Cropp hit for 'caving' to MLB

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Opponents of publicly financing the Washington Nationals ballpark criticized D.C. Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp yesterday for "caving in" to Major League Baseball.

"In the end, she opted for guaranteeing the city would get a baseball team by sacrificing the guarantee for private financing," said Ed Lazere, a leader of No D.C. Taxes for Baseball, a coalition of civic groups against the stadium deal.

"It's a step back and a deal that she negotiated," he said.

Whether the compromise will hurt Mrs. Cropp's mayoral ambitions might depend on the feasibility of securing private financing for the stadium. One proposal involves the issuance of revenue bonds against curbside parking around the stadium.

The proposal is not popular with Mrs. Cropp or detractors who say that brokering public parking spaces is tantamount to public financing.

Last week, Mrs. Cropp, at-large Democrat, became the darling of ballpark opponents when she risked losing the team by making the stadium construction contingent on private investors paying nearly $140 million of the estimated $435.2 million project.

Baseball officials demanded the city unconditionally guarantee the construction of the 41,000-seat ballpark on the Anacostia River waterfront in Southeast.

Mrs. Cropp this week stopped MLB from yanking the Nationals out of the city by rescinding the private-financing requirement. The reversal made her a hero to sports fans but left some of the tax-dollar watchdogs feeling betrayed.

"She took a courageous stand, but in the end she caved in," said Malik Z. Shabazz, national attorney for the New Black Panther Party, a militant black power group that has a strong presence in Southeast and was at the forefront of the stadium opposition.

Mr. Shabazz and other ballpark opponents said the final deal supported by Mrs. Cropp was basically the same as the original deal struck by D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams, a Democrat.