Why Oakland Is Behind With Howard Terminal Ballpark
Ok, here's the totally, completely, unvarnished, hard, difficult truth why the City of Oakland is so far behind where it should be in helping the Oakland Athletics build a ballpark at Howard Terminal. The simple set of reasons I am about to roll out can be summed up in one word: over-politicization. That's right: over-politicization. Robert Bobb's Downtown Ballpark Dream Dashed By Jerry Brown The fact is the structure for Oakland's bureaucratic slowness was formed with the passage of “Measure X”, then-Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown's version of a long-sought-after form of government called Strong Mayor. Passed in 1998, it took effect in 1999, and matted Brown with a person who was every-bit his match on the city administrative side: then-City Manager Robert Bobb. Mr. Bobb, who was trained in the traditional fashion of city managers, to, well, run a city, including it's public-private-partnerships, and who wanted Oakland to “Host Super Bowls and build ballparks” as he said at an early February 1999 city staff meeting I attended (as the new city consultant who was Economic Advisor to the previous Mayor Elihu Harris) to plan for Oakland's then-annual trip to Las Vegas for the International Council of Shopping Center's Spring Convention. As it turned out, Bobb's dreams for Oakland clashed head-long with Brown's in Bobb's pursuit of a downtown ballpark for the Oakland A's in 2002 (and after Bobb hired me to form a bid for Oakland to host the 2005 Super Bowl). Brown fired Bobb, who then was almost immediately snatched up by Washington DC, and successfully brought Major League Baseball there, along with a downtown ballpark. In short, Oakland's version of strong mayor pushed out many a trained city-builder, and left in its place an organizational habit of elected officials using big projects to burnish their own images, and accomplish nothing in return by completing those big projects. The Oakland A's quest for a ballpark home has been victimized by it. Indeed, Oakland's version of strong mayor is why Oakland has lost all of its professional sports teams, and has done nothing to try and replace any of them. Ron Dellums Plays Political Games With Oakland's Ballpark Dreams In the case of the now-late Ron Dellums, the great congressman had the sad habit of playing ballpark advocates against each other, with one wanting a building at the Coliseum and the other at Howard Terminal, and both coming up short. Rather than one giant task force to determine what should be done, and one that should have been led by Oakland's Economic Development Department, and a person who was trained at implementing large-scale projects, Dellums allowed many task forces to form, even one by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, who's job is to help the City of Oakland, and not lead it in a direction of its own making. But, to be sure, the person who's face was on the entire affair was Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, and no one else. Oakland Councilmember Larry Reid worked to try and carve out a larger role, but again, it was an example of an elected official's hand being in the pot, and not a city-building city official. Then came Oakland Mayor Jean Quan. Mayor Quan Doesn't Let Fred Blackwell Be The Face of Oakland Sports Business Retention Unlike Brown and Dellums, Mayor Quan smartly put Oakland Eonomic Development Director Fred Blackwell in charge of projects, including a new arena for the Warriors, a new stadium for the Raiders, and a new arena for the Warriors. Unfortunately, Quan and the Oakland City Council's insistance on having themselves as the face of the efforts, led to bungled lease negotiations with the A's and Alameda County, and the embarassing idea that the financing fortunes of the planned Coliseum City were in the hands of the Prince of Dubai, rather than a complex financing plan typical of such large scale public-private partnerships. Then came Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. Libby Schaaf's Jerry Brown Playbook Fails As Raiders Leave Oakland Continued here at Zennie62Media's Oakland News Online: https://ift.tt/aFyvNWb
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