The Durham City Council has expressed willingness to fork over $1 million more for a (now) $5 million “upgrade” of Durham Athletic Park, home to its minor league baseball team the Durham Bulls. The additional money would come from the general fund; it would go toward “a picnic area, broadcast booth, umpires’ clubhouse and other amenities.”

Oh. Right. Durham definitely doesn’t have anywhere else to use that million. But the only one who seems to realize that is Council member Thomas Stith.

“We all know we have infrastructure issues,” he [Stith] said. “What
is the difference in getting a $5 million DAP as opposed to getting a
$4 million DAP when we’ve got roads we can’t drive on
?”

Exactly.

But Mayor Bill Bell sees it differently.

“I think it’s something Durham should be proud of, the fact
that [Minor League Baseball is] targeting Durham.” Then, later on in the article, “We in Durham have come to a point where we need to raise our standards.”

Hmm. I can think of a couple ways to raise standards–but none of them involve baseball.