Tuesday, April 28, 2009
John Russo Is Right About the A's
People / Politics / Sports Robert Gammon — Tue, Apr 28, 2009 at 1:23 PM
Readers of these pages know we haven't always seen eye-to-eye with Oakland's city attorney, but John Russo's op-ed in today's Tribune is on the money. Russo rightly calls out A's co-owner Lew Wolff for disingenuously claiming that the team had "exhausted (its) time and resources over the years" with the City of Oakland. Anyone who has followed the process knows that Wolff never looked seriously at Oakland before his failed side trip to Fremont. Our only quibble: Russo didn't put all of the blame for Oakland not having a downtown ballpark where it belonged. Sure, the A's never stepped forward to back the downtown stadium plan. But it was then-Mayor Jerry Brown who killed it in favor of a now mostly empty apartment complex. The question now is - who among city leaders will step up to the plate to make sure the team doesn't leave for good. Mr. Russo?
Comments (2)
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dto510/Jonathan Bair,
There certainly was a downtown stadium plan. I know, because I read it and wrote about it in 2002 while working for the Oakland Tribune. The plan was separate from the HOK study and was developed by then City Manager Robert Bobb and his staff. It included architectural drawings for new a stadium, and how it would be situated with a refurbished Fox Theater. However, once Jerry Brown found out about the plan, he issued a gag order on it, refusing to allow Bobb or his staff to share it with all of the council or with the general public -- and especially not the A's. Brown didn't want anything to interfere with his beloved Forest City project. It's my belief that if Brown had supported the plan and teamed up with Bobb to work with the A's on it, the stadium had a legitimate shot at being built. Even Lew Wolff later admitted that the uptown site was the best spot in Oakland for a new ballpark. But Brown wasn't interested.
As for the Forest City apartment complex, it did not result in the refurbishment of the Fox. That was a completely separate project that could have just as easily happened with the ballpark, or on its own. Same with the new dining establishments. A mostly empty Forest City apartment complex could not have been a catalyst for them, although I think there is an argument to be made that the Fox has been. As for the apartment complex itself, renting a little more than one-third of the units after a year is hardly an example of success.
-- Robert Gammon
like
dislikeThere was never, ever a "downtown stadium plan." One study from HOK, that also looked at several other sites, with zero support from the A's, is not a plan. Uptown Apartments, though only 200-plus units are leased in less than a year, has brought us the Uptown nightclub, several dining establishments, and several restored historic buildings including the Fox. It's not just petty and short-sighted, but disingenuous, to imply that the Uptown plan is anything less than a success.
