Oakland
Opinion: Where Are the Oakland A’s?
On Sept. 13, the Oakland A’s announced their choice for a new baseball stadium with much pageantry.
The A’s unveiled their desire to build a new baseball stadium at the Laney College site. The site is adjacent to the college’s main facilities and will require the relocation of the administration building.
There were a few weeks of fanfare and animated discussion with citizens and city officials offering a variety of viewpoints.
Worried about another potential gentrification tidal wave flowing from the Brooklyn Basin/Estuary area, some students and faculty wonder if their neighborhoods and Laney College will be drowned by the real estate prices flooding the housing market with unreal property value increases.
Local Chinese merchants in the surrounding neighborhood’s welcome the idea of a stadium in their backyard, hoping to reap the economic benefits of a desperately needed boost to neighborhood businesses.
Laney students question whether a stadium bordering their school will impede their education. Some community activists voice concerns about displacement and gentrification of the neighborhood. Many say this stadium proposal will widen the gap between those that have and those that don’t.
Ironically, they single out John Fisher, the son of The Gap store owners, who chairs the board of a Kipp charter school network and a Charter School Growth Fund as the poster boy for merging real estate development with alternative education.
They ask questions about why can’t that same creativity and support from the governor also be employed to develop truly affordable housing for teachers and working families.
But we have heard little from the A’s in the month and a half since their announcement, begging he question, so the A’s really understand Oakland? Will they present a community benefits plan that’s tantamount to a grand slam home run that could land on the bottom of 9th avenue?
Local business representatives Carl Chan and Jose Macias want to see progress with improved public safety, business opportunities, jobs and workforce housing.
There are huge benefits associated with the construction of a new stadium, which will offer many jobs in the short and long-run. In the near -term, thousands of construction jobs will be available. Oakland residents, with the aid of the City Council’s new race and equity policy, should be the first in line to receive these jobs.
In the long run, the revitalization of the neighborhood could yield a variety of jobs in blossoming local businesses.
A lackluster performance by most of our city and county’s elected leadership allowed our world champion sports franchises to leave.
We offer the A’s a chance to publish their community benefits plans in the Post and El Mundo as we cover both sides of the debate over relocation plan.
With the election season on the horizon many would-be leaders will be offering themselves as “pinch hitters with a plan” to score big for Oakland.
As the Warriors are leaving for San Francisco, and the Raiders are departing for Las Vegas, the A’s are Oakland’s one remaining professional sports team. The A’s have pledged that they are staying in Oakland, with their “Rooted in Oakland” advertising campaign.
We hope they succeed. Yet we wonder, what’s going on? Where are the A’s?
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of May 8 – 14, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May May 8 – 14, 2024
To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.
Bay Area
Faces Around the Bay: Sidney Carey
Sidney Carey was born in Dallas, Texas. He moved with his family to West Oakland as a baby. His sister is deceased; one brother lives in Oakland. Carey was the Choir Director at Trinity Missionary Baptist Church for 18 years.
By Barbara Fluhrer
Sidney Carey was born in Dallas, Texas. He moved with his family to West Oakland as a baby. His sister is deceased; one brother lives in Oakland.
Carey was the Choir Director at Trinity Missionary Baptist Church for 18 years.
He graduated from McClymonds High with a scholarship in cosmetology and was the first African American to complete a nine-month course at the first Black Beauty School in Oakland: Charm Beauty College.
He earned his License, and then attended U.C., earning a secondary teaching credential. With his Instructors License, he went on to teach at Laney College, San Mateo College, Skyline and Universal Beauty College in Pinole, among others.
Carey was the first African American hair stylist at Joseph and I. Magnin department store in Oakland and in San Francisco, where he managed the hair stylist department, Shear Heaven.
In 2009, he quit teaching and was diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure. He was 60 and “too old for a heart transplant”. His doctors at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) went to court and fought successfully for his right to receive a transplant. One day, he received a call from CPMC, “Be here in one hour.” He underwent a transplant with a heart from a 25-year- old man in Vienna, Austria
Two years later, Carey resumed teaching at Laney College, finally retiring in 2012.
Now, he’s slowed down and comfortable in a Senior Residence in Berkeley, but still manages to fit his 6/4” frame in his 2002 Toyota and drive to family gatherings in Oakland and San Leandro and an occasional Four Seasons Arts concert.
He does his own shopping and cooking and uses Para Transit to keep constant doctor appointments while keeping up with anti-rejection meds. He often travels with doctors as a model of a successful heart-transplant plant recipient: 14 years.
Carey says, “I’m blessed” and, to the youth, “Don’t give up on your dreams!”
Bay Area
Emiliano Zapata Street Academy Celebrates 40 Years Serving Oakland Families
The Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, celebrated its 50th anniversary this year with a community party and festival last Saturday with live music, good food, vendors’ booths, and activities for adults and children.
By Ken Epstein
The Oakland Emiliano Zapata Street Academy, a public alternative high school, celebrated its 50th anniversary this year with a community party and festival last Saturday with live music, good food, vendors’ booths, and activities for adults and children.
Attending the Saturday, April 27 celebration were current and past students, families, faculty, and supporters of the school. The school is located at 417 29th St., and the celebration was held nearby at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland.
For more information, go to www.streetacademy.online or call 510) 874-3630 or (510) 879-2313.
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