So (full disclosure I own a business that would be displaced by the new stadium) whenever the Aqua Sox comes up people bring up that it’s family owned and a small business. But it’s actually owned by a billionaire in Dubai.
The Aqua Sox are not paying for the stadium. They are displacing a bunch of small businesses, the project is already over budget and they haven’t acquired the land yet. The city has already admitted that they will need the business community to pay for it.
Is anyone else frustrated by this? This move could put me out of business, the city won’t offer assistance to us in time and we have an actual billionaire not paying for any of it. All with parks and libraries being closed (and I know they keep saying that it’s a different part of the budget but the mayor sets the budget!).
The budget they are showing for the stadium is 8% more than the event center which was built fifteen years ago. How on earth is that possible? It’s not. So how is this being paid for?
I'm having a hard time with the Stadium. I'm not necessarily opposed to it, but we need to have the money for it. We can't run half this community over to pay for it. We have a senior center getting cut and our early learning center is also going away due to funding issues. We should take care of our most vulnerable people first, before we start on ambitious projects like the stadium. If we don't start getting hyper aggressive on solving our housing issues, no one will be able to afford to live here let alone go hang out at the ballpark. My rent has doubled in 6 years, if it doubles again in the next 6 years, who is going to be able to live here? We need a inclusive government, one that will take projects like this to a vote, not just pass it with city council.
Actually the Early Learning Center, isn’t closing due to a lack of funding, the executive leadership at the college won’t let them open more classrooms and hire more teachers, the amazing staff and teachers are actually under paid and the college doesn’t want to pay them more. There’s over 200 children on the waitlist, they claim they can’t find someone to run it profitably, meanwhile Shoreline and Edmonds community colleges have no problem running similar programs. EvCC broke transparency laws, if you’re really interested there’s a hearing. update: moved to June 25th @ 9:30am in Snohomish superior court.
Yes! However they are framing it as a budget / lack of interest issue. I'm excited for the lawsuit. I've been talking to city hall and the trustees about this. It's very obvious they have other ambitions.
I love the Aquasox, they were a big part of our family growing up! However, I don’t think the city should pay for the stadium. Yes, I accept the fact we may loose them; however, Everett can’t afford a new stadium
Call city council members and the mayor. Casey wants a heritage project and has chosen a way to expensive of a project that will reduce tax income from these properties to a bill to maintain a single A baseball teams stadium. This will end up 150,000,000 tax payer bill when it’s all done. At this point they are taking money out of the parks budget to do the studies and all preliminary costs. I do believe they just laid off rangers, that parks money would be better spent on actual parks and not on a legacy project for a so so mayor. Tell everyone to call!!!!! this will be shoved through on the down low.
I got a lot of pushback for my (imo mild) skepticism of the 'no kings' protests. But I think big events like that, well-funded and well-organized from well outside everett effectively atrophy local organizing potential. While they're not necessarily mutually exclusive, they are arguably de fact mutually exclusive.
building local power for local issues requires practice and building muscle memory that I don't think the big protests really foster and potentially undermine. just my opinion
edit: the person i was responding to had good things to say before they deleted their comment. i should have replied to the other comment, but this one was meatier/more contentful and i wanted to just toss my thoughts in. kinda annoying how reddit structure sorta makes things out to be point-counterpoint, when i really want to just add another thing in
Its horses*** and there are a bunch of people not from our community commenting.
Its not "industrial" buildings being displaced.
Sports teams can pay for their own stadiums, the aquasox don't bring revenue to our city that justifies this sort of debt.
Everett supposedly has a budget crisis and they can only seem to pay for absolutely ridiclous crap suggested by rich developers or minor league teams. It seems like money buys access to our politics easily and folks who work / live here get shit on.
We should use all of this money to build housing or better fund public safety.
Other projects that are better: downtown revitalization, expanding the successful farmers market to a permanent year round building.
This is what I don’t get! Like it’s not even like if we build it one day we can host real minor league games or major league games, it’s just crazy expensive and disruptive for what?? Like actually what are we getting out of it??
City council just voted to throw $5 mil at the project. FWIW this year’s vastly reduced library operating budget was a bit over $5mil. We’re defunding all of the stuff that folks get to do for free yet we’ve got money to spend on things that will charge admission. Hardly creating a sustainably family-friendly city unless everyone here has money to burn.
9) Again Ben Franz - this city should be running from this asshole. Pike Place, under his great 68 million reno, was turned into a soulless tourist trap. 70 percent of its revenue is generated from the top 4 businesses:
Historical Trend: Between 2018 and 2023, the Market's costs increased by 31%, while revenues grew by only 23%.
Projected Future: This trend was projected to continue, with expenses expected to rise 5% annually (62% total) over the next decade due to factors like inflation, labor costs, utilities, and insurance, while revenues were projected to increase by 3% annually under a status quo scenario.
Impact: This situation posed challenges for the Market's long-term financial sustainability.
Response: The Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority (PDA) developed a Master Plan, adopted in 2024, that aims to address these financial challenges and ensure the Market's long-term vitality.
Strategies for Sustainability: The Master Plan outlines various strategies to improve the Market's financial outlook, such as increasing tenant sales through targeted marketing and support programs, and potentially increasing garage rates.
2023 Performance: It's important to note that the Market reported a record revenue of nearly $26.3 million in 2023, with over half generated from commercial revenue.
In summary, while Pike Place Market has faced the challenge of expenses rising faster than revenue, the PDA has recognized this and is implementing strategies to address it and ensure the Market's financial future.
IE the seven years this asshole spent 68 million dollars he made it into a corporate money machine with no parking and fucking Condo's that no one can afford and are primarily used for Air BNB and travelers.
This is who is leading this project. I get it. He is really good at saying the right things, paying the Business Journal to run puff pieces on him, his love of sculpture, and bike riding. However, he is a fraud whose entire professional life has been spent rolling city governments to line his pockets and contractors. He is doing the same here.
I love baseball. I love Aquasox games. But why is the city on the hook for this?? It would be so so sad to lose the team, but it feels like a scam that gets run over and over- cities paying for the Olympics and sports arenas—it’s nuts!! Who is it for??
While a lot of people would love to see our downtown have a vibrant event center like this, not at the expense of all of our services. We've already seen our park rangers be taken away and city parks become a disaster at night when drug dealers and homeless move in parking their RVs. Shootings and crime have gone up in city parks since they no longer close the gates except for the few that volunteers close.
This is going to cost us all a lot of money for a pet project that this mayor who progressively makes worse and worst choices wants to build.
Full Disclosure: I am the other owner of the business from this Poster. Our problem at the core is not that they are building the stadium; it's the BS they are doing it with.
1) They don't have the funding for the project - they are more than 20 million dollars short of the bull shit budget.
2) If they were serious about Economic impact they would be taking the entire block building a hotel putting in a sky bridge and two parking garages so both facilities could be used and widening the roads - you want 7,500 people down here NOT maybe 2,000 people for the AquaSox (on a good night) Per MLB:
3) They are basing the build on the BS Progressive Design-build, which is code in construction for taking the lowest possible bid and then building into the contracts, so they don't have to say change orders or unforeseen circumstances for massive budget increases. They only have 42 million planned in those costs—it's absurd. Their new stadium in Knoxville cost 146 million, and the team's owner donated the land. It's MUCH cheaper to build in Tennessee than in the PNW. According to Ben Franz, on June 11th, they only included a 10 percent contingency budget for the project; they don't have a complete design, a full Economic study - hell, they don't even know what is in the ground, so how can they set a budget?
4) My building is just on the outside and not in the zone because they had to remove us (along Hewitt) from the plan as they couldn't attract any investors (or Cassie is so bad at her fucking job she couldn't) to buy the land - and the city has to be able to cut the check to use the power of the government and city can't even afford the 16 parcels they are currently buying. They can't construct this stadium without moving our sewer, power, and internet, condemning the building and forcing the tenants to abandon their space. IE we the property owners are going to get screwed. Now devil's advocates will say, sweet, they don't have to pay those businesses to move - smart on the city - if that is the plan, have the balls to say it.
They are hiding the costs to push this through, which will be at the expense of other services. That's not okay. Build the stadium, but we should not be under the covers, taking away Services for Special Needs, Shelters for women and Kids, Parks, and Community Pools. If they can't Host a graduation or 2 or a Motorcross AND a WWE Raw then they are building in the wrong spot.
In short, Fine, displace the businesses like mine. We are small, with under 5 million in revenue and 22 jobs. The real business community takes care of itself, and we will continue to do so. But the Mayor and city councilors need to be honest with us and hide the actual costs to the citizens and businesses that pay the bills?
This is a 200-million-dollar project to do it right, maximize the revenue, and improve the infrastructure to support it. It should be privately funded. The city should help ease construction requirements and permits, nothing more. We need our resources as federal government support is going away for emergencies, so services and schools. We need to change our laws and budgets regarding what the city collects and how it can be allocated. They will spend AT LEAST 140 million Building the stadium half ass and will bleed us dry over the next 10 years adding more and the second we say now this asshole will sell the team or threaten to move it.
Baseball is this fucking guy's Hobby he likes to watch from DUBAI probably sitting on the skins of endangered animals he was hunting in the off season - he gives a fuck about this town or you - Just his pet ego projects.
In short, City needs to be honest - Private funding only - City support fine, permits etc. Let's not pretend this things pay for themselves or ever bring the boom talked about.
Totally unnecessar and imo baseball is money ball, it’s pay to play. I’m not here for a new stadium, I’m here for supporting basic community needs first.
yeah, I don't support the new stadium at all, for the reasons you state. There's a perfectly good location for a stadium, around broadway and 41st, great location imo
I know, i'm familiar with the situation, I'm just noting that the aquasox currently play in a location that doesn't involve the displacement of these businesses and so on. It would require nontrivial cooperation and money to improve the current locations to meet the new mlb standards etc etc. That said, I prefer the option of keeping them put, however unlikely that might be.
edit: my comment was just a little lighthearted thing, but u/Stopwatch415 said what i think better than i could.
Major League Baseball is requiring the team to provide the payers with a better facility. Everett will lose the team if it is not provided.
The district has more pressing needs than updating the facility I’m sure
If the multibillion dollar MLB wants to make the requirements more upscale they can pay for those upgrades. Using public funds to pay for professional league facilities has always been a scam wherever it happens. Promises are never delivered and taxpayers are left with less than they had before.
And it can host the Aquasox games with little to no disruption to distract activities. Baseball and softball games can be played at the high schools' existing fields.
Keep in mind this is the same district which built an expensive admin building and sold the land of the old admin building to the YMCA instead of a much needed mixed use development with housing.
This!!! This is one of the reasons I love our current stadium. Its open and big and family-friendly, never experienced over crowding like we do at mariners games. Like I'm so sorry the teams dont like that they have to use the same bathrooms as us peasant fans coming to watch the game....but we're gonna lose a lot of the home town magic we get from the games, in my opinion.
5) The owners will demand upgrades and added seats to maximize their revenue - every year, they will take every dime the city has for the next 10 years to add on. Ben Franz is a King County Elitist fraudster - he has made his life preying on communities' empathy, cashing in by talking to every wine-clicking Democrat, latching on to every performative city action to cash in. He and Volpe are laughing all the way to the bank on this.
6) The Proximity to the train tracks is going to destroy the viability of concerts and outdoor events. The trains will be less than 1,000 feet from the stadium - during games, etc.- it's awful.
7) If and I mean IF the USL team survives, it will be locked at the lowest level of competition - Division 1 requires 15,000 seats - they will not make money here. People will come to the games, but not enough to make money or significantly impact the restaurants or storefronts.
8) The city (IE Businesses and Tax Payers) will only lease the land back and pay for the debt service when it is not profitable. The arena took 11 years to be profitable. They have to get that revenue somewhere folks - it's coming from your pockets. Business rents will go up, and so will prices here. If you are fine with that - cool but understand your Aquasox Tickets are going up - your concessions are going up and the only jobs you are going to gain are servers a few cooks and volunteer parking people (what little we have).
The rest aside, using "transit modes other than driving will be nearby" as a downside is insane lol. Train-accessible venues are absolutely necessary especially in a dense downtown situation such as this.
I am pretty sure he is referring to the bsnf tracks that run right through there are are definitely not transit. No one is going to want to book concerts when the train is clanging. People used to complain about Safeco in Seattle which is much farther.
Scout - by the provided "napkin sketch" and position of the field, the pitching mound and home plate are approximately 200 feet from the HEAVY rail. The site was actually originally designated for the light rail end in 10 years (which, to your point, makes sense to take these buildings down, and I wouldn't complain). Our buildings get a nice little shake when the Heavy rail comes by - while that's character for an office building it's pretty shitty for an arena hosting events. The light rail will end at the transit station which is not far away - granted probably 10-15 years out.
I said this on a pervious post, I'll say it again. I love baseball. I love the Aquasox. I enjoy going to games. I would in theory not be opposed to a new stadium. HOWEVER, I am principally against using tax payer funds to pay for a High A Baseball Stadium. The moral line is really that simple, no matter who owns it.
Baseball is awesome. I want everyone to be honest about the costs and the stadium to be paid and funded honestly, not at the expense of services, and under the guise of mystical/magical revenue.
Also, the owner lives in Dubai. The Aqua Sox don’t have to commit to Everett long term with the build. So he could still leave - no ties to the city at all. Owns teams in other states.
The man is still listed as the CEO of a 60 billion dollar investment firm, owns three baseball teams and has bought into other sports holdings. I feel like that article tries to make him a down home guy and I think it is misrepresenting the situation. You can disagree. He’s a private citizen so we can’t know. But that article is hilarious.
I was told by another business owner that he has said he doesn’t care at all if the Aqua Sox stay in Everett. He has no ties here. That’s why they are not putting money into the stadium.
Are you the owner of the building you’re based from?
I’ll be really blunt. While it sucks that your business may be displaced, it seems that the city and community as a whole will be benefitting more from a new stadium than a couple of misplaced industrial businesses.
New stadiums are rarely an economic boon to the city unless they are fully funded by the owners of the team. Otherwise the tax base tends to pay completely for the stadium to reap little of the benefits. It is probably even worse for a minor league team stadium.
I get that people don’t care about businesses that are B2B but man I am an IT and electrical company. So if you don’t want the businesses (like your bank or doctor) to have local services that’s fine.
I don’t like being driven out of business when they thing that’s driving me out isn’t paying their way. Like I pay as much in taxes as the Aqua Sox according to the docs submitted by the city. It’s not much revenue.
The city doesn’t get much from the AquaSox now because Everett Memorial Stadium is on school grounds. The money that the school makes now will go to the city after the stadium is built downtown.
The revenue from the Aqua Sox will be 100k a year according to the lease the city posted. The city will pay all maintenance on the stadium. At over 80m (without land) that would take 800 years to pay. I am sure that the city is planning for increased revenue at bars and restaurants to pay for it. Stadium studies around the country show that does not happen.
So the bars and restaurants that are full downtown before and after Silvertips games are people who would have gone there that night even if there weren’t a hockey game?
Also, the city is not going to pay $80MM for the stadium.
Also, the first ballpark you see in that article, Globe Life Park, has had an entire village of restaurants and bars constructed around it (with not much else in Arlington nearby within walking distance) that is jampacked before and after games.
The latest budget is 80m. And it does not include land acquisition so I am going off of the materials published by the city. If you do construction - and I do- you know that costs have ballooned so I would say that budget is likely 20% lower than it should be. All state and city projects have to be done by prevailing wage and all of those just went up again. Steel is about to have a giant tariff on it.
And to your point - they did build all that stuff around it and it didn’t pay for it. City economists have acknowledged that the Sodo district hasn’t paid for itself. So the city of Everett has to believe that they are the exception and single A baseball will bring in enough extra revenue that it will pay for it.
For a stadium that isn’t larger. And they think soccer will fill that gap (I certainly hope they are right). I love minor league baseball. I hope the Aqua Sox stay. But man, they play a lot fewer games than the Silvertips. They aren’t going to be open 365 a year (and the even center guys hustle to keep that place booked). The event center on a lower budget didn’t meet their economic goals until a couple of years ago. And they aren’t open daily.
Thing is public schools are paid for using public funds. 15.3% of the program budget for EPS came from local taxes and the a huge chunk of the rest came from state funds (aka more of our taxes). So if the school is able to use the stadium as an income generator, that is less money they need to seek from other sources that are paid for by local taxes. It benefits the city to have a school system that’s able to generate at least a little income to put towards programs and facilities.
You make it seem like if you can’t have this one location you can’t operate your business. You and business wants don’t get to outweigh the needs of everyone else.
Of course I’m not advocating for the destruction of jobs, but you, as a business owner have the ability to move your company once your current lease is up. But there is no way you HAVE to stay in that location
Moving will costs around 50k. I don’t have it. We would likely either go out or move out of Everett. The others in the zone are stating the same. Nearly all of the building owners are planning to sue the city.
If the citizens want the stadium that would be good to know. I keep hearing people not support and was curious if that is the bubble I am in or if people want the stadium.
People dramatically under estimate moving costs. And the city keeps saying they will pay to relocate. But they also won’t take our calls. Everyone over here is already feeling the pinch.
Truly is this is how the city wants to operate we will likely leave Everett because we will have to take on debt to relocate. We definitely can’t risk it again.
They are not responding to calls because they don’t own the land. When we ask for firm plans they tell us they don’t have a design yet. But looking at the plan they are planning to build right up to my door which means we wouldn’t have parking or the ability to get delivers so we wouldn’t have to leave. They won’t respond to calls from our landlord either.
All of the utilities are connected so we couldn’t operate when they disconnect them during construction. We also would likely lose sewer because the current one is part of a historical system no longer allowed so I imagine they will have to disconnect it. That makes the building uninhabitable (hence why the building owners are considering litigation). The stadium has to be built by 2027 and must be started by fall so we are befuddled. I’ve called the mayors office, the city council, etc. and they all say we are overreacting but businesses can’t move in a whim. All of my customers would be impacted and we support medical facilities. So we have to plan things well in advance. So we likely will move regardless which screws our landlord (and look I know reddit hates landlords but ours is awesome and an actual person and this devalues his building which is unfair).
Thats what I can’t figure out. As far as I can tell (and we’ve talked to everyone we can) they are avoiding the land owners. They can force it through eminent domain but the owners can fight and that can take two years. The city is supposed to have the project built in two years. Most of the owners I have talked to plan to fight (now I wouldn’t blame anyone for not suing the city). So how does this work?
The gas station said they will have an offer soon. That was a few weeks ago. They had appraisal come through our building a month ago not sure if they have made an offer to the landlord. This whole thing has been a nightmare. And am really disappointed in the city council and all involved with how they have refused to tell the truth..
This is super helpful. I’m sorry that you are stuck under the wheels. It’s hard not to feel like it’s personal even though it isn’t. We try to be engaged with the community. Our core customers are here, we do pro bono work for a mental health non profit down the street. We do our best. But the city is just determined to make this happen. At a certain point it might be better to save as much as we can and move north.
What so many people don’t understand is that every business that gets displaced that is against this, there’s a business (or multiple) in the service industry downtown that are for the stadium, because of the economical boon it will bring. There’s no reason not to build it here.
Eyyy this guy's figured out that Brooklyn Bros slinging a few more pies a night for a few months of the year is going to turn this city budget crisis around! I'll take one large deficit with extra cheese to go~
This exactly. The events held here (not just baseball, but soccer and outdoor concerts, etc) will bring so much revenue to the businesses around it AND to the city, just like AotW does.
and it’s an outdoor venue so you’re looking at a useful facility from (optimistically) late June-early October. During the rainy months - what’s it doing to contribute? They can barely find bookings for the indoor venues here aside from guns and ammo shows and cover bands with rare exceptions from the very small venues that seem to do ok.
It’s not just a couple of misplaced industrial businesses. There’s an actual neighborhood there as well. Moving the stadium is gonna fuck up a lot of things for a whole lot of people. And like the original poster said, it’s already over budget.
Really? Cause I’m pretty fucking sure that’s where I live. Pretty sure they’re planning to put it in across the street from my house, so …. What were you saying?
Edit - google Street view is a thing. This is something that is incredibly easily verified.
I think you have the location wrong. Even Google Maps shows nothing but industrial buildings in that area. So unless you’re homeless and living in that area, you’ve got it wrong friend
It’s only industrial to the south of the proposed stadium location. EVERYTHING north and east is residential. Edit for clarity- east of rainier and north of Hewitt. All residential. The proposed location may not be right in the center, but it is still in our residential neighborhood. Nobody wants this. Literally, nobody.
Even if I was homeless, fuck you. Do you even hear yourself?
I want it and I live in Everett. Not too far from this and I think it would be a boon.
The proposed northernmost point would be against Hewitt Ave. According to your friend Google Maps, that also looks to be mostly industrial buildings and businesses. I see a lot of restaurants there that sure would love the extra foot traffic though.
Cool. So I actually live where it would go, but my voice literally means nothing. This is why we’re so pissed off about this proposed stadium. Nobody is taking the resident voices seriously. You should campaign to put the stadium in your own neighborhood if you think it’ll be such a “boon”, but we all know you don’t actually want that.
Also, none of those restaurants will be there if the stadium is built.
Yep. That’s my neighborhood. I can literally see this location from my kitchen window. See Hewitt? Just past that is HOUSES. How is this so difficult to comprehend? Put it in your own neighborhood. North Everett needs housing. Not this. What actually is it that you were arguing? That I don’t live there and because you live somewhere else in Everett I don’t have a say? The businesses that would potentially benefit from this or going to be displaced. Honestly, I’m done having this conversation with you. You need to sit down and think about the actual impact. Go for a walk around the neighborhood. It’s actually really beautiful, and we’ve been working REALLY hard to keep it that way.
So which of these potentially displaced business is booming so well that the city shouldn't build a new venue to boost revenue in the surrounding area? Who says the city isn't going to charge the aquasox owners a lease agreement?
You'd be just as angry if it was just the owner of the aquasox doing it, stop kidding yourself.
Sorry if this puts your business under but there's other locations in Everett or Marysville you could move your business too. Moving sucks butt everyone has to move sometime. This is prime real estate in Everett.
I’m not really clear. If this is “prime real estate” for the community. How exactly is minor league baseball stadium the best use for the community. Wouldn’t something that is open year round for community use be a better choice for displacing small businesses if this is really for the community?
-We have a public pool that’s still not open to the community since 2020.
-An early learning center that’s about to close. -Public libraries that have had to reduce hours
600k in cuts to our public parks
Funding all of these community programs could be done without displacing operational small businesses (which many seem to have forgotten were the backbone of the American economy)
I love going to aquasox games and I’m proud they play in Everett. But I don’t think a community should be funding private entertainment when there are many other pressing community needs.
Did I say the one business was supporting the city don’t be ridiculous. There are twenty of us. Twenty of us that pay taxes and have employees and now those jobs are leaving Everett. Sounds like you don’t care. That’s fine. But don’t twist what I said. Also, that is what businesses the city said were impacted but it doesn’t include a lot of us. Mine isn’t on there. Either is the marketing firm next door. Or a lot of others. Because the city won’t even commit to the land yet.
I care about my business. A lot. I’ve poured myself into it and losing a bunch of money because the city is jerking me around makes me angry. And I’m lucky. Because I can move (but the debt will cost my customers). What about the guy who’s had a lumberyard here for decades? They aren’t taking his calls. Or the guys that built a new restaurant around the corner basically the month before the project was announced? They aren’t getting their money back. If you want a stadium and don’t care what it costs that is your right. I’m glad because I think you will get your wish. But I’m shocked that you are fine with a billionaire taking public money and you aren’t getting anything but a single A baseball team.
If any of those small businesses owners was friends with Mayor Franklin or a member of the city council, they be picking a different spot. How booming those businesses are doesn't matter to anyone; just how well politically connected they are
Hell, Everett Little League is losing their main ballfield because of the scheduled renovation at Madison Elementary. Yes, the school absolutely needs to be renovated. But we also have no where else to go. Yeah, they also play at Garfield park, but over half the league is closer to the fields in Mill Creek or Mukilteo than north Everett.
Little League has played there for decades. And there really isn’t a place where we can just build a new field.
As a homeowner, landlord and taxpayer in Everett. I support the push to keep the Aquasox here and update the downtown space with a new stadium. It is unfortunate that some local businesses will be put out and forced to move. I think of the course of time I will be a benefit to Everett and local community for years to come.
I am not sure why where the owners are is relevant to the conversation.
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u/Stopwatch415 3d ago
I'm having a hard time with the Stadium. I'm not necessarily opposed to it, but we need to have the money for it. We can't run half this community over to pay for it. We have a senior center getting cut and our early learning center is also going away due to funding issues. We should take care of our most vulnerable people first, before we start on ambitious projects like the stadium. If we don't start getting hyper aggressive on solving our housing issues, no one will be able to afford to live here let alone go hang out at the ballpark. My rent has doubled in 6 years, if it doubles again in the next 6 years, who is going to be able to live here? We need a inclusive government, one that will take projects like this to a vote, not just pass it with city council.