Bishop: The Ironic Fascination With Riverfront Stadiums
Thursday, October 26, 2017
From the first to bear the moniker in Cincinnatti and the contemporaneous concrete doughnut of Three Rivers in Pittsburg – both of which were imploded early this century, whatever that says about the staying power of riverfront stadiums -- through the Providence proposal for a riverfront stadium to Pawtucket’s gambit for a Ballpark at Slater Mill, the river stadium meme is alive. Whether it is well is another question indeed.
Many have properly focused on the question of whether the state should put money into such a proposition, but few have really turned a skeptical eye on this newest flashy proposal itself. If the Pawsox were going to pay for it themselves, they can build it wherever they want, with one exception, they would have to acquire the land. This is an unspoken part of the ‘public-private partnership’, read corporatist excess, posed when Pawtucket gets in bed with baseball billionaires.
Kelo comes to Pawtucket?
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIt is absolutely true that the owner of the Apex site, the current ‘riverfront’ focus, wants to sell the site, but does he want to sell for a price that this consortium will pay? Some people, who ought to know better, presume that if he has marketed the property he is a willing seller, so we should not be skeptical of the threat of eminent domain which would simply be a pretextual undertaking to get some court to decide what the property is worth. But one is only a “willing seller” if one gets a purchase price they are willing to accept.
Yes, commercial owners of the Apex site and its distinctively referential pyramid roofed one-time retail outlet are not as sympathetic as Suzette Kelo and her little pink house. But they no less deserve protection against corporate capture of the public power of eminent domain.
For Pawtucket it has nothing to do with the river, but which river
It is not inconceivable that some agreement might be negotiated short of eminent domain, but the complications of gaining consensus for public contributions have made the proponents of the project put the cart before the horse, drawing elaborate renderings of a stadium on land they do not own. Pawtucket, for its part, went from decrying reports about the inadequacy of McCoy stadium, when the proposed stadium location was the Providence River, to touting a move to an expensive new venue as penultimately logical when it is on the Blackstone River.
And what is to be made of the vaunted riverfront character of this park? Nothing! As with the archetypes in Cincinnatti and Pittsburgh, the river plays no part whatsoever in the park’s use for baseball, or purportedly as a public park the rest of the time. The stadium faces away from the river, not towards it, offering a relation to its setting akin to the kind of relationship with the great outdoors one gets when gambling at Foxwoods. And what is seen from the river and across the river in downtown is the imposing façade of the backside of bleachers.
On the site plan, a good deal of the ancillary development is drawn overlooking the river just south of the highway (the stadium itself is just north meaning that the sense of connection is severed by the highway, as Route 10 severs Olneyville, to sharpen an old saw). The majority of this adjacent development is parking lots running down to the river. This is hardly visionary use of space that purports to take advantage of the aesthetic of this river.
Rhode Islanders are familiar with rivers that have old mills clustered around them and very little public connection to what were, in their industrial history, open sewers. To use public policy to drive riverfront development that completely ignores the river ought to be the most obvious wrongheaded bit of this proposal to come along.
Preeminent Alternatives, not eminent domain
The easiest and most morally consonant way to catalyze cost effective negotiations for the Apex site is to look just as seriously at other sites in Pawtucket and its immediate environs that might be equally compelling while affording the retention of downtown waterfront for more river centric uses. It is a mystery that there isn’t a serious push to consider collocating the slowly percolating train station and stadium. It is about a 15 minute walk from the proposed train station to the proposed ballpark at Slater Mill, hardly the kind of proximity that motivates a game train for minor league play in southeastern New England. But it could be a 15 second walk which at least makes it mildly plausible a few folks would take the train.
Highway visibility would be diminished at that site although it is high ground where notable features of the stadium could still be seen from the highway approaches to Pawtucket. Design comes to mind here recalling the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield which is adjacent to the highway but it is easy to imagine a baseball version of their signature spire that would call attention to a stadium less than quarter mile away.
Or, proceeding up the river there are sites on either side around the Central Falls line that are underutilized enough that even separate owners might cooperate on offering a site as happened late in the Prosox saga when the Victory Plating alternative emerged – of course hampered by the fact that it needed similar subsidy.
Perhaps serendipitously, proceeding north one comes to a recently cleared site on the East Bank that almost duplicates the attributes of the Apex site but with more space. It is located on the Attleboro/Pawtucket line and could offer a Ballpark at Chocolate Mill that is visible and accessible from the highway; fronts the river without such overbearing layout; offers more space for parking and development on the stadium site; and still provides direct access to the Roosevelt Avenue Bridge, summertime home of Salsa, as a gateway to both Central Falls and Downtown Pawtucket.
My way or the highway?
Perhaps most overlooked is McCoy itself which is actually at the heart of another potential redevelopment area in Pawtucket and could be much better connected to the transportation grid. Unease about what will happen with the neighboring Memorial Hospital actually emphasizes the potential connection of McCoy and its district with riverfront redevelopment in both Pawtucket and East Providence along a corridor bordering the hospital. Back when Pawtucket liked McCoy, I proposed just such a plan.
And regardless of where in greater Pawtucket one would look to put the stadium, improvements to Route 114 are potentially merited as southcoast Massachusetts is a significant market not only for the Pawsox but for the amenity driven 365 day a year development contemplated around a stadium. Most folks know that reaching Pawtucket from this region during evening commuting hours can mean stop and go on 195 from Pawtucket Avenue ( Rte. 114 ) all the way into Providence and then on 95 north all the way to Pawtucket.
A dedicated exit from 195 West to 114 and a multilane format on 114 that allows the center lane to be reversed for inbound and outbound game or event traffic while limiting left hand turns at those times could make a viable alternative to the congested highway. It is this kind of expensive but useful infrastructure that the state should consider, and why it should not be contributing to the stadium itself.
Parking is not planned
And access to the stadium doesn’t even begin to contemplate what parking will be needed – which is not addressed by the current stadium plan. Some think there is nothing happening in Pawtucket anyway so folks can just park downtown. Such ideas of disseminate street and municipal lot parking can seem plausible to those who know Pawtucket, but less so to those who don’t. More importantly, what happens if Pawtucket becomes the kind of place where things happen instead of where they don’t happen? That’s the whole point of this proposal. Is everything else in Pawtucket going to shut down so the parking can be saved for the Pawsox or is structured parking in the future of any proposal? Who pays for that?
Demonstrating what the state can do to make a park and parking that are highly accessible to wider markets is what ought to allow businessmen to raise their own capital and build their own stadiums. It is a more parochial decision what Pawtucket brings to the table, although it’s bad enough to give up all property taxes on these enterprises, which is of course presumed, without the city actually contributing. Purportedly the city could recoup its ‘investment’ by getting property taxes from ancillary development. But if the history of Providence’s I-195 district is any lesson, Pawtucket would have to give up taxes on any significant new development despite planning to pay for this current largess with those future taxes. How long ago was it that state officials were touting how development on the I-195 land would finally bolster Providence’s tax base. Instead, they have taken the city’s power to decide on incentives and given it to the Commerce Corporation that gives the stuff out like candy.
The Nonsense of Revenue Neutral
If we had a revenue neutral relationship with all businesses there would, indeed, be zero in the treasury. That would suit me fine, but hardly seems to be the stuff of our high spending legislature. After all, Walmarts is a great place: low prices everyday and they employ lots of folks and the parking lot is always full. Why wouldn’t we rebate all their taxes and say its revenue neutral, and we’re getting a covered public park in the bargain, a place where people can stroll when it rains looking at nice stuff . . . ?
Tragedy or Comedy?
That is only tragic because its essentially true. As if to add comedy to this tragedy, the City Council in Cranston put forward the idea of a stadium out off Phenix Avenue the other day. I guess the folks thinking that have never been to Dodd Stadium in Connecticut, where you journey to the absolute middle of nowhere to watch a minor minor league game -- makes the Middle of Nowhere Diner look downright cosmopolitan. It’s a pleasant enough environment once you finally get there, but hardly the integrated and accessible development environment of a modern stadium. Maybe lurking beneath the Cranston proposal would be an effort to create some analog to Patriot Place; or perhaps they think they could squeeze something across Route 2 from Chapel View.
It’s a free country. Cranston can suggest what it wants. But of course its not really a free country when it comes to stadiums. They, like Pawtucket, would expect to dragoon taxpayers into paying for this. Their barely noticed Council resolution beseeching the Commerce Corporation to intervene on their behalf does not imply whatsoever that Cranston would be a cheaper place to build and somehow obviate the ‘need’ for the state and city being put over the barrel to the tune of some $40 million plus unspecified infrastructure. How about a proposal for stadium construction that doesn’t mandate union labor. That might obviate the need for the state’s share right there.
For historic and market reasons Pawtucket retains an inside track but it shouldn’t be squandered on one location or premised on taxpayer support, but promoted based on a commitment to infrastructure exquisitely suitable to a stadium but serving the public at large as well. Charlie Baker is not ready to pony up state money for Worcester or Springfield; and Pawtucket remains a great stadium location at the confluence of many markets. That advantage should be pressed rather than pressing the taxpayer for their hard earned money.
Brian Bishop is on the board of OSTPA and has spent 20 years of activism protecting property rights, fighting over regulation and perverse incentives in tax policy.
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