Mayor Jones has manipulated his way into needing five votes instead of seven to use our tax dollars to fund a baseball stadium. As I predicted last week, Jones got six votes he needed the other evening. How fitting to see this sign the same day.

Jones knows he did not have the vote without manipulation, so for the members he can not buy off with political favors and political influence of the Governor (who not so coincidentally showed up at their last meeting to tell everyone what a swell guy Jones is), he re-wrote the language to get rid of the need for two of them by "leasing" the land.

There are so many red flags and outright lies, smoke screens, and flawed and out-dated/non-existent studies, that I find it frustrating some people don't have the capacity to see it for what it is. With all the documented inaccuracies, do you REALLY expect the stadium to be on budget? We're on the hook for 40% of the cost. We will be lucky to break even -- in 20 years. By then, we will need a new stadium.

I can't help but think if he were a white business leader in the GOP, the media and Richmond would have cried foul that he was selling out to special interest and disgracing the history of the area.

Is it simply "politics" that the Mayor and several board members are also members of the tax-funded mouth piece for Venture RVA aka "Loving RVA")?

Isn't it amusing a convicted felon stands to benefit most from development downtown? "Coincidentally" he made major contributions to the Mayor and several council members who voted in favor of the stadium.

<a href="http://shockoebottom.blogspot.com/p/whos-behind-push-for-shockoe-bottom.html" rel="nofollow">shockoebottom.blogspot.com/p/whos-behind-push-for-shockoe...</a>

Slomanski and the Mayor/Council go way back...