{
"type": "rich",
"version": "1.0",
"provider_name": "Action Network",
"provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org",
"html": "",
"author_name": "APEN and APEN Action",
"author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/groups/asian-pacific-environmental-network-apen",
"title": "Oakland A's must deliver real benefits for local communities",
"thumbnail_url": "https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/letters/photos/000/184/184/normal/APEN_No_Stadium_at_Laney.jpg",
"description": "For generations, Oakland Chinatown has been a landing place, home, and cultural hub for Asian immigrants and refugees. The neighborhood began as a haven for Chinese immigrants escaping white supremacist violence in the late 1800s. Since then, it has evolved into a vibrant neighborhood where families can raise their kids, get groceries, and access services in multiple Asian languages. We’ve survived catastrophic earthquakes, world wars, recessions, gentrification, a pandemic and a surge in anti-Asian violence. Now, just as our community is struggling to get back on our feet, Chinatown faces another threat: the Oakland A’s Howard Terminal stadium proposal. John Fisher, the multi-billionaire owner of the Oakland A’s, is proposing a massive stadium development less than 1 mile away from Oakland Chinatown, with a hotel and retail space, luxury housing, and high-rise office buildings. We need your help to make sure that the new Oakland A’s stadium mega-development delivers real benefits to local Oakland communities. In Chinatown, we’ve seen what happens when developers build luxury condos on every block. Fisher’s proposal for the A’s stadium development includes constructing over 3,000 luxury condos, a move that will drive up rents and push even more families out of their longtime homes in the surrounding neighborhoods. With the nearest BART station over a mile away through industrial terrain and only 2,000 parking spaces for over 35,000 fans, the stadium will turn Chinatown’s streets into a traffic thoroughfare and parking area. It will increase air pollution in one of Oakland’s most pollution-burdened neighborhoods and shut out Asian immigrant and refugee families from accessing services, getting groceries, or attending church in one of the few neighborhoods where they can do this in their own language. Yet, the Oakland A’s corporation hasn’t even considered the impacts their development would have on Chinatown, excluding the neighborhood entirely from their Draft Environmental Impact Report, and refusing to study the impacts of traffic on our neighborhood. Fisher wants the city to subsidize $855 million in infrastructure for the stadium mega-development, but refuses to invest his own resources in a Community Benefits Agreement that would guarantee affordable housing on-site, ensure that local residents have opportunities and access to jobs, preserve Oakland’s arts and culture, and protect public health. Instead, the Oakland A’s corporation is advocating that tax revenues from the stadium be funneled into infrastructure projects that benefit Fisher’s stadium, hotel, and luxury housing developments. We are calling on Oakland’s City Council to make sure that the Oakland A’s stadium development delivers real benefits to Oakland communities by ensuring that: The Oakland A’s corporation pays for a Community Benefits Agreement that invests in affordable housing, creates good jobs for local residents, ensures public health, and supports small businesses. The development project respects the longstanding Chinatown community by investing in traffic management on event days, alternative and additional parking, promotion of Chinatown businesses, and language-accessible marketing materials. The Oakland A’s corporation pays for studies on the impacts that their development will have on Oakland Chinatown.",
"url": "https://actionnetwork.org/letters/oakland-as-must-deliver-real-benefits-for-local-communities"
}