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DESCRIPTION:7/20 All Out To Stop Privatization Of Port Of Oakland Howard Terminal: Port 
 Workers and Community Unite, Stand Against the Theft at the Port of 
 Oakland!\n\n\nOn July 20th, 2021, Oakland City Council will take a vote on 
 Oakland Athletics proposal for the development of a baseball stadium and 
 accompanying condominium complex in the current Howard Terminal and 
 connecting area to Jack London Square.\nWhat does this means for maritime 
 workers and the community in and around the port of Oakland?\n\nUltimately 
 our livelihoods are at stake. More traffic congestion from mass sporting 
 events and high end entertainment will surround the real estate portion of 
 this proposed development. The developers argue any economic growth will 
 benefit all workers and the community as it will inevitably spread out. 
 \n\nWe know this not to be true. Just remember how conversion of the San 
 Francisco Embarcadero from industrial maritime use to tourism was promoted 
 over past decades. The loss of shipyards, maritime facilities and jobs such 
 as scalers, boilermakers and machinists has lead to a steady eroding of 
 union scale wages such that those who work in these areas can no longer 
 afford to live anywhere near the city front.\n\nThe Oakland Athletics 
 stadium proposal does not democratically consider workers at the port and 
 the surrounding maritime community. Under the A’s proposed Enhanced 
 Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) increases in property tax revenue 
 on the development expected to rise from the current $30 million to over 
 $12 billion by 2037 will be used for the area of the development itself. 
 Infrastructure spending for schools, port facilities, and resources outside 
 the specified EIFD area (Howard Terminal to Jack London Square) would be 
 left out of this 30+ year projected tax revenue increase. \n\nThis type of 
 exclusionary development planning is typical of public land privatization 
 schemes, notably of the Fisher family (who own the A’s Franchise), which 
 has gone on record as backing some of the biggest public land grabs for 
 private profit in city history including AT&T park and the Charterization 
 of public schools into the KIPP chain and Rocketship which their family 
 controls. \nFishers enjoy bipartisan support from all corrupt politicians 
 in the City. The Democratic Council members Ron Bonta and Nancy Skinner of 
 Oakland City are among the foremost advocates for this privatization 
 project. Most other Democrats and Republicans in the City or County have 
 been silent on the issue at best, or supported this union-busting 
 gentrification drive at worst. It is clear that we need a working-class 
 alternative to defend our jobs, unions, residences, and environment. 
 \n\nSailors, Longshore Workers, Truckers and Railroad Workers Unite! Stand 
 with the working class and multi-ethnic communities against displacement! 
 For well funded schools and public infrastructure through a participatory 
 and democratic decision-making process of all who are effected and 
 concerned!\n\nCome to rally just before city council: July 20th, 2021 1pm 
 PST\nOakland City Hall Oscar Grant Plaza , 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland 
 CA\nGet on speakers list for city council meeting by contacting: 
 committeeforlaborparty(at)gmail.com or For a Mass Labor Party in the USA 
 @masslaborpartyusa on Facebook and 
 Twitter\nhttps://www.facebook.com/masslaborpartyusa/\nhttps://foramasslaborparty.wordpress.com\n\nRally 
 At John Fishers A's Stadium Protests Privatization Of Oakland Howard 
 Terminal For New Stadium\nhttps://youtu.be/_DerI2zS3Rk\n\nGentrification, 
 The Billionaires & The Port of Oakland Privatization  With Danny 
 Glover\nhttps://youtu.be/AN0S0lhDk18\n\nPrivatization, The Port Of Oakland 
 and Labor\nhttps://youtu.be/KH-ARujOeDQ\n\nOakland Port Privatization Scam 
 By Billionaire John Fisher,  Demos & Union 
 Bureaucrats\nhttps://youtu.be/1hu_s7A4Yc8\n\nWho's Selling Whom? The A's 
 Stadium,  The Destruction of Howard Terminal In The Port Of Oakland & The 
 Battle In Labor\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sgYOaGbB7U&t=19s\n\n"It's 
 Insane!" ILWU Longshore Workers & Truckers Challenge Oakland A's 
 Billionaire Owner John Fisher’s Land Grab Of Howard Terminal 
 \nhttps://youtu.be/5A8uZpqSX_M \n\nMaritime, Labor & The A's Stadium At The 
 Port Of Oakland Press Conference 5/13/19 \nhttps://youtu.be/ouL39ISDzBE 
 \n\nAlameda Labor Council, AFL-CIO Backs Howard Terminal Ballpark for 
 Oakland A's 
 \nhttps://www.mlb.com/press-release/alameda-labor-council-afl-cio-backs-howard-terminal-ballpark-for-oakland-a-s\n\nThe 
 A’s and MLB don’t care about Oakland, only profits\nIf the current, 
 taxpayer-subsidized deal is the best the team can offer, the city should 
 let them 
 go\n\nhttps://www.eastbaytimes.com/2021/05/12/editorial-the-as-and-mlb-dont-care-about-oakland-only-profits-2/?fbclid=IwAR2OEG5rNrYTPvaO-RPpdbNCHX448xorbX4mwRj8yKT9Bnj0uuIBF-qhh8A\nThe 
 Howard Terminal site and the proposed A’s ballpark are shown in a 
 rendering supplied by the Oakland A’s.     (Courtesy of Oakland 
 A’s)\n\n\nBy MERCURY NEWS & EAST BAY TIMES EDITORIAL BOARDS | 
 \n\nPUBLISHED: May 12, 2021 at 9:27 a.m. | UPDATED: May 12, 2021 at 9:29 
 a.m.\n\nThe A’s and Major League Baseball threatened this week that if 
 they don’t get their way they will pack up and leave the Bay Area.\nThe 
 team has thrown down a greedy and opaque demand that the city of Oakland 
 approve a $12 billion residential and commercial waterfront development 
 project that happens to include a new ballpark — and requires a massive 
 taxpayer subsidy.\nIf that’s the best the A’s can offer, the city 
 should let them go.\nFew people want to end the team’s 53-year stay in 
 Oakland. Bay Area residents have fond memories of the decades of exciting, 
 and sometimes championship, play. But the A’s and MLB are trying to 
 pressure city officials into a bad deal.\nThe team’s demand would require 
 the city to recklessly mortgage future tax revenues to bolster profits for 
 the A’s. Despite team President Dave Kaval’s claims that the A’s 
 would provide a privately financed ballpark, taxpayers would cover the cost 
 of the infrastructure. And the more than $1 billion of city and community 
 benefits Kaval keeps touting would also come from property taxes.\nWe 
 already saw Alameda County supervisors get suckered by Kaval when they 
 agreed in 2019 to sell the A’s a half interest in the Oakland Coliseum 
 property. It was a sweetheart deal, with no public bidding, for valuable 
 public land the team wants to develop to help fund the waterfront ballpark 
 six miles away.\nCounty supervisors said the Coliseum deal was aimed at 
 keeping the A’s in town. But there was no requirement that the team would 
 stay. The latest threat by MLB and the A’s to leave town shows what 
 gullible fools the supervisors were.\nOakland city officials shouldn’t 
 make the same mistake.\nThe city owns the other half of the Coliseum 
 property. They should carefully guard it. And City Council members should 
 not let themselves be bullied by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, A’s owner 
 John Fisher and Kaval to approve a bad deal for waterfront development at 
 Howard Terminal on the eastern tip of the Port of Oakland.\nThe team and 
 its backers like to point across the bay to the Giants’ success reviving 
 the waterfront around their new ballpark. What that ignores is that San 
 Francisco had only a minimal port while Oakland has the 10th busiest 
 operation in the nation.\nKaval claims the A’s waterfront project would 
 include $12 billion of residential and commercial development, including a 
 $1 billion stadium. But the team’s proposal calls for creation of two new 
 financing districts that for 45 years would use tax money from a 1½ mile 
 swath of property around the site and the new development itself to pay for 
 the project’s infrastructure and community benefits.\nThat’s right: For 
 all the talk from Kaval about the team providing community benefits, they 
 don’t plan to put up a dime of it. That would all come from future tax 
 revenues.\nExactly how much this would cost taxpayers remains a mystery. 
 The deal is currently indecipherable. The devil is in the financial detail, 
 which Kaval isn’t providing.\nAnd, like a high-pressure salesman, the 
 numbers he does throw around intermix short-term expenditures with expected 
 tax revenues over more than four decades without adjusting for the lost 
 value due to inflation.\nNo rational businessperson would enter such an 
 agreement without a careful analysis. And neither should the city. The City 
 Council and the public first deserve a thorough independent financial 
 evaluation of the A’s offer, alternative uses of the land and the effect 
 on port operations.\nAnything less risks piling more debt on an already 
 deeply indebted city — endangering the ability of city officials to 
 provide the services and progressive programs they say they want.\nFinally, 
 city officials should not be fooled by the notion that sports teams are 
 revenue generators. Sports teams do not pay their way, says Roger Noll, a 
 sports economist at Stanford University. They may enhance civic pride, but 
 the common arguments for public subsidies “are based on the idea that a 
 sports team is a magnet for other things. That’s the part that’s not 
 true.”\nSo, if Manfred, Fisher and Kaval continue to demand that Oakland 
 cave to their demands, the city should show them the door. It’s clear 
 that the trio don’t care about the welfare of the city — only the 
 profits of the team and MLB.\n\nBig-league bluff or real threat, A's told 
 they can look for new home\nIn the A’s statement, Fisher said, “The 
 future success of the A’s depends on a new ballpark.”\nThere is ample 
 evidence that to Fisher, success is measured not in W and L, but in $. 
 \n\nhttps://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/ostler/article/Big-league-bluff-or-real-threat-A-s-told-to-16169394.php\nMay 
 11, 2021\nUpdated: May 11, 2021 4:03 p.m.\nComments\nA's President Dave 
 Kaval (left) and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf take questions during a press 
 conference held at the A's corporate offices in Oakland, Calif. Wednesday, 
 Nov. 28, 2018 announcing early plans to build a new ballpark at Howard 
 Terminal.\nA's President Dave Kaval (left) and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf 
 take questions during a press conference held at the A's corporate offices 
 in Oakland, Calif. Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018 announcing early plans to build 
 a new ballpark at Howard Terminal.\nJessica Christian / The 
 Chronicle\nIt’s called chin music.\nThat’s the tune MLB and 
 Commissioner Rob Manfred started playing Tuesday. They threw a high, hard 
 one at the chin of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and the Oakland City 
 Council.\nGet the message, Oakland? Vote to approve the A’s plan and 
 commit to kicking in $855 million for infrastructure for the A’s new 
 ballpark and surrounding village around Howard Terminal, or kiss your 
 lovable little baseball team goodbye.\nESPN’s Jeff Passan broke the news 
 that MLB has suggested the A’s should start looking for a new hometown, 
 in case their latest stadium proposal gets rejected or delayed.\nActually, 
 the news contained two bombshells: Along with giving the A’s the 
 greenlight to shop for a new home, MLB stated, “The Oakland Coliseum site 
 is not a viable option for the future vision of baseball.”\nUntil now, 
 neither the A’s nor MLB had rejected the Coliseum as a viable site for a 
 new ballpark. You might think MLB’s main concern would be a new ballpark 
 for the A’s, rather than a heavyhanded rooting interest in John 
 Fisher’s $12 billion proposed development, wouldn’t you? Maybe MLB 
 stands for Major League Business.\nThe East Oakland Stadium Alliance, which 
 opposes the A’s plans to build in and around Howard Terminal, issued a 
 reaction statement Tuesday: “While the Oakland A’s have claimed to be 
 ‘Rooted in Oakland,’ we now see that was only if the city would hand 
 out hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to fund a massive real-estate 
 development.”\nIt’s called power politics, folks. Please allow me to 
 poke a few holes here and there in the heated puffery of MLB’s 
 directive.\n• Note that the original statement is from MLB, not from the 
 A’s, although surely the plan to pressure Oakland is a joint effort. The 
 A’s have been very careful in trying not to appear unneighborly or 
 belligerent, even as opposition to their project intensified. They let 
 their big brother do the dirty work for them. Now the A’s can say, 
 “Hey, we love Oakland, but MLB told us to start looking around, what can 
 we do?”\n• “The Athletics need a new ballpark to remain 
 competitive,” the MLB statement said.\nWhy does MLB care if the A’s are 
 competitive? I had a recent conversation with Neil deMause of 
 fieldofschemes.com, an expert on how sports venues get built — or not 
 built. We discussed the A’s ballpark situation.\nReferring to the A’s 
 playing in the badly outdated Coliseum and using that as an excuse to keep 
 payroll super low, deMause said, “How does it hurt Major League Baseball? 
 It keeps salaries down, because it’s one more team that’s not bidding 
 up the free-agent salaries. It shows other teams that you can win, at least 
 sometimes, with a low payroll, so that encourages other teams to follow the 
 A’s, and the Rays’, model: ‘We’re not throwing in the towel. 
 We’re playing Moneyball.’”\nThe team owners “love it, deMause said. 
 “They’d obviously love the A’s to have a new stadium, because why 
 not, but I don’t think they have any problem with the A’s not spending 
 much.”\nMany cities would love to have a major-league team, and many are 
 ramping up plans to wine and dine the A’s. The list includes Las Vegas, 
 Portland, Ore., Nashville, Vancouver, British Columbia, Charlotte, N.C., 
 and Montreal.\nThe threat of moving is a common tactic used by teams 
 seeking public money to build — or help build — a stadium.\n“The Rays 
 used that threat,” deMause said. “If they were going to move somewhere, 
 wouldn’t you think they would have by now? It’s been so many years. 
 With the A’s, the problem is that, even though they aren’t bringing in 
 as much revenue as they think they should, it’s still a more valuable 
 franchise than if they were in Portland or Nashville or someplace like 
 that.\n“The Bay Area’s such a huge TV market, and local TV still 
 matters so much for baseball. ... Right now, the A’s are in good enough 
 shape. They’re not Cincinnati; they’re solidly sort of a mid-level 
 market, if not a little bit above that. There’s nowhere that’s a better 
 option. Like, if Nashville gave the A’s a stadium completely for free, I 
 don’t know if that would be a better deal than staying at the 
 Coliseum.”\nWhat if Oakland were to tell the A’s, We’ll give you $155 
 million, best we can do. What would Fisher do?\n“So if you’re John 
 Fisher, do you throw a hissy-fit and move to Las Vegas?” deMause asked. 
 “Or do you say, ‘You know what? Mayor Schaff isn’t going to be there 
 forever, and I’m going to keep owning the team, so do I give up on this 
 or just wait for the next mayor?’ It’s hard to argue that moving to Las 
 Vegas is a better option.”\nYou know who agrees with that? Or did? Rob 
 Manfred, who in 2018 said, “I believe that there is not another market in 
 the United States that has the upside potential that Oakland has, and I 
 think we would regret leaving Oakland if we did that.”\n• John Fisher, 
 please define “success.”\nIn the A’s statement, Fisher said, “The 
 future success of the A’s depends on a new ballpark.”\nThere is ample 
 evidence that to Fisher, success is measured not in W and L, but in $. The 
 A’s most glaring weakness right now is at shortstop. They let East Bay 
 native Marcus Semien, a Cal alum, walk rather than pay him $18 million for 
 this season. They traded for Elvis Andrus while having to pay him only 
 $8.75 million, with the Rangers paying the remaining $6.25 million of his 
 salary. Financially, a successful move. On the field, a disaster.\nIf 
 Fisher moved the A’s, the team’s value would drop, with no guarantee of 
 increased revenue. And MLB would be trading down to a smaller 
 market.\nWatch your chin, Oakland.\nScott Ostler is a columnist for The San 
 Francisco Chronicle. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/07/09/18843666.php
SUMMARY:All Out To Stop Privatization Of Howard Terminal: Port Workers & Community Unite
LOCATION:Oscar Grant Plaza Next To Oakland City Hall\nOakland, California
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/07/09/18843666.php
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