Oakland

Opinion: Stopping the Stadium Mega-Development Was an Important Victory, But Fight Is Far from Over

Published

7 years ago

December 17, 2017

By Alvina Wong

After four months of organizing by Laney students, faculty, and staff, Chinatown and Eastlake residents, and Lake Merritt environmentalists, the Peralta Board of Trustees decided to end talks with the Oakland A’s about constructing a stadium mega-development next to Laney College.

Their decision is a testament to our communities’ power to fight for a future where we can stay and thrive. We also know that this fight is far from over.

Since 2014 when BART and City officials completed the Lake Merritt Station Area Plan, Chinatown and Eastlake have been bombarded with a wave of luxury condo developments, soaring rents, and mass displacement of longtime residents.

At the time, many of our organizations demanded that we be included in the city-led ‘community-engagement process’. We advocated for affordable housing and storefronts, parks and open space, and resources for working class immigrant and refugee communities.

Despite countless meetings, letters, and petitions to city officials, none of our communities’ needs were reflected in the plan.

Instead, we got a plan that incentivized high-density market-rate development by rezoning the neighborhood to allow developers to build up to 275 feet in some areas, without a conditional use permit.

Our vision for a neighborhood where new immigrants and refugees could stay and thrive was noted, but no policies were put in place to help realize this vision.

The Lake Merritt Station Area plan, like the West Oakland BART plan and many others, has paved the way for developers to turn Chinatown and Eastlake into playgrounds for the wealthy, with 20 and 30 story luxury apartment buildings that literally cast shadows over our communities.

So, when the Oakland A’s decided to build a stadium with upscale stores and hotels next to Laney College, our communities quickly decided that we needed to oppose it. Chinatown and Eastlake groups joined with Laney students, faculty, and staff who were fighting to protect Laney as a public resource.

Groups that had been working for years to restore Lake Merritt and its saltwater channel also joined the fight. We went door-to-door and classroom-to-classroom. Despite the A’s aggressive PR campaign, we found that people overwhelmingly opposed the stadium at Laney.

While we were successful in stopping the A’s stadium mega-development at Laney, we know that there are more developers that want to use this public land for their own profits.

Many of us have been part of building community, culture, and resources in neighborhoods that formed as a result of racist housing covenants, suffered from disinvestment after white flight, and are now threatened with mass displacement. In these times, we’ve learned that our public land is one of the last remaining places where we can build the resources our communities need.

For us, this decision to say no to a stadium at Laney opens the door for our communities to say yes to stewarding this land to serve the public good.

It helps us transition away from looking at land as a commodity that exists to maximize profits for the wealthy, and toward looking at how this land can help sustain our lives and communities for generations to come.

As for big corporations like the A’s that benefit from Oakland’s public infrastructure and diverse communities, they should have been giving back all along – whether that means supporting public education institutions like Laney College, affordable housing and good jobs for local residents, or growing in ways that take leadership from working class people of color who want to stay and thrive.

Alvina Wong We hope the Oakland A’s will stay the right way. Oakland has already invested millions of public dollars in the Coliseum. Now it’s the A’s turn to invest in East Oakland’s communities.

Alvina Wong works with the Stay the Right Way Coalition and is employed by the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN).

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Alameda County Judge Blasts Defendants Over Delay in West Oakland Fire Trial

Judge Kimberly Lowell excoriated the RadiusRecycling/SchnitzerSteel defendants in court for causing delays in prosecuting this case. Since the defendants first appeared in court on July 23, they have obtained three extensions of the arraignment date.

Published

9 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Criminal charges announced this week are related to the August 2023 scrap metal fire at Radius Recycling Inc., formerly Schnitzer Steel. Photo courtesy of Oaklandside.

Special to The Post

District Attorney Pamela Price announced that a hearing was held on October 30 in the criminal prosecution of the Radius Recycling/Schnitzer Steel involving a fire at the West Oakland facility on Aug. 9-10, 2023.

The Alameda County criminal Grand Jury indicted radius Recycling and two of its corporate managers in June 2024.

The court clarified that the defendants will not receive more extensions on their arraignment and plea.

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price agreed with the court that defendants should not get preferential treatment. Price and her team appreciated the court for clarifying that future delays by Radius will not be tolerated.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s (BAAQMD) public data shows that during and after the fire, the smoke plume traveled across Alameda County with high levels of PM 2.5 (Particulate Matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter) detected around Laney College in Oakland, Livermore, Pleasanton, and West Oakland.

PM2.5 is particularly harmful to infants and children, the elderly, and people with asthma or heart disease.

“This fire posed a great health hazard to the people of Alameda County,” said Price. “High, short-term exposures to a toxic smoke plume have been shown to cause significant danger to human health.

“Additionally, in this case, Oakland firefighters battled the blaze under extremely dangerous conditions for 15 hours with assistance from a San Francisco Fire Department fireboat and a fireboat from the City of Alameda Fire Department,” Price observed.

The team prosecuting the case from the DA’s Consumer Justice Bureau looks forward to resolving any future motions and having the defendants arraigned in court on Dec. 9.

The media relations office of the Alameda County District Attorney’s office is the source of this report.

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Alameda County

D.A. Price Charges Coliseum Flea Market Vendors in Organized Retail Theft Case

The charges against Octavio Ambriz Valle, 52, Devora Ambriz Valle, 49, and Felipe Del Toro Trejo, 54, include multiple felony counts of possessing stolen property and organized retail theft in concert. It is alleged that the trio of vendors possessed stolen property valued at $348,466 from nine different retailers, including Kohl’s, Macy’s, PetSmart, Sephora, Sunglass Hut, TJX, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart.

Published

9 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Alameda County courthouse. Courtesy photo.

Alameda County Courthouse File photo.

Special to The Post

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced today that her office charged three people in connection with multiple organized retail theft crimes stemming from a sophisticated criminal enterprise operating at the Oakland Coliseum Flea Market from March 26, 2023, through April 17, 2024.

It is alleged that the trio of vendors possessed stolen property valued at $348,466 from nine different retailers, including Kohl’s, Macy’s, PetSmart, Sephora, Sunglass Hut, TJX, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart.

Last year, the District Attorney’s Office successfully competed and received a $2 million grant from the California Department of Justice to combat organized retail theft. Price added another $2 million to bolster the Organized Retail Crime Alameda (ORCA) unit which is fully operational and collaborating with numerous law enforcement agencies.

“For over a year, this enterprise supported criminal networks by requesting and buying specific products from brazen boosters who repeatedly terrorized retailers,” said Price. “I want to acknowledge our Organized Retail Crime Alameda (ORCA) Vertical Prosecution Unit for its great work and the role they played in this multi-jurisdiction investigation, which included the California Highway Patrol Golden Gate Division Organized Retail Crime Task Force, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, and San Ramon Police Department.”

If convicted and sentenced on all charges, Octavio Ambriz Valle faces a maximum sentence of nine years in County jail; Devora Ambriz Valle faces a maximum sentence of five years in County jail; and Felipe Del Toro Trejo faces a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in County jail.

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Activism

Fights Narrowly Break Out at Business Strike Press Conference at Oakland City Hall

Recall supporters called for a one-day business strike for the second year in a row to demand that the city do more to ensure public safety is a priority and that business owners are not plagued by the ongoing retail crime. Less than five minutes into the press conference, opponents of the recall began yelling at the recall supporters. This caused many recall volunteers to become upset with the “hecklers.”

Published

10 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Supporters of the recalls against Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, along with local political candidates and business owners, at a press conference outside Oakland City Hall. Speakers called for a city-wide, one-day business strike to protest against threats to public safety. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

What was intended to be a press conference for a planned city-wide business strike turned into two separate altercations between supporters and opponents of the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda District Attorney Pamela Price in front of Oakland City Hall.

Less than five minutes into the press conference, opponents of the recall began yelling at the recall supporters. This caused many recall volunteers to become upset with the “hecklers.”

One recall volunteer confronted the Thao supporters and attempted to physically intimidate them while also screaming obscenities in their faces. After several moments, the volunteer was pulled away from the Thao supporters and returned to the conference.

Soon after that incident, Ray Bobbitt, founder of the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG) that now owns the Oakland Coliseum, walked up to the rally and attempted to take the microphone from Seneca Scott, leader of the Thao recall efforts. The situation soon escalated as Scott pushed Bobbitt away.

Scott has made several comments at press conferences and on social media that the Coliseum sale deal is a fraud and that AASEG will not provide the city with the promised multi-million dollar funds. Bobbitt told the Post that he is tired of Scott “being a bully” and only wanted to talk through whatever issues Scott had with AASEG.

When Bobbitt asked Scott to talk privately, Scott responded with a threatening remark. Bobbitt soon left the scene after several people talked him down.

“We really need to abandon the toxicity. I’m here to bring our community together, not divide it,” Bobbitt told the Post.

Back with the recall group and business owners, speakers said that businesses are scared to file police reports because Oakland officers “don’t care anymore” and are scared that their insurance rates will increase.

“We’re here today because the last blood of our city is leaking out with no tourniquet. Cities run on commerce. The only reason for a city is commerce. Failure to protect commerce leads to a dying city,” Scott said.

Several businesses in the last year have closed down, such as In-N-Out Burger and Denny’s on the Hegenberger corridor, citing public safety concerns. Local businesses have also left because of break-ins, homelessness, and overall lack of security.

At the time of last year’s business strike, crime was up 26% from the year before, according to Oakland police data. Rumors of a Thao recall were also building around this event.

Crime today is down 37%, according to the same data. This point has been used heavily in Thao’s attempt to rally support against the recall against her.

Speakers at the Tuesday press conference said some owners were sleeping at their businesses for fear of people breaking in to steal from them or vandalize their locations.

“The only things that are not locked up in the stores are criminals,” one speaker said.

Rally organizers claimed that over 200 businesses were participating in the strike. But when the Post asked recall organizers if they could provide a list of all the participants, the request was denied.

“This is an example of the sort of chaos the recall campaign seeks to create in Oakland. This is the last minute last ditch stunt of a coal investor funded campaign that has realized that Oakland residents are going to say NO to the $10 million price tag, the chaos and the division their campaign represents,” a Thao supporter spokesperson said ahead of the business strike.