My eyes widened a bit late last week when I saw in the DC Register news that the "
Ballpark Public Safety Amendment Act" had been introduced at the City Council's January 8th meeting. What tidbits could I find in this, I thought as I scrambled to find a copy of the bill (my District Extra column makes me a lot more desperate for content than you might imagine).
I found someone to send me a copy, I opened it up.... And found that it basically does nothing more than add ", the Ballpark as defined by D.C. Official Code ' 47-2002.05(a)(1)(A)," to four existing laws about various public safety issues so that the new ballpark is covered the way RFK and the Armory are.
But, for the record, here's what this new bill allows for:
* Police will be able to erect barriers to direct the flow of traffic or to keep the public out during riots or other emergencies;
* No one can bring disposable beverage containers into the ballpark (unless they're vendors);
* Unauthorized entry onto the stadium playing field is prohibited; and
* The ballpark is exempted from DC's law prohibiting smoking in public places (as RFK and the Armory are already exempted).
There will be a hearing on this earthshattering legislation on February 7 at 10 am by Phil Mendelson's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary.|
UPDATE: No, I don't know how the "disposable beverage container" law is interpreted. I heard at an ANC meeting that containers at the new ballpark would be handled the same way they were at RFK--but I'm not familiar enough with how that worked to weigh in on what it means.
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