Tag: City of Oakland

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: Affordable Housing will Make or Break the Howard Terminal project–

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Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff seen here speaking at a news conference on Wed Jul 26, 2021 is pushing for the Howard Terminal project. Schaff might have to be the go between for affordable housing at Howard Terminal and the Oakland A’s as affordable housing could be a deal breaker for a new A’s downtown ballpark. (AP News photo)

Affordable Housing will Make or Break the Howard Terminal project–

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

OAKLAND–The new Oakland A’s ballpark at Howard Terminal is loaded with enough suspense to write an Alfred Hitchcock movie thriller. An affirmative vote by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission on June 30 would be a key step toward a new A’s ballpark in Oakland.

But there are still more hurdles ahead, one important issue is affordable housing which is included in the project and something the City of Oakland wants if the A’s build the new ballpark.

“Affordable housing is going to be what makes or breaks this project,” Dolores Tejada, lead organizer of East Bay Housing Organizations — a nonprofit advocacy coalition that’s been involved in community benefits recently told SFGate.com. The disagreement is not complicated.

The City of Oakland would like the A’s to designate 450 of the approximately 3,000 apartments, an equivalent of 15% as affordable housing on site at the Howard Terminal development. The city also wants the A’s to pay for an extra 600 affordable homes in the nearby neighborhoods.

This is according to a draft term sheet back in July 2021. The Mayor of Oakland Libby Schaaf and a number of city council-members have repeatedly said that 15% is a hard line for the project in order to move forward.

In other words, somebody will have to pay for the Affordable Housing around Howard Terminal. According to Oakland Mayor Schaaf “City Council has been very clear about the affordable housing requirements for this deal,” Schaaf told The Oaklandside back in April. “This project right now is proposed to create 3,000 desperately-needed units of housing.

15 percent of them would have to be at least deeply affordable.” The Oakland A’s have not come out publicly and said if they are anywhere close to meeting that target. The A’s have said many times they do not want to negotiate through the media.

On June 2 The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission held a public hearing on the proposed A’s ballpark and development project.

At that meeting, dozens of Oakland port workers urged members of a key state agency to reject the A’s $12 billion proposed waterfront project, as they called it a “real estate grab” that would transform the Port of Oakland into a “yuppie playground. The Commission decided against their wishes and recommended the next step for June 30.

I have not mentioned Las Vegas, Nevada, although Dave Kaval, President of the A’s still maintains that the team is working on parallel plans, to land the new ball park here or there. There are two Piñatas, but only one will be broken.

As a longtime Bay Area resident, with interests in baseball, as baseball is a great part of my career, I would like the A’s to stay here in Oakland. But I do not have a vote on this process.

Round and ’round it goes, where does this stops, nobody knows.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Oakland A’s lead play by play Spanish announcer heard on flagship station Le Grande KIQI 1010 San Francisco and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

The A’s 34 million dollar a year subsidy will be phased out

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by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–Last night, Major League baseball  announced the players union and the owners have agreed in principle to a new five-year contract. Part of that deal included this from the AP.

As part of the deal, the luxury tax threshold rises from $189 million to $195 million next year, $197 million in 2018, $206 million in 2019, $209 million in 2020 and $210 million in 2021, a person familiar with the agreement told the Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been signed.

 

•The A’s revenue-sharing funds will be cut to 75 percent next year, 50 percent in 2018, 25 percent in 2019 and then phase out. The time frame is a likely nod to the span it might take the A’s to identify a site for a new stadium and move forward with plans for building a facility, but the decrease in funds probably will lead to A’s spending cuts in the meantime.

This means the A’s will no longer be able to rely on a huge chunk of cash that was used to keep the team in the black. They will have four years to either make the team better or build a new stadium. The situation with the stadium is dicey. If the Raiders stay, they may build at the  Howard Terminal. If the Raiders go to Las Vegas, there may be a new baseball only stadium at the current location. It is time for the City of Oakland and Alameda County to get together with the teams and make something happen.