the demographics to support these endeavors.
Just like NC swarmed in and took Apple's facility from Virginia while Kaine was off all over the country doing the bidding of the DNC, why can't Chesterfield officials seek out a situation with the groups trying to get a baseball team in Richmond and bring some parties together?
If we had a chance at a ballclub, Durfree would run her mouth and frustrate them so much they would give up.
The County is going to have to hire a moderator for every committee she is on.
She is a modern Fidel Castro. Lead a revolution and made things worse. Can lead the revolution but cannot govern. And talks way too much.
I think both Durfee and Gecker will be unseated next cycle.
When the totality of the body of work is taken into account come next year and the failures of this Board are clearly articulated both of those members will be in trouble.
They are lucky that they will not be up in 2010 so they still may have some time to salvage a sinking ship.
I wonder what the districts will look like in 2011. 5 or 7?
Even if there are 5, there is going to be reshuffling because of the pattern of growth.
I think any of the five supervisors could be in trouble. Marlene only got 44% in 2007 so she is probably toast in a two person race. She really means well but she cannot play well with others. She can come across as very arrogrant. When she asks good questions about the CCPS, her style gave the School Board an out. This is not how you get things done.
We should draft Alter in 2011.
Good luck, Alter lives in the Midlothian district. We have tried to get him over here in Matoaca last cycle given his critical analysis of the last election. No one else was covering the Chesterfield races but this blog. Go figure.
The primary in Mataoca was a complete mess. The insider Republican establishment backed Tubbs over a young up an comer whose name escapes me but should have won the primary. No way were the insiders going to go with the challenger once it was clear that Humpfries was not seeking re-election. Its a shame to, because Tubbs just did not play well at all and was passionless about Chesterfield.
Alter I believe supports an expansion of the number of members to 7.
Why is there such of dearth of blogs in Chesterfield? It seems Richmond has one for each neighborhood.
It seems the only thing that excites Chesterfield county wide is the school system. People stood up when there were budget cuts and a threat to middle school capital spending. Any school redistricting brings mass hysteria. If people paid more attention to the CCPS and County gov't, maybe we would have better schools and less budget problems.
Mrs Durfree has lost the support of the school community. The PTA folks dislike her.
Lucks-
The reason there is such a "dearth" of blogs of a political nature is rather simple.
If you get out and talk with people as I have you would find that most (majority) of residents are happy and content with the way in which the County is growing and are happy with the ranking of the schools. In a recent study, Chesterfield placed quite a few schools in the top in the country.
Being content with the quality of life creates a real disconnect with what is going on with local government.
Luck tghis is exactly what many politicians actually want. It allows themk to proceed under the radar because in fact there is no radar. This Board is growing the size of government, adding to capital projects in the government rhelm like the Courthouse and Social Services/Health. At the same time the County grows, residents get less and less representation.
How? Currently each Supervisor represents roughly 60K residents. Hardly a number that breeds engagement with constituents.
I support expanding the Board to 6 members thus creating one new district by taking portions of Midlothian and Mataoca and creating another district given the population density of those areas versus others. I also support (1) "At-Large" member bringing the total to 7 on the Board.
Estimating that our population will approach 400K quicker than most anticipate and given they have already approved zonings throughout the County that could easily add to the current numbers in the next five to ten years, the time is now with the new census being released next year to get something done.
I would support a district (Bon Air for example) which would include Bon Air, Huguenot, Robious to Midlothian, Buford to Midlothian whereas the Midlothian district would comprise much of what it has today with the addition of the new zonings like Roseland and all the new developments near Charter Colony and also west of Salisbury to Watkins Center.
I am generally told the County is run as a tight ship relative to Henrico and the City. I have heard this from vendors and State officials.
I underscore relative.
I love baseball...I do think that the supervisor in Matoaca is in trouble come 2011, since there are numerous (this proposal being one of them) examples of her causing more problems than solutions for Chesterfield and Matoaca. As for the dearth of C'field blogs I think The Contemporary Conservative (don't mean to plug)is back on track and there always this one....I think I'll be starting to plan some things that will hopefully have the outcome Lucks predicted about the Matoaca district...hopefully the BOS will have several changes come 2011.....
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