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Open Letter to the City Council: Tell the A’s to Stop Abusing Oakland

Stop this madness now! Tell the A’s to pay their fair share or get out of town! Give them no public money for a ballpark. None! If Howard Terminal is so much a better deal than the Coliseum, where a ballpark could be built for little or no public money, let the A’s billionaire owner pay for it. If the A’s don’t like that deal, let them leave.

Published

2 years ago

December 12, 2021

Oakland Post

The A’s have been pitting cities against each other to leverage more public money for a ballpark.

By Post Staff

The City of Oakland is in an abusive relationship with the Oakland A’s.

The A’s tell the city, “Give me what I want, and I will stop hitting you.” The city bends and the A’s demand more and hit the city harder. We, the voters must come to the aid of their elected leaders. Please intervene and tell our elected leaders to stop allowing the A’s to bully them. Just say “NO” and walk away.

After all the city of Oakland has done to demonstrate their desire to keep the A’s in Oakland, including offering over $500 million of public funds for development of the Howard Terminal ballpark, the so-called ‘rooted in Oakland’ A’s have made an offer on a Las Vegas ballpark site at the Tropicana Casino. https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/sports/nevius-as-should-just-skip-oakland-charade-head-for-vegas/

Clearly, the A’s have been pitting cities against each other to leverage more public money for a ballpark.

Who needs a team that is so uncaring that they arrogantly demand diversion of public funds to them, or they will leave?

Taxpaying residents of Oakland have suffered long and hard with homelessness and crime. They need public funds devoted to those problems, not a baseball park. At a point where the city has empaneled a blue-ribbon commission to actively consider increasing business taxes for every business in town to pay for revenue shortages, it is outrageous to consider giving the A’s public money and tax breaks to build a baseball stadium.

This is especially galling when there is perfectly good property at the Coliseum that could be the site of a new ballpark without the need for all the public money the A’s are demanding for Howard Terminal.

“Our job is to feed people,” said Keith Carson, president of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, at a recent hearing on whether Alameda County should contribute public funds to the Howard Terminal project. Carson is absolutely right. The City and the County have great needs that should take priority over giving public money for a ballpark.

But the arrogant and hostile ways the A’s treat the public does not stop with city taxpayers. The A’s recently increased their season ticket prices and eliminated discounts previously offered to their fans. But the fans did the appropriate thing. They stopped buying tickets. During a recent playoff run, the A’s had fewer than 5,000 fans at their games. According to public reports they ranked 29^th out of 30 teams in fan attendance.

Our elected officials should follow fan responses to the greed and arrogance of the A’s. The A’s must pay their own way. Do not spend public dollars on baseball parks. Do not let them bully and abuse our elected officials.

If they choose to leave, “let the door hit them where the dog should have bit them.”

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Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

Published

1 day ago

April 26, 2024

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

Published

1 week ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

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Oakland Schools Honor Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties

Every Jan. 30, OUSD commemorates the legacy of Fred Korematsu, an Oakland native, a Castlemont High School graduate, and a national symbol of resistance, resilience, and justice. His defiant stand against racial injustice and his unwavering commitment to civil rights continue to inspire the local community and the nation. Tuesday was “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” in the state of California and a growing number of states across the country.

Published

1 week ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Fred Korematsu. Courtesy of OUSD.

By Post Staff

Every Jan. 30, OUSD commemorates the legacy of Fred Korematsu, an Oakland native, a Castlemont High School graduate, and a national symbol of resistance, resilience, and justice.

His defiant stand against racial injustice and his unwavering commitment to civil rights continue to inspire the local community and the nation. Tuesday was “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” in the state of California and a growing number of states across the country.
One OUSD school is named in his honor: Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy (KDA) elementary in East Oakland.

Several years ago, founding KDA Principal Charles Wilson, in a video interview with anti-hate organization “Not In Our Town,” said, “We chose the name Fred Korematsu because we really felt like the attributes that he showed in his work are things that the children need to learn … that common people can stand up and make differences in a large number of people’s lives.”

Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland on Jan. 30, 1919. His parents ran a floral nursery business, and his upbringing in Oakland shaped his worldview. His belief in the importance of standing up for your rights and the rights of others, regardless of race or background, was the foundation for his activism against racial prejudice and for the rights of Japanese Americans during World War II.

At the start of the war, Korematsu was turned away from enlisting in the National Guard and the Coast Guard because of his race. He trained as a welder, working at the docks in Oakland, but was fired after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Fear and prejudice led to federal Executive Order 9066, which forced more than 120,000 Japanese Americans out of their homes and neighborhoods and into remote internment camps.

The 23-year-old Korematsu resisted the order. He underwent cosmetic surgery and assumed a false identity, choosing freedom over unjust imprisonment. His later arrest and conviction sparked a legal battle that would challenge the foundation of civil liberties in America.

Korematsu’s fight culminated in the Supreme Court’s initial ruling against him in 1944. He spent years in a Utah internment camp with his family, followed by time living in Salt Lake City where he was dogged by racism.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford overturned Executive Order 9066. Seven years later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco vacated Korematsu’s conviction. He said in court, “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color.”

Korematsu’s dedication and determination established him as a national icon of civil rights and social justice. He advocated for justice with Rosa Parks. In 1998, President Bill Clinton gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom saying, “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls … To that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.”

After Sept. 11, 2001, Korematsu spoke out against hatred and discrimination, saying what happened to Japanese Americans should not happen to people of Middle Eastern descent.
Korematsu’s roots in Oakland and his education in OUSD are a source of great pride for the city, according to the school district. His most famous quote, which is on the Korematsu elementary school mural, is as relevant now as ever, “If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don’t be afraid to speak up.”