About a dozen members of Oakland community groups rallied outside the Athletics' Jack London Square offices on Wednesday, calling on the team to include more community benefits in their Howard Terminal project proposal.
The Oakland City Council will vote July 20 on the $12 billion ballpark district plan, and Wednesday's speakers said they want the A’s to make tangible commitments to certain community benefits.
"If this project is done wrong, like what the A's owner John Fisher is proposing right now, it will continue to gentrify (the area) and make it unlivable," Kaila Mathis, Participatory Defense Coordinator with the Urban Peace Movement, said at the rally. "But if John Fisher commits to real community benefits – 35% affordable housing, resources for tenants, environmental protections, living-wage jobs and hiring from the community – we can see both the A's and long-term residents stay rooted here in Oakland."
The A's term sheet commits to $450 million in community benefits, raised through the creation of two infrastructure financing districts around Howard Terminal and Jack London Square, respectively.
A’s President Dave Kaval told KCBS Radio on Wednesday "it’s really up to the community and the city to determine how to use and spend that money."
"The Oakland community, and the Bay Area in general, hopefully will see that this is a once-in-a-generational opportunity to ensure that the A's are here for many generations to come," Kaval said. "And that all these community benefits, and jobs and, really, (this) transformative project comes to fruition at the waterfront."
Kaval told KCBS Radio that the A's agreed to a Project Labor Agreement with the Port of Oakland that contains local hire provisions. Mathis said community leaders want at least 50% of the jobs on the project to go to West Oakland residents, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said on Tuesday that the city council's July 20 vote will determine the team's future in Oakland.
"(This) is the decision point for Oakland as to whether they want Major League Baseball moving forward," Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association ahead of the 2021 MLB All-Star Game.
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