Crime is up in Oakland, but the police are unable to recruit new cops. The schools are monumental failures, with daily absentee rates north of 30%. Businesses are leaving town. A couple of years ago the iconic Oakland Raisers left for Vegas. Now, the Oakland A’s, the famous baseball team is leaving for Vegas as well. This after the Warriors, the NBA basketball team decided that San Fran, the Bidet, was nicer!
“During this short period of time, the National Football League’s Raiders abandoned the decrepit Oakland Coliseum for new digs in Las Vegas. The world champion Golden State Warriors opted to move across the Bay to San Francisco. Last week the major league baseball team signed an agreement to relocate to Nevada as well.
None of these sports franchises wished to remain in a place that is surrounded by a crime-ridden ghetto and homeless encampments. Those attending games were forced to arrive by BART or motor vehicles. Unlike every major sports stadium in the country, there were no restaurants or bars anywhere near where fans entered the facilities.”
Like the Bidet across the Bay, Oakland is promoting drug dealers, protecting criminals—and the DA is looking for wats to protect the criminals while making more victims. An active recall is about 3,000 signatures short of getting rid of the Marxist DA. Hometown pride is gone.
Oakland has lost its professional basketball, football and now baseball team. All the people have left to cheer on are the RIOTERS.
Richard Eber, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 4/24/23
Congratulations are due to the City of Oakland and Alameda County. They have achieved the rare trifecta of having three major professional sports franchises depart Oakland in the past decade.
During this short period of time, the National Football League’s Raiders abandoned the decrepit Oakland Coliseum for new digs in Las Vegas. The world champion Golden State Warriors opted to move across the Bay to San Francisco. Last week the major league baseball team signed an agreement to relocate to Nevada as well.
None of these sports franchises wished to remain in a place that is surrounded by a crime-ridden ghetto and homeless encampments. Those attending games were forced to arrive by BART or motor vehicles. Unlike every major sports stadium in the country, there were no restaurants or bars anywhere near where fans entered the facilities.
Walking through its parking lots inhabited by pan handlers was often a perilous experience; although one can often score a beer for about a third of what is charged inside the stadium.
Players on all teams hated the place. Rodents were known to inhabit the decaying infrastructure of both the baseball park and indoor arena. Fans have had little choice in food as concessioners had to deal with outdated facilities which allow for few culinary choices beyond hot dogs.
As might be expected, there has been little interest in tearing down either of the stadiums and rebuilding the Coliseum complex. No business in their right mind would like to reside in this disgusting place.
As a result, both the Raiders and Athletics tried to find alternate sites in the area to build new places for their fans to attend games.
Neither were successful.
For the past decade, the A’s owners attempted to build a stadium overlooking the Bay at Howard Terminal. Going along with this housing and commercial development was modeled after what the Giants constructed in San Francisco. Were they able to do this, it would have been a boom for businesses that have floundered in recent years around Jack London Square.
If the A’s were able to have their plans fulfilled, thousands of jobs would have been created in construction and filling positions at the new stadium complex
Guess again. Various community groups objected to the City of Oakland paying for infrastructure for transportation for the A’s and major league baseball. They wanted to make sure there was a high percentage of low-income housing in the proposed affluent development. There were also allegations leveled about the project being filled with racism, white privilege and disregard for the homeless. Community activists were never satisfied while continuing to protest the city and baseball team reaching an agreement.
As a result, baseball club could never fulfill their dream. Complicating things even more was opposition from environmental groups who threatened massive lawsuits should the new ballpark ever be approved.
Newly elected Oakland Mayor Sheng Tao commented:
“I am deeply disappointed that the A’s have chosen not to negotiate with the City of Oakland as a true partner, in a way that respects the long relationship between the fans, the City and the team. The City has gone above and beyond in our attempts to arrive at mutually beneficial terms to keep the A’s in Oakland. “
Perhaps not? Sports franchises are like any other business. They are neither non-profits nor philanthropic enterprises. It has not been A’s task to solve problems which are generational in scope in that community. What they offered to construct at Howard Terminal far outweighed the ridiculous demands of the corrupt government of Oakland.
As a result, any plans to build new residential housing will need heavy subsidies from the State and Federal governments to ever be built.
Much like the Republican Party in California who has blamed their defeats despite “being right on the issues”, Oakland can rationalize the teams departure by claiming they were being blackmailed for the past two decades by the A’s, Raiders, and Warriors.
Unfortunately, there is little that can be done at this late hour to reverse the departure of the baseball team. It is unlikely any other franchise will ever desire to relocate to Oakland. Joni Mitchell’s words, “It always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone”, ironically applies to A’s bolting town.”
