https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_uX97HZi5k
Oakland News Now Presents:
Oakland Mayor Thao Wrong – Howard Terminal Is Not Entitled, Triggered Oakland A’s Las Vegas Move
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Oakland Mayor Thao Wrong – Howard Terminal Is Not Entitled, Triggered Oakland A’s Las Vegas Move
A few days ago this week, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao got on a local news broadcast and said that one reason the Oakland A’s should come back to Oakland and build Howard Terminal was that it was “entitled”. That means the Oakland City Council gave the team the official go-ahead to put their new ballpark home at the once-Port of Oakland facility. The problem is that the Mayor’s wrong; the Oakland City Council never got to that point.
Sure, the A’s were on their way toward that day, but it was taking a lot of time to get there. The City of Oakland’s leisurely pace at doing tasks to get Howard Terminal to the point of groundbreaking is why Major League Baseball told the A’s that another city, Las Vegas, should be explored, thus creating the “parallel paths” term that Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval would use all of the time.
The A’s only had an EIR approval and court wins. But the fact is, the lack of an organization, a public financing authority, to steer the process and get all of the actions aligned, is what got the A’s to the point where they just gave up on the idea of getting anything done in Oakland.
This was one move I supported last year and still do, and because Oakland never learns how to change and fix what it does. We have had the Warriors, Raiders, and now A’s leave and its for one reason: Oakland’s Government. Period.
Yet, as long as we have Oakland elected officials who are not willing to pivot how they do things and then be different, we will never learn. I have lived this for a generation. But back to Howard Terminal.
Howard Terminal approvals should have started with the tax increment financing boundary approvals and the establishment of an infrastructure financing plan. The City had the crazy idea of waiting on the A’s to come up with a ballpark cost before approving the district. That is wrong.
The way to do it is estimate what tax increment revenue is expected under what assessed value scenarios and then estimate your TIF revenue up front. That helps financing and helps planning for the A’s to build Howard Terminal.
Then we approve and start collecting tax increment – we use part of it for administrative costs. That’s better than having to worry about the A’s paying for the very workers on the project. That’s a terrible idea, but Libby did it.
Now, we are still waiting for a tax increment financing district. Meanwhile the A’s are gone to Las Vegas.
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