New details have emerged about the public-private plan to redevelop the Coliseum area in Oakland.
In a press conference on Thursday, representatives from the Oakland based "African American Sports and Entertainment Group" (AASEG) - the organization given the rights last month to rebuild the site - reiterated their commitment to local job training for their project which is seeking revitalize the East Oakland area.
The project is named the "30K 4 O-A-K" plan as it hopes to create 30,000 living wage jobs in Oakland through the Oakland Coliseum development project.
Ray Bobbit, founder of AASEG, said his group is committed to hiring locally for job training in order to make the community thrive.
"We understand our entire process is about this community and revitalization," Bobbitt explained. "We're glad that the city council accepted the terms, within the community benefit that will ensure the protections of the community."
Oakland Vice-Mayor Rebecca Kaplan echoed those sentiments, adding that creating jobs is especially important in East Oakland and in the broader African American community, where the unemployment rate is "horrifically high."
"More jobs equals more safety. The more people that are employed, the less we're going to have crimes and other forms of human suffering," she said.
Bobbit added they want to get started with job training in partnership with the Oakland Private Industry Council, a locally based employment service, to ensure that jobs are filled by skilled and trained Oaklanders.
"This is about getting our people in our community prepared and trained to be able to start work immediately," Babbitt said.
The site is also viewed as a very profitable area from an infrastructure perspective due to its proximity to freeways, to the port of Oakland, the international airport, and access to BART’s coliseum station.
