Uncategorized

Berkeley Post Office, Six-Day Delivery on Chopping Block

Published

13 years ago

February 7, 2013

Oakland Post

Berkeley Post Office

By Judith Scherr

Berkeley’s historic downtown post office is for sale. Across the country, the cash-strapped United States Postal Service is selling property, slashing postal hours, consolidating sorting centers, attempting to outsource jobs and, on Wednesday, announced plans to stop Saturday mail delivery.
Dave Welsh, retired letter carrier, Berkeley resident and Community and Postal Workers United member, is among those across the country fighting back.
“Our position is they have no right to sell anything,” Welsh said. “The post office is the people’s property.”
But USPS has lost billions of dollars, and downsizing can stop the bleeding, said Postmaster General Pat Donahoe.
The most evident cause of USPS’ financial woes is the growth of electronic mail and accompanying decrease in “snail” mail. Less known is a 2006 law requiring USPS to prepay 75 years of retiree health benefits over 10 years. That costs about $5.5 billion annually. And, USPS has overpaid billions of dollars into pension funds.
However, without Congressional approval, the post office can’t adjust rates or add services such as banking or leasing excess space.
Downsizing also means the loss of middle class jobs. The National Association of Letter Carriers estimates that cutting mail delivery from six to five days will cost 25,000 jobs.
In the Bay Area, the American Postal Workers AFL-CIO is in court fighting USPS attempts to outsource 800 postal trucking jobs.
Post office job loss is especially critical within the African American community. About 21 percent of postal employees are Black, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Reacting to impending cuts in Saturday delivery, Rep. Barbara Lee issued a statement Thursday: “Ending Saturday mail service would immediately cut jobs for as much as one sixth of the USPS work force, and as our economy recovers from the recession, it is especially important that we keep these quality jobs intact. These job losses would also disproportionally impact communities of color. For years, being a letter carrier has been a critical pathway into the middle class for African Americans, including my grandfather, who was a proud USPS letter carrier for 35 years.”
Steven Pitts, labor policy specialist at the University of California Berkeley Labor Center, further noted, “What’s frustrating is, when people look at the well-being of the Black community, and they look at outcomes in terms of crime and the larger issue of poverty, what people fail to do is look at what’s done to destroy those pillars of success.”
Reducing services could lead to privatization, “paving the way for Fed Ex and UPS to dominate the business,” said Gray Brechin, a UC Berkeley geography professor active in saving the Berkeley post office. Brechin noted that USPS has hired the powerful real estate group Caldwell Banker Richard Ellis to sell postal properties. CBRE Chair Richard Blum is Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband.
“The post office is selling our property at mark-down prices to people who are then ‘flipping’ them for large profit,” Brechin said.
After a large protest at one San Francisco post office in June, USPS took four San Francisco post offices off the market. Berkeley resident Ying Lee encouraged people to fight the Berkeley post office sale.
“We want to cause as much community opposition to even the idea of selling the place so that no private developer will dream of developing it because they’d have a riot on their hands,” Lee said.
A city council committee on the post office meets Feb. 12, 6 p.m. at the Maudelle Shirek building, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Berkeley. Postal officials meet with the community Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m. at the Maudelle Shirek Building.

Oakland Post

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Uncategorized

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

7 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

12 months ago

January 30, 2025

Oakland Post

Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 city councilmember. File photo.

Special to The Post

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Published

1 year ago

January 11, 2025

Oakland Post

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.