I've continued holding to my petulant decision to ignore all stories on the battles over the financing of the new Nationals stadium, but alas, sometimes rash actions have their consequences, such as my missing this little tidbit at the end of today's Post story, "Cropp Still Hopeful of Private Financing": "And Major League Baseball agreed to drop a requirement that the city pay significant damages if the opening of the stadium, scheduled for March 2008, is delayed by a year or two." I sure wish someone had taken me up on my $1 bet as to whether the stadium will debut on schedule! In other end-of-article tidbits, a Washington Times piece on the National Building Museum gala honoring Forest City Enterprises mentions that HOK Sport expects to debut the design of the new stadium in August.

The GSA and Forest City Enterprises have at last signed their development agreement, and yesterday Forest City was handled a symbolic key to the 44 acres of the Southeast Federal Center, the first time the feds have ever allowed private development on government land.  Plans are to turn this area on the Anacostia waterfront over the next five years into a "vibrant new neighborhood destination with up to 1.8 million square feet of office space, 2,700 residential units, 250,000 square feet of retail and a five-acre waterfront park with a promenade along the Anacostia River, as well as other public amenities." Construction is currently slated to start in 2007. You can also read a recent Forest City feature about the project for more details (it's three pages long, don't miss the links at the top of the page).

Thursday's Post reports that the District Department of Transportation is soliciting proposals for a commuter ferry service along the Potomac and the Anacostia. The ferry could serve points along the Anacostia River to the Navy Yard (which could also serve the new baseball stadium) then out to the Potomac, stopping by Bolling Air Force Base, the Mall (perhaps near the FDR Memorial) and Washington Harbor in Georgetown, planners said. Suburban docking points could include Old Town Alexandria and the new National Harbor development in Prince George's County. A ferry dock at the Navy Yard also could serve the new baseball stadium in Southeast Washington. Initially DDOT is offering $500,000 for an 18-month pilot program to gauge interest.

It's not online yet, but the June issue of Washingtonian has a big piece about all the development plans along the Anacostia. Also not online but probably available at your local library is a big article on Washington Canal Park in the June issue of Landscape Architecture (read the excerpt here).