Richmond's Major-League Debate
The city considers a ballpark in historic Shockoe Bottom.
By Laura Lewis | Online Only | Sept. 3, 2004
The Shockoe Bottom area of downtown Richmond, where developers want to build a baseball stadium, flooded on Aug. 30.
Credit: Maurice Duke
As a tropical storm drenched Richmond, Va., this week, water rushed to the city's lowest point, the Shockoe Bottom area, flooding its historic streets in a matter of minutes. Five people died, 19 buildings have been condemned, and roads remain closed.
On a Sunday afternoon in late July, puddles in Shockoe Bottom's cobblestone streets reflected blue-black skies. A handful of people sipped coffee and ate late lunches at cafes, but hardly anyone walked the blocks whose warehouses were once full of tobacco and where the boundaries of the city were originally laid in 1737.
The neighborhood, which sits right under I-95 just blocks from the James River and Kanawha Canal, is a neighborhood where old meets new. Reminiscent of a country store, Franklin Supermarket, advertising "long pig's feet" and "fresh chitterlings," shares the block with the pricey Julep's New Southern Cuisine and the ultra-modern martini bar, Tonic, adorned in black and silver with white fur-covered banisters inside.
Old converging with new might just be the theme of the Bottom if the city approves building a new stadium for the Richmond Braves there, just north of the 17th Street Farmer's Market and the newly renovated 1901 train station.
A private group, Richmond Baseball Initiative, has developed the idea as an alternative to spending $18.5 million renovating the city's current stadium, The Diamond, located in the Boulevard area of Richmond since 1985. Formed in May 2003, the group of 30 Richmond business people believes a new stadium can revitalize the neighborhood and bring in big revenue for the city.
However, other residents, like members of the Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods (ACORN), consider the idea an assault on Shockoe Bottom's history. Richmond began in Shockoe Bottom. Connected to a railroad and a river, the city emerged in the mid-18th century as a major commercial hub for the South and for the nation, especially for tobacco. Later, it claimed more significance as the capital of the Confederacy. Shockoe Valley and Tobacco Row, the spot where RBI suggests putting the stadium in Shockoe Bottom, was placed on the Virginia State Landmarks Registry in 1981 and on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
"We need buildings of a size and character that complement what's there," says Jennie Dotts, executive director of ACORN.
Over 500 buildings with architectural styles from Federal through 20th-century industrial vernacular exist in the Bottom, Dotts says. (Being listed on the registers does not prohibit demolishing buildings in the area, but it does offer state and federal tax credits for renovations.) Read more >>
"The total number of likely demolitions to advance this project is no less than 18," Kathleen S. Kilpatrick, director of the Virginia Department for Historic Resources, said in a letter on June 3 to Tim Davey of RBI's executive committee. She identified the buildings based on information posted by RBI on the Richmond Braves Web site. Collectively, Kilpatrick says, the buildings contribute to the historic district; she worries that tampering with enough of them could "trigger" the district's removal from the national and state lists.
Under RBI's plan, these buildings would be demolished to make way for the stadium.
Credit: Maurice Duke
Davey says the current plan, which makes a four-block footprint with the stadium on one city block, would only demolish three or four buildings and that most of the buildings in the area would be incorporated into the stadium design, such as taking their storefronts and making them a part of the stadium.
"They keep changing their tune," Dotts says. "It was a dozen. Then 19. Then three or four. You're taking the soul of a building when you're taking its storefront." Davey feels the biggest product of the ballpark controversy has been "misinformation."
Communication definitely seems crossed over buildings like 1710 E. Franklin Street, which Dotts says RBI is trying to buy. "Once those buildings are in their hands, they aren't protected by local ordinances," she says.
Davey denies that 1710 would be torn down but would not comment on whether RBI has a contract on it. "We've talked to all the property owners down there about their willingness to share in the project," Davey said.
For an idea causing so much debate, the proposal for a new ballpark still remains just a proposal, if even that. "There's not really a proposal to see," says John Woodward, director of economic development for Richmond. The idea remains in a "very preliminary" stage, he says. Davey says RBI, which is searching for private funding at the moment, is far from putting a solid proposal together.
"From day one it's never been about a ballpark. It's about economic development for Richmond," Davey says.
Instead of just spending the money to renovate The Diamond, RBI asked if anyone had looked for an alternate plan. They found the answer to be no. Cities like Memphis, Toledo, and Louisville showed RBI how millions of dollars in development projects have been generated by creating an "urban entertainment district" around a baseball stadium. Davey says the Braves will commit to signing a 20-year lease in Richmond and will invest its own money in the project if it builds a ballpark downtown. He fears that even if the money is spent to renovate The Diamond, improvements will have to be made, or worse, the Braves will leave Richmond in another five to seven years anyway.
For Bruce Baldwin, the Braves' general manager, "looking at case studies, every one of them shows that it's helped the [minor-league] club and the community considerably. It sounds like it's superficially the thing to do."
The Bottom
Credit: Maurice Duke
ACORN believes Shockoe Bottom's future is heritage tourism and restoration of houses for residential use. The group has been developing a slave-trade trail through Shockoe Bottom past the remnants of auction houses, jails, and gallows. The stadium and the restaurants and hotels that would come with it are incompatible with telling that history, Dotts says.
Baseball, history, and significant architecture can exist together, Davey says; the stadium could bring in money to celebrate the area's slave history. He sees the ballpark as a way to not only revitalize business but revive a neighborhood known for crime. "We're just a bunch of people who just told the truth to this community," Davey said. "In 20 years, there will be more businesses [in Shockoe Bottom] closing their doors like we have now, and more people getting hurt, stabbed, and killed like we have now."
So far this year 324 incidents in Shockoe Bottom were reported to police, including two homicides and 42 assaults, according to statistics listed on the city's Web site.
As the fastest-growing residential area in the city, Dotts says, Shockoe Bottom can stay vibrant if locals renovate its old houses and market its history. As more people move in, they will demand shops, restaurants, and services, she says.
"We know what people want. Quiet streets. A nice quality of life. A stadium that attracts 7,500 people to your back yard is incompatible with a decent quality of life," Dotts says. "We just don't think it's been thought out."
Jimmy St. John, a tattoo artist at Eastend Demographics on 18th Street, believes the stadium is inevitable, but it is not the altering of the historical neighborhood that bothers him. "It will put all the private people out of business," he says, because they won't be able to afford their leases. He opposes chain restaurants like T.G.I. Fridays or Applebee's that would infiltrate the "club-crowd bar district."
Ashely Dobbs, a two-and-half- year resident, feels differently. "Generally, it seems to be pretty desolate and run down, and the stadium would be an improvement," she says.
So far, no one is sure what impact the flood will have on the plans for the ballpark, but Tim Davey might be right: misinformation could be at the heart of the debate that pairs baseball and bulldozers against preserving history. Or maybe it's miscommunication. To Davey, "the writing's on the wall" as far as what would be best for Richmond. To people like Dotts and Kilpatrick, the writing is also on the wall—but in a different language.
Laura Lewis is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.
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