Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Another day, another coy assurance from someone ostensibly close to the Edwards campaign that big news is coming about his Internet strategy. I won’t bore you with the details, but people in the know are getting giddy.  Me, I’m not in the know. The Edwards campaign does not answer my email. I did get some questions answered via Edwards’ Senate office earlier this month, but the campaign has not responded to requests made over the last few weeks for answers to questions about its use of the Web. Among those I have tried to contact in the last two days are Jennifer Palmieri and Aaron Myers. Maybe they disdain weblogs, or maybe they couldn’t find Greensboro on a map. Whatever. I’ll keep asking. 5:29:22 PM    comment []

Here’s an interview with Jim Bouton in which he talks about his efforts to save an old baseball stadium in Massachusetts. Much was made of Bouton’s support for War Memorial Stadium during his recent visit to Greensboro, where he once played minor-league ball. It’s worth noting that in Bouton’s own stadium fight, there is private money lined up to preserve the historic ballpark. The lack of private funding remains the biggest problem for those who want to see the Bats play at a renovated Memorial Stadium.   For those who just don’t want a stadium built at Bellemeade, well, the outlook is brighter. At a time when the Baseball Boys should be trying to bring people together, they manage to sound more high-handed than ever. As David Hoggard points out, they came out of the chute calling people “naysayers” for opposing the stadium, rather than trying to win them over. Not everyone who has doubts about the stadium site hates Jim Melvin. Some people are worried about the effect on Fisher Park. Others have legitimate questions about maximizing the benefits to downtown by putting a mixed-use development at Bellemeade (if the Wachovia building is doable, so is the old Burlington Industries building, you'd think....) and putting the stadium elsewhere. The City Council has signed off on the Bellemeade site, but now the Baseball Boys need to convince voters to do the same. It would probably be a good idea to not call those voters names. And this quote from Bats General Manager Donald C. Moore can’t be serious, can it? "We are going to build a baseball stadium. But we want to do it with the support of the public.” Action Greensboro’s biggest liability is a reputation for arrogance. The first pro-stadium press conference didn’t do much to help. 5:10:38 PM    comment []