DC is certainly one of the most successful examples, although you can probably make a good argument that the development would have happened anyways. After all, NoMa, H St/North Capitol Hill, Petworth, Columbia Heights, 14th St/Logan Circle and other neighborhoods have similarly developed over the same time period without having an anchor ballpark.
But it turned out as well as these things do. It didn't hamstring the city's ability to issue debt, and the dedicated tax to service the debt has brought back more revenue than expected (I think that's correct). In the end, while it doesn't really make sense for cities to have to pay for these stadiums, its really nice to have a stadium in the middle of downtown instead of having a suburban #mallpark like the Barves.
I live in Petworth and while the development here and in Columbia Heights is impressive, it’s nowhere near the level of the area around the park. I definitely think the stadium accelerated growth.
