The flood control channel that surrounds the site may act as a buffer, but some of the peripheral structures at the Coliseum may be in jeopardy, such as a cell phone tower and the football seats (which may be installed in the Coliseum right now).
12 October 2005
HomeBase (Coliseum South) fire
Local evening newscasts all have reported a seven alarm fire tonight burning at the old HomeBase (Coliseum South) site immediately to the south of the Coliseum complex. I took pictures of the site several months ago and compiled them into an overview (PDF format). The site has been vacant for several years and though it is fenced off, there are several openings in the fence for people to enter. I never saw anyone there when I walked around the place to take pictures, but it's probably a very inviting place for anyone that needs a roof and cover from police. The EDD building next door appeared to be threatened earlier, but reports as of 11:30 indicate that the fire is now under control. I sincerely hope no one was hurt or killed, though I have to wonder if this is somehow related to the displacement of a large homeless camp along the Lake Merritt inlet, next to the Oak-to-Ninth site. There weren't many places the affected homeless persons to go after the camp was broken up, and the HomeBase building certainly could have functioned as shelter. Posted below are the old picture montage of the site and an aerial view.
The flood control channel that surrounds the site may act as a buffer, but some of the peripheral structures at the Coliseum may be in jeopardy, such as a cell phone tower and the football seats (which may be installed in the Coliseum right now).
The flood control channel that surrounds the site may act as a buffer, but some of the peripheral structures at the Coliseum may be in jeopardy, such as a cell phone tower and the football seats (which may be installed in the Coliseum right now).
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2 comments:
I'm showing my age here, but wasn't that the old White Front store?
Coliseum South would appear to be a great spot, yet Lew Wolff insists that there are no other alternative sites on the table. Therefore, I can only conclude that he feels the only way to finance a ballpark is by development and sale of adjacent properties(ie: condos, etc)
Under that criteria, Coliseum South may be too small, even if you continued to utilize the existing Coliseum parking lot. Unless of course, you extend that development across Hegenberger. In your opinion, is that a possibility?
What concerns me about Coliseum North is that you're displacing light industrial sites that provide good jobs. And with jobs being a big issue in Oakland, some ONE or some GROUP may decide to mount serious opposition to this coniciding quite nicely with the mayoral race.
And frankly, I could see someone like Ron Dellums standing up and saying "THIS CITY SHOULDN'T SPEND ANY MORE TIME OR MONEY ON A STADIUM THAT WILL BENEFIT CORPORATE BARONS AT THE EXPENSE OF WORKING CLASS CITIZENS.....etc etc etc"
It would get him a lot of votes.
Has anyone shown any interest in the Coliseum South site? It looks to me like it has many advantages over the North proposal, not the least of which would be that it wouldn't displace dozens of property owners and businesses, and that it's close enough to the existing BART station. since the area across hegenberger does have development interest, why wouldn't Wolff at least consider it instead of the much more complicated North site? How can the North site be the only possibility in Oakland -- unless the idea is to leave Oakland?
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