City Government

Mayor’s Brooklyn Basin Project Shortchanges Black Workers, Taxpayers and Minority Contractors

Published

9 years ago

March 4, 2016

Brooklyn Basin, a $1.5 billion waterfront condominium project now being built near downtown Oakland, may be a great deal for developers but not so good for local construction workers, taxpayers or local companies that want to do business with the city.

Historically, a major issue facing Oakland’s flatland communities has been whether private developer projects built on city-owned land will yield jobs for local residents.

Especially questionable is whether African American residents will acquire any of the well-paying construction jobs that are generally funneled to non-Oakland residents.

Most recently, Oaklanders waged a hard-fought battle to obtain a promise from the city for 50 percent local hire at the Oakland Army Base development.

But the city council set the Brooklyn Basin project’s local jobs requirement low at 6 percent of the project hours, and only for entry-level apprentices who live in Oakland.

The project has no requirement to hire locally for higher-paying journeyman jobs, including truck drivers or heavy equipment operators.

According to a city report, local entry-level apprentices as of Feb. 24 worked a total of 1,031 hours (or 4.95 percent) of the 20,762 hours worked on the project.

Most telling are the wages that Oakland residents have received – $22,817.17 (or 1.84 percent) of the total $1,239,617.64 that was paid to the project’s workers.

Oaklanders have also been raising concerns about whether city staff and the council are transparent in their dealings with big developers in real estate deals that involve public property.

At present, the city has picked the developer for the 465 units of proposed affordable housing at the Brooklyn Basin – MidPen Housing Corporation – with no concern about whether local-, minority- or women-owned businesses had an opportunity to bid on the project.

A number of people are complaining that the city is currently violating a promise that was implied when the city’s Department of Race & Equity was unanimously voted into existence by the City Council.

According to the City Administrator, the Brooklyn Basin’s development agreement with Michael Ghielmetti and his Signature Housing Group provides that the developer is responsible for proposing the affordable housing developer.

The city reviewed the developer’s affordable housing proposal for MidPen and decided to go with it, according to Karen Boyd, spokesperson for the City Administrator.

The city had no answers to the Post’s questions about the racial composition of MidPen’s workforce, making it questionable whether racial equity was relevant to its decision on awarding a contract.

“The city does not have access to the personnel records of MidPen Housing’s staffing information,” said Boyd in response to the Post’s question.

“While the city’s real estate laws generally require a competitive process in order to dispose of city real estate property, the City Council can waive that requirement if it’s in the best interests of the city,” said Boyd.

“The fact that the development agreement requiresa process that places the responsibility to select the affordable housing developer on the Brooklyn Basin developer would be sufficient to waive the competitive process when the project goes to council for approval,” she said.

Last week, the Post reported on the lack of an affordable housing pledge from the Brooklyn Basin developer, making another issue for taxpayers whether the city is generating all the potential income from the project that could have been used for expanded city services and affordable housing.

The developer paid the city $18 million for 64 acres and agreed to perform the toxic clean up of the site. The city then bought back 4.5 acres of the parcel adjacent to the freeway and opposite the waterfront for affordable housing and paid $22.5 million –following a 2014 appraisal.

If the entire 64 acres were appraised at the same amount as the 4.5 acres the city bought, the selling price for the entire property would have been worth at least $320 million – about $302 million more than the developer originally paid for the property.

Based on the city council’s 2006 deal with Signature Housing Group, the city is hoping to come up with $225 million to build 465 units of the only affordable housing that would be in the 3,100-unit development.

The Oakland Post mistakenly reported last week that Mayor Libby Schaaf was on the city council in 2006 when the project was originally approved. Yet, she has been involved in the deal since she was a city councilmember in 2010 and as mayor in 2014.

Before serving on the council, Schaaf worked as chief of staff for City Council President Ignacio de la Fuente and as a top aide for Mayor Jerry Brown.

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Bay Area

Glydways Breaking Ground on 14-Acre Demonstration Facility at Hilltop Mall

Glydways has been testing its technology at CCTA’s GoMentum Station in Concord for several years. The company plans to install an ambitious 28-mile Autonomous Transit Network in East Contra Costa County. The new Richmond facility will be strategically positioned near that project, according to Glydways.

Published

2 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Image of planned Richmond facility courtesy of Glydways.

The Richmond Standard

Glydways, developer of microtransit systems using autonomous, small-scale vehicles, is breaking ground on a 14-acre Development and Demonstration Facility at the former Hilltop Mall property in Richmond, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) reported on social media.

Glydways, which released a statement announcing the project Monday, is using the site while the mall property undergoes a larger redevelopment.

“In the interim, Glydways will use a portion of the property to showcase its technology and conduct safety and reliability testing,” the company said.

The new Richmond development hub will include “over a mile of dedicated test track, enabling Glydways to refine its solutions in a controlled environment while simulating real-world conditions,” the company said.

Visitors to the facility will be able to experience on-demand travel, explore the control center and visit a showroom featuring virtual reality demonstrations of Glydways projects worldwide.

The hub will also house a 13,000-square-foot maintenance and storage facility to service the growing fleet of Glydcars.

“With this new facility [at the former Hilltop Mall property], we’re giving the public a glimpse of the future, where people can experience ultra-quiet, on-demand transit—just like hailing a rideshare, but with the reliability and affordability of public transit,” said Tim Haile, executive director of CCTA.

Janet Galvez, vice president and investment officer at Prologis, owner of the Hilltop Mall property, said her company is “thrilled” to provide space for Glydways and is continuing to work with the city on future redevelopment plans for the broader mall property.

Richmond City Manager Shasa Curl added that Glydways’ presence “will not only help test new transit solutions but also activate the former Mall site while preparation and finalization of the Hilltop Horizon Specific Plan is underway.

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Alameda County

Last City Council Meeting of the Year Ends on Sour Note with Big Budget Cuts

In a five to one vote, with Councilmembers Carroll Fife and Janani Ramachandran excused, the council passed a plan aimed at balancing the $130 million deficit the city is facing. Noel Gallo voted against the plan, previously citing concerns over public safety cuts, while Nikki Fortunato-Bas, Treva Reid, Rebecca Kaplan, Kevin Jenkins, and Dan Kalb voted in agreement with the plan.

Published

2 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland City Council voted on a plan to balance the $130 million deficit at their last regular meeting of 2024. The plan reduces police spending by $25 million, temporarily closes two fire stations, and guts the cultural arts programs. iStock photo.

By Magaly Muñoz

In the last lengthy Tuesday meeting of the Oakland City Council for 2024, residents expressed strong opposition to the much needed budget cuts before a change in leadership was finalized with the certification of election results.

Oakland police and fire departments, the ambassador program, and city arts and culture will all see significant cuts over the course of two phases.

Phase 1 will eliminate two police academies, brown out two fire stations, eliminate the ambassador program, and reduce police overtime by nearly $25 million. These, with several other cuts across departments, aim to save the city $60 million. In addition, the council simultaneously approved to transfer restricted funds into its general purpose fund, amounting to over $40 million.

Phase 2 includes additional fire station brownouts and the elimination of 91 jobs, aiming to recover almost $16 million in order to balance the rest of the budget.

Several organizations and residents spoke out at the meeting in hopes of swaying the council to not make cuts to their programs.

East Oakland Senior Center volunteers and members, and homeless advocates, filled the plaza just outside of City Hall with rallies to show their disapproval of the new budget plan. Senior residents told the council to “remember that you’ll get old too” and that disturbing their resources will only bring problems for an already struggling community.

While city staff announced that there would not be complete cuts to senior center facilities, there would be significant reductions to staff and possibly inter-program services down the line.

Exiting council member and interim mayor Bas told the public that she is still hopeful that the one-time $125 million Coliseum sale deal will proceed in the near future so that the city would not have to continue with drastic cuts. The deal was intended to save the city for fiscal year 2024-25, but a hold up at the county level has paused any progress and therefore millions of dollars in funds Oakland desperately needs.

The Coliseum sale has been a contentious one. Residents and city leaders were originally against using the deal as a way to balance the budget, citing doubts about the sellers, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group’s (AASEG), ability to complete the deal. Council members Reid, Ramachandran, and Gallo have called several emergency meetings to understand where the first installments of the sale are, with little to no answers.

Bas added that as the new Alameda County Supervisor for D5, a position she starts in a few weeks, she will do everything in her power to push the Coliseum sale along.

The city is also considering a sales tax measure to put on the special election ballot on April 15, 2025, which will also serve as an election to fill the now vacant D2 and mayor positions. The tax increase would raise approximately $29 million annually for Oakland, allowing the city to gain much-needed revenue for the next two-year budget.

The council will discuss the possible sales tax measure on January 9.

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Activism

Protesters Gather in Oakland, Other City Halls, to Halt Encampment Sweeps

The coordinated protests on Tuesday in San Francisco, Oakland, Vallejo, Fresno, Los Angeles and Seattle, were hosted by Poor Magazine and Wood Street Commons, calling on cities to halt the sweeps and focus instead on building more housing.

Published

2 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

The California Poor People’s Campaign’s Victoria King erected encampments for unhoused Oaklanders. Victoria King and her committee erected these emergency tents to symbolize the needs of unhoused Oaklanders. Photos by Post Staff.

By Post Staff

Houseless rights advocates gathered in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other city halls across California and Washington state this week protesting increased sweeps that followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision over the summer.

“What we’re dealing with right now is a way to criminalize people who are dealing with poverty, who are not able to afford rent,” said rights advocate Junebug Kealoh, outside San Francisco City Hall.

“When someone is constantly swept, they are just shuffled and things get taken — it’s hard to stay on top of anything,” said Kealoh.

Local houseless advocates include Victoria King, who is a member of the coordinating committee of the California Poor People’s Campaign. She and Dr. Monica Cross co-chair the Laney Poor People’s Campaign.

The demonstrations came after a June Supreme Court ruling expanded local governments’ authority to fine and jail people for sleeping outside, even if no shelter is available. Gov. Gavin Newsom in California followed up with an order directing state agencies to crack down on encampments and urging local governments to do the same.

Fresno, Berkeley and a host of other cities implemented new rules, making it easier for local governments to clear sidewalk camps. In other cities, such as San Francisco, officials more aggressively enforced anti-camping laws already on the books.