Mayor Vincent Gray will meet with residents of Wards 6 and 7 Thursday night to discuss a possible site for a new Washington Redskins training facility.
It is well known that Gray wants to bring the Redskins back into the District. They currently play their home games in Maryland and have a practice facility in Virginia.
The mayor is interested in using Reservation 13 -- an area in Southeast that is the former home of DC General Hospital -- to entice the Redskins to return to D.C. Gray's plan reportedly could include not only the training facility, but a hotel and a Redskins Hall of Fame.
Some residents in the Hill East area, however, do not agree with the mayor's vision for Reservation 13. They say a development plan for the area has been stalled for about 10 years. That plan included residential, retail, office, medical and education spaces.
Those residents of the area -- which is rapidly gentrifying -- are not persuaded that a Redskins training facility will be the kind of economic engine that the mayor says it would be. They want Gray to forget about the Redskins and focus on the development plan that is already on the table.
Gray, however, thinks both ideas could work.
That's the message he'll pitch at 7 p.m. Thursday at the D.C. Armory. Council members Jack Evans and Michael A. Brown will also be on hand.
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