Billionaire John Fisher proposes putting 3,000 luxury condos, a mall, and a stadium on Oakland’s public port property.  Even if the Port could survive a stadium, it can’t survive 3,000 condos and a mall.   Oakland’s current life-and-death debate is not about the A’s and a baseball stadium.  

It’s about the creation of a new, posh, luxury city built on public property, profiting a billionaire, paid for by taxpayers, and reducing the viability of Oakland’s economic engine. The heart of Oakland as a progressive, working-class city and the unusual reality of thousands of decent-paying jobs employing Black workers are all at stake.

Oakland’s Port is in danger and this has become a nationally recognized problem. A publication on supply chains reports, “The Port of Oakland had recently found itself at the center of a short-term “economic boom,” thanks to U.S. West Coast shippers sending goods to its facility to alleviate congestion of Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. 

Though this may seem like a positive for Oaklanders, there is a problem that may prevent the port from acquiring new businesses in the future, and the problem is all too American: baseball.   The Howard Street Terminal, which serves as a passage for dock bulk cargo and containers, is likely going to be overtaken by The Oakland A’s”.

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The underlying issue here has already been settled in hundreds of communities across the world. You can’t mix heavy industrial uses (a port) with residential uses (condos) and have the industry survive. 

One expert senior planner states it clearly, “It is absolutely true that activities that are toxic, noisy, or are associated with big truck or motor vehicle activity are incompatible with residential areas.”

Ports are noisy and dirty, of necessity. And when residents move into such situations, they complain. Since residents vote and cargo ships don’t, the complaints cause more and more restrictions to be placed on the industrial activity. In addition, the comings and goings of thousands of residents and office workers will cause gridlock and make Port operations impossible.

This reality is so universal that some Port of Oakland businesses have already started limiting the length of their contracts with the Port out of caution for what they see as the possible success of billionaire Fisher’s plan. The Oakland Port had been undergoing an economic boom in recent years, but now businesses are making plans to take their business to other West Coast ports.

Dr. Mark Luther, professor of Maritime and Port Studies at the University of South Florida, says that allowing residential development on or near a port is very short-sighted for any city because a port is a long-term economic engine for a city.  There are no experts on ports who support a development like Fisher’s.

The Wall Street Journal recognized this problem years ago, “America’s ports are running out of room. Squeezed by their urban hosts and struggling to keep up with exports from the developing world, the country’s long-neglected port infrastructure, is nearing a crisis point.”

So why would billionaire Fisher’s proposal even be up for discussion?   Oakland is currently dominated by something sociologist William Domhoff calls the “growth coalition.”  This consists of developers seeking a profit, the elected officials who side with them to promote their careers (in this case Mayor Schaff) and the construction trades that are interested in the short-term construction jobs these projects provide.

This particular development is a very bad idea and would not be given a second look if its proponents were not able to use affection for the A’s to sell it.  We would all like the A’s to be in Oakland.

They could stay in the same or a newly built stadium in East Oakland or Fisher could propose a stadium without the condos at the Port.  But he isn’t likely to do either one, because for him, this is not about the A’s.  It’s about making a boatload of money off ocean-facing condos and our Port be damned. The City Council has the power to stop this madness.  They need to use that power.

Christy Price

Posts by Christy Price