Bay Area
CEO of Oakland A’s Addresses Community Concerns
Oakland A’s CEO Dave Kaval said he understands that the A’s parallel process of courting two cities simultaneously appears disingenuous to the public. “We’ve been in Oakland for 55 years and we want to stay here but we must be realistic. We’re spending $2 million a month to keep this project going and we’re running out of time, and still have not got approval. The League is putting pressure on us, our lease is through in 2024, and these projects take time. We hope something comes to fruition and we have a resolution this summer.”

Oakland Ballpark Project Part 3
By Tanya Dennis
Oakland A’s President David Kaval was surprised to learn that concerns expressed by the original designers of the Howard Terminal had all but been ignored by city and business leaders who are pressing to build a new stadium and housing at the site and has vowed to investigate.
Amid the flurry of lawsuits, protests and community concerns regarding the City of Oakland and Oakland A’s stadium project at the Port of Oakland, the most worrisome issue was posed by Frederick Jordan, CEO of FEJA, the engineers that designed the Howard Terminal.
According to Jordan, the Environmental Impact Report reveals what he described as a lack of information regarding safety with the quay wall that supports Howard Terminal, where the largest cranes in North America operate. The terminal also provides a turning basin for ships as large as high-rise buildings.
Kaval wonders why there has been no response to Jordan’s concerns, despite the fact that Jordan reaching out to the City, the A’s and the Port last year.
“It is problematic to me that Jordan was never contacted, and I don’t have an answer why he wasn’t, but I’ll investigate,” Kaval said. “The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers are making an assessment, and one of the key concessions on the table is 10 acres of land to be set aside to accommodate these large container ships.”
When informed of Kaval’s response, Jordan expressed relief. “I feel assured knowing the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers is making an assessment, as they cannot be bought nor influenced.”
Kaval also indicated that the SSA terminals and the Old America Seaport at the Oakland Army Base can be utilized for the larger containers. Also, 30 acres of the outer Port area will be dedicated for the same purpose so that the community concerns on the project negatively impacting Chinatown, Fruitvale and the Lower Bottoms are addressed.
“Trucks are currently going through the neighborhood to get to Howard Terminal,” Kaval said. “Enforcement of established truck staging areas that are not in people’s neighborhoods must occur, and the ballpark project is going to force the Port and the City to build those areas out, which probably won’t happen if this project doesn’t go forward.
“We’ve worked closely with the City for four years to address the concerns of the public because the last thing we want is to repeat the mistakes of past sports entities in Oakland when they left the City,” Kaval said.
Another important concern for Kaval is race and equity-based jobs and opportunities. “We’ve worked with the city to establish critical criteria to address internal staffing at the A’s to assure diversity, small business support and minority hiring. Our baseline report addressed the glaring need of countering gentrification and displacement, with $50 million going towards displacement, money to help local homeowners renovate their homes, including 35% of housing construction for low-income citizens. Our mix of grants and loans will help keep people in their homes and retain the cultural relevance of the neighborhood.”
Kaval indicated that despite opponents’ concerns of gentrification, he believes it will happen naturally if not for the money this project will generate to retain the existing culture. “Good-paying jobs will help people maintain and stay in their homes.”
Kaval said he understands that the A’s parallel process of courting two cities simultaneously appears disingenuous to the public. “We’ve been in Oakland for 55 years and we want to stay here but we must be realistic. We’re spending $2 million a month to keep this project going and we’re running out of time, and still have not got approval. The League is putting pressure on us, our lease is through in 2024, and these projects take time. We hope something comes to fruition and we have a resolution this summer.”
Art
Wonder Woman (or at Least Her Artist) Visits Cartoon Art Museum
Cartoon enthusiasts, graphic novelists and folks from all over the Bay Area braved the rain to meet Wonder Woman – or at least the first woman to draw her – at the Cartoon Art Museum Saturday and Sunday. The occasion was a pop-up Women’s Comic Marketplace, and Trina Robbins, the first female illustrator of the feminist icon, was on hand along with 20 or so exhibitors whose work reflected the rich variety of styles and subject matter in women’s comics today.

By Janis Mara
Bay City News Service
Cartoon enthusiasts, graphic novelists and folks from all over the Bay Area braved the rain to meet Wonder Woman – or at least the first woman to draw her – at the Cartoon Art Museum Saturday and Sunday.
The occasion was a pop-up Women’s Comic Marketplace, and Trina Robbins, the first female illustrator of the feminist icon, was on hand along with 20 or so exhibitors whose work reflected the rich variety of styles and subject matter in women’s comics today.
“We love comic books. We are vibing out,” said Valaree Garcia of San Francisco, who attended the event with her partner Sunday. “Every single booth is amazing, every woman is telling her story her own way.”
Exhibitor Avy Jetter of Oakland displayed her indie comic “Nuthin’ Good Ever Happens at 4 a.m.” which offers an Equal Opportunity look at the world of zombies, with an all-black cast of undead.
Around the corner at another table was cartoonist Jules Rivera, a surfer who detailed her dive into the largely male world of surfing in one of her first zines.
“I was already an aqua creature. I grew up in Orlando and had always lived on the beach,” Rivera said. When she moved to California, becoming a surfer came easily.
Rivera took over the decades-old Washington Post cartoon strip “Mark Trail” in 2020. The conservation-minded but rather conventional male character quickly got a makeover.
Rivera said, “I made him hot. They always intended him to be hot, they just went about it the wrong way.” In her zine, “Thirst Trapped in a Cave,” Rivera depicts Trail in a series of seductive poses she describes as “pinups.”
While many of the exhibitors create material intended for adults, Jen de Oliveira, a Livermore resident, is the co-creator of Sunday Haha, a free weekly comics newsletter for kids.
Children were much in evidence at the event, grouped around a table in the back industriously coloring and drawing, gathered in front of a big screen in another room watching (what else?) cartoons, sprawled on the floor reading (what else?) comic books.
At 4 p.m., the event adjourned to the library for tea with Robbins and Marrs.
Sitting at a round table sipping tea and eating gingersnaps, the two shared stories of their lives in the comics field.
Marrs, a Berkeley resident, created the comic book series, “The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp,” which was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2017, the highest honor bestowed in the comic book world.
In 1972, Robbins, a San Francisco resident, wrote and drew a short story called “Sandy Comes Out,” starring the first lesbian comic-book character outside of pornography. Shifting gears, she began drawing for DC Comics in the 1980s, and since then has authored several books and continues to write and draw comics.
“Lee Marrs and Trina Robbins talking about feminism, and the younger artists writing graphic novels about their lives – you don’t have to create a universe. You don’t have to make up a planet” the way traditional cartoonists have done, said Ron Evans, chair of the museum’s board of trustees, who was on hand for the event.
“It’s what you experience, and it’s much more relatable,” Evans said. Reading about common experiences in graphic novels and cartoons can make people, especially young people, feel less alone.
“In school you’re taught to write about what you know, and that’s what they’re doing. It’s cathartic, and who knows? Maybe it will help other people.”
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Bay Area
Holy Names University Hires Real Estate Firm to Sell Campus for High-End Housing
Leaving many students, faculty and Oakland residents feeling betrayed, Holy Names University’s leadership is aggressively moving ahead with plans to sell the 60-acre campus in the Oakland hills for high-end private residences and have not been willing to work with city leaders and other universities that are reaching out to save the site as a center for higher education.

By Ken Epstein
Leaving many students, faculty and Oakland residents feeling betrayed, Holy Names University’s leadership is aggressively moving ahead with plans to sell the 60-acre campus in the Oakland hills for high-end private residences and have not been willing to work with city leaders and other universities that are reaching out to save the site as a center for higher education.
In a reply to a recent letter to Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan, Jeanine Hawk, HNU’s vice president for finance and administration, wrote that HNU has already placed the property on the market through real estate broker, Mike Taquino at CBRE marketing, to market the property and is already distributing marketing materials offering the campus for sale.
Responding to Kaplan’s offer to collaborate with HNU to save the campus for educational purposes, Hawk replied, “At this point it is unclear to HNU how the City of Oakland can assist with the process of achieving the objectives of obtaining the highest and best use of the HNU property for public good.”.
“Nevertheless, if the city is aware of any interested acquirer or successor entity, please provide that information to Mike Taquino or to me,” she wrote.
She added that HNU had sent letters to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) so see if they might be interested in establishing a campus on the West Coast.
The CBRE Group, Inc. is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm. The term “highest and best use” is used in the real estate industry as expression of seeking to sell a property for its highest possible value.
Hawk did not mention the universities that have expressed interest in collaborating with Holy Names nor the university’s lender, Preston Hollow, which has also offered to find solutions other than selling the campus to a real estate developer.
Campus leaders at Holy Names and members of the Oakland community were stunned by the announcement of HNU’s latest moves to dispose of the campus,
“It’s too bad I don’t believe my own rhetoric sometimes,” said activist and scholar, Kitty Kelly Epstein. “I’ve been saying for some months that it seemed like the chair of the Holy Names Board was actually trying to sell the campus to real estate developers, and that’s why he refused to meet with any of the elected officials and city leaders who have offered help in keeping Holy Names open as a college campus.
“So – guess what? Now the marketing materials are out to sell the campus, while our trusting students, many from Oakland, are tossed out with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt and no college degree. It’s more evil than even a suspicious person like me can wrap my mind around.”
“I’m shocked,” said a HNU faculty member when hearing the news about the real estate developer.
A Holy Names student leader said, “Students are furious. They are afraid that Holy Names will be sold to a private developer.”
Said Councilmember Carroll Fife, “As an alumnus of Holy Names University, I am deeply disappointed the administration refuses to work with city leaders to ensure the campus can continue to be an important resource for Oakland but insists on selling the campus for maximum profit. I’m most concerned for students and faculty. I hope Oakland residents will make it clear that preserving this campus for generations of future students is more important than enriching a developer.”
Bay Area
NOMBC Saved – Pastor Sylvester Rutledge Gives Thanks
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