Nationals, D.C. Officials Tangle Over Street Vending, Controversial Sign

By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 15, 2008

With a few weeks before Opening Day for the Washington Nationals' new stadium, the team and the D.C. Council are at odds over street vending and the council's desire to post a sign protesting the city's lack of a vote in Congress, District officials and vendors said yesterday.

Council members Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) have threatened to introduce emergency legislation to ensure that vendors are allowed to hawk their goods outside the stadium.

And a bill calling for electronic boards displaying the ticking amount of federal taxes paid by the District, to be erected at the John A. Wilson Building and the stadium, is on the verge of getting approved by the council, although the Nationals have told Gray that the sign is too controversial and political for a ballpark.

"They wanted to know if we could put it somewhere else," council Chairman Vincent C. Gray said.

"No" was his response, he said, adding that the point of putting a sign at the stadium is that it is a high-visibility site.

During the past year, the council and the Nationals have had a strained relationship, fueled by disputes about everything from parking to parties. The council consistently returns to one point: District taxpayers have coughed up $611 million for the project, and the city is getting dissed.

"It has to be a source of continuing concern," Gray (D) said.

This week the tension has centered on vendors and the sign.

"The place a hot dog belongs is the baseball stadium," Graham said. "It's part of the pastime. It's like peanuts. It's like popcorn. . . . They should be vended at the baseball stadium, inside and out."

Twenty-three licensed hot dog vendors and souvenir peddlers were fixtures in front of RFK Stadium, where the Nationals played while awaiting the construction of the new stadium.

But they worry that the Nationals' concerns about competition for revenue is the reason the city Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has not given them a definitive answer about vending at the new stadium.

"We have not had any resolution of vendors being at the stadium at all," said Brenda Sayles, 60, who sold souvenirs at RFK.

Sam Williams, the city's vending coordinator, said vendors who were at RFK and others who have applied will get spots outside the stadium. "We all want vendors to be out there on Opening Day," he said. "We have talked to lots of stakeholders in that community . . . about how to best add vending to the area. The stakeholders want to add opportunity in the area by creating vendor malls."

How far will the mall be from the action?

"Obviously, they want to be in the highest area of pedestrian traffic," Williams said. "What we've been doing is soliciting the opinions of RFK vendors. We're trying to act as liaisons between the vendors . . . and the community."

The community includes the Nationals, he said.

But council members said the Nationals can't have it all. The city wants space for vendors and its tax sign.

"I think it's time for them to be good partners," said Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), who authored the legislation on the taxation sign. "This is not a one-sided relationship."

"Where better to put [a sign] than down at the stadium that we paid $611 million for?" said Brown, who is chairman of the council economic development committee.

Technically, the Nationals can do anything they want about the electronic board, said Gregory O'Dell, chief executive of the sports commission. "D.C. has a lease with the Nationals, and there is specific language on signage," he said.

The language says the lessee -- paying $6 million annually in rent -- is in charge.

O'Dell led a tour of the stadium yesterday for Gray and several members of his staff. They stepped over plywood and walked gingerly on plastic-covered rugs inside luxury suites and the players' locker room.

The chairman's group bumped into residents and others being guided by Nationals vice president Gregory McCarthy. Gray and McCarthy did not talk about the dispute. Later, McCarthy referred questions about the dispute to spokeswoman Chartese Burnett.

Burnett said Nationals President Stan Kasten, who had the authority to reply, was unavailable.

Gray said the recent tiffs remind him of the Nationals' decision to have its foundation arm hold an annual, glitzy fundraising affair at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, the new development in Prince George's County that has become the city's chief rival for conventions and other events.

So far, nothing on the same scale has been planned within the District's borders.

"How can you have your marquee event in Maryland?" he asked.

The Nationals' stance has been that it is a regional team with a regional outreach.

Said Gray: "The District is on the hook for paying for this. Not Maryland. Not anyone else."