"I want to stay right here -- why should I have to move to the suburbs?" he said. "They're trying to displace the small businessmen, the blue-collar guys."
Around the corner, on O Street, Robert Siegel has owned an adult entertainment shop since the late 1970s. He said he owns 11 properties in the neighborhood and serves as a commissioner on the Advisory Neighborhood Council.
The site for the proposed stadium is near the Washington Navy Yard, background, and P Street SE, foreground. The Anacostia River is to the right.
(Photos Andrea Bruce Woodall -- The Washington Post)
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A new baseball stadium, he argued, would transform what he considers a vibrant place.
"I'm not ready to give this up, not for another five years," said Siegel, 54, standing outside his shop, the Glorious Health and Amusement, which sells pornographic magazines and videos and caters to gays. Of the stadium, he said, "Nobody wants this."
Near Siegel's shop, the street also is home to three gay clubs.
Rick Rindskopf, general manager of Follies, one of the gay clubs, said the new stadium would mean almost certain death for the businesses on the street.
"The odds of getting approval to open up somewhere else are between minuscule and none," he said.
Lopez and his wife recalled the risks they said they took when they moved their business to the neighborhood in 1990. The street corners were controlled by drug dealers, they said.
They have paid off their mortgage and recently invested $200,000 to renovate their building. This year, they opened the Washington Sculpture Garden, a school that offers classes in stone carving and creating stained glass.
"Nobody wanted to come here -- it was all drug dealers," Lopez said. "Now they want to profit off of us?"
Staff writers Nicole Fuller and Debbi Wilgoren contributed to this report.
