The Paradox of Urban Revitalization: Progress and Poverty in America's Postindustrial Era by Howard Gillette Jr

Author:Howard Gillette, Jr. [Howard Gillette, Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Public Policy, City Planning & Urban Development, Social Science, Sociology, Urban
ISBN: 9780812253719
Google: mzyJzgEACAAJ
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2022-09-15T20:26:43+00:00

The new proposal did nothing to dampen concerns about development in East Oakland. Mayor Libby Schaaf criticized Alameda County for selling its share of the land to the A’s without requiring any provision for affordable housing in the new complex in return, but the city seemed limited in its own effort to tie development to community needs.42 While the A’s planned to refashion the Coliseum as a facility for local recreation and to maintain the Oracle facility for concerts and local events, the impact of a technical college and market-rate housing on the site reignited earlier concerns about displacement. The A’s offered no immediate proposal for a formal community benefits agreement. In contrast, because keeping a professional team in the city remained a critical priority, the waterfront stadium proposal sailed through a variety of reviews by state and local authorities, despite the need for environmental remediation to the site and opposition from longshore workers who considered the sports facility an incompatible use to their work at the port, which owned the land. Under terms agreed to provisionally by the Port of Oakland, the A’s would pay $3.8 million a year for use of the land. While the stadium would be privately financed, the California State Senate, by unanimous vote, authorized the creation of an infrastructure financing district making available for transportation needs taxes generated on the site.43 The A’s helped their case not just by touting $3 billion in new investment and five thousand new jobs, but by partnering with an environmental justice organization, the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, to fashion a community benefits agreement for area residents as the team sought final clearance for building the new stadium. Notably, negotiations to secure agreement were required to use existing conditions of racial disparities data from the 2019 Oakland Race and Equity Baseline Indicators report to establish baselines.44

Figure 25. Plan for a reconstituted Oakland Coliseum, East Oakland. In the proposed conversion of the dated facility, the A’s envisioned an upgraded, mixed-use complex suitable for business as well as recreation, a product some residents feared would foster gentrification. Courtesy Oakland Athletics.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.