The city, or maybe just Mayor Jones, has doubled down on what some consider to be his name-sake project – a new baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom.
The city, or maybe just Mayor Jones, has doubled down on what some consider to be his name-sake project – a new baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom.
A complex marketing project, Loving RVA, was the first step in the sales pitch for Richmonders to buy into this stadium idea, and many does it sound sweet. But the more I read peoples complaints about the stadium, I see the same arguments being rehashed over and over again – don’t pave over history.
First off, the first piece of cement placed in Shockoe bottom paved over history. Then the I-95 expansion that ripped Jackson Ward in half cut history’s throat. And the recent study that show RVA as one of the most economically divided cities in the state gave history a vasectomy to make sure it couldn’t have kids to talk about how poorly it was treated.
None of this was right, and none of this is an excuse for the awful things that have happened, or continue to happen, here in Richmond.
But to continue to say economic development has to be stopped because it will erase history is a weak argument – one that the city itself is all to ready to fight. Enter the proposed slave museum alone side the baseball stadium.
Now I’m a white man, and I realize I don’t have the personal identity to connect with the brutal, unforgiving, and generally awful history that occurred in the Bottom during the height of the slave trade. Between 1830 and 1860, Richmond was the largest slave market in the US. Shockoe has been compared to the Statue of Liberty for slavery – white Europeans can trace their families to Ellis Island, and black Americans can trace their roots to Richmond’s slave trade. There is an undeniable amount of history in those streets.
And Mayor Jones has a museum in the works to make sure that history is remembered. Now some might say a museum, or “heritage site,” might not be enough. But I’m inclined to er on the side of reason here and say the current setup – a trail market by signs and a grassed over field (which will both still exist after construction) could only be made better by a multi-million dollar building that will aim to create a modern, high quality, and historically accurate presentation of how incredibly effed up Richmond’s role in slavery really was.
There, history solved. Stop saying “No stadium on the backs of our ancestors” because they are literally building a museum to commemorate them.
Now, lets look at why it’s actually a bad idea to build a stadium in Shockoe Bottom – the money.
The city wants to spend
