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Conversation around Shockoe Bottom ballpark hits fever pitch

Posted at 12:42 AM, Feb 20, 2014
and last updated 2014-02-21 21:49:42-05

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR)--The polarity surrounding Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones’ Shockoe Bottom baseball stadium plan has become more visible as it moves closer to a vote by City Council next week.

City Council President Charles Samuels and City Council Member Jon Baliles held a joint town hall meeting Wednesday night.

It was one of the last opportunities for their voters to tell them what to do –after tonight there are two more town halls left on the topic.

If the meeting were a microcosm for the city as a whole, let it be noted that opinions remain very mixed.

“I think it is fairly evenly split at least in terms of applause,” Ellen Chapman, who lives in Shockoe Bottom and attended the meeting, said.

Traffic, Shockoe Bottom’s slave trade history, and a preference for baseball on the Boulevard continue to push some Richmond residents to oppose the plan.

“They will play ball on the very land where humans bred for sale were held in pens,” Farid Alan Schintzius, the founder of Shockoe Resistance, said.

“I think sports are very limited,” Chapman said.  You show up there during the season, and it's very hard to get people to come back.”

On the other side is plenty of support, much of it from younger people who say it is time for change.

“We can't drive without our rearview mirror, but we can't drive looking just in our rearview mirror,” Justin Ayars, who considers himself a millennial, said.