Early Adapters

Over the weekend, my wife brought a Poplar Point-related letter in the Outlook section of the Post to my attention, and it's a great one. From a Ward 8 resident, the last two paragraphs are incredibly powerful, so I want to quote them here:

Support by the mayor's office for a soccer-specific stadium at Poplar Point would not jeopardize the expansive site's developmental emphasis on residential, retail and parkland. Instead, it would secure a major partner as an early catalyst for success. It also would preserve the relationship between the District and D.C. United, as thousands of Washingtonians who follow the team would prefer that games were not played in Virginia or suburban Baltimore.

Ward 8 residents who have supported D.C. United's interests in the area are rightfully concerned that the opportunity for a jointly funded, large-scale project, arguably the tipping point for neighborhood revitalization efforts, has been mismanaged by a freshman mayor.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that I know somehow that this letter is emblematic of the Ward 8 feelings toward DC United. But from what I know of the newspaper biz, they like to find letters that are representative of the opinions they get from their readers. So reading this letter indicates to me that they received others like it, and found that this was the most representative. Could they have gotten letters opposed to the stadium deal? Almost certainly, but probably if there were significant numbers of them we'd be reading those letters instead.

That we're reading this letter is a tribute to two things: the passion of the United supporters in Ward 8, and the success DC United has had in reaching out to the community. A positive development, even as we're dealing in uncertain times. Keep the faith all.