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The informal press conference held by San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales outside Phoenix Muni today wasn't mentioned in either the KTVU or KRON news tonight. It was mentioned (along with the always useful file footage) on KNTV. Among the new items: - Gonzales plans to approach Wolff after the A's sale is completed.
- He also plans to put a ballot initiative in front of San Jose voters in November 2006. The voters will also be choosing a new mayor as well.
The Merc was the only local paper to pick up the story. That isn't entirely fair to Bay Area media, since the whole affair was pretty short notice, and the media have more important things to report, like freaky tornadoes, 11th hour bill signings and steroids.
Update: KGO-7 ran a report last night that has a video clip of Gonzales at the stadium.
A ballpark is not currently being considered for the Oak-to-9th section of the Estuary. Instead, Signature Properties has plans for a major housing/retail development on the 60-acre property at the mouth of Lake Merritt Channel. While final approval is still at least a year away, Signature has already put up floorplans and other information for prospective buyers.
Something that may eventually accelerate or delay the development process is the May 17 Special Election for the District 2 (Oakland Grand Lake-Chinatown) City Council seat. Whoever fills the vacancy will have some measure of ability to shape the final plan. He/she will may be dealing with his/her immediate predecessor, Danny Wan, who resigned from the District 2 seat in January to take care of his parents and work for the Port of Oakland.You may recall that the Estuary site was studied in the HOK report. It came in 5th out of 7 sites. The site has a couple of things going for it. Mainly, it is an absolutely gorgeous location with a view of the Alameda marina across the water. If a south-facing ballpark were built, fans in the grandstand would have an enviable, foul pole-to-foul pole, panoramic view of Alameda and beyond that, the Peninsula and SF. Since some of the land is vacant or in the process of being vacated, groundbreaking could occur once clean-up is completed.That clean-up could be expensive due to toxicity levels at the site. Site preparation would also take some time because the ports were largely built with dredged bay mud and sand, making it not the most suitable foundation material. This was the case for China Basin as well, and the Giants solved that problem by driving 2,103 concrete piles into ground. Still, the area is a high-risk liquefaction zone, so special care would have to be taken to ensure the ballpark was seismically sound.Yet the greatest opposition may come from a particularly plucky group of residents at the 5th Avenue Marina, which has established a nice reputation as a thriving little artist colony. Property owner J.W. Silveira, who may have more clout and more lawyers at his disposal, has sued Oakland to prevent the marina from being acquired or otherwise used in the greater development plan. Whatever happens, the election winner will have no shortage of voices to hear from regarding what should be done with the land. The only guidelines exist in a 1999 document, the Estuary Policy Plan. One of those voices may be a new one in Lewis Wolff, who has plenty of experience building resorts and hotels and may find a unique opportunity to build one right on the estuary. With a ballpark, of course.
Ron Gonzales, the mayor of San Jose, is scheduled to have a press conference before a spring training game between the A's and Giants to let as many media people as possible know that he is serious about getting the A's in San Jose. He will trumpet many of the arguments put forth by the Baseball San Jose group. Mayor takes pitch for team to A's spring training site Purdy: Going to bat for A's is big opportunity for S.J. mayor The next several months are all about positioning and posturing for both Oakland and San Jose. Oakland assembled a public/private group to work on a financing plan for a new ballpark at the Coliseum, only to get a "don't call us, we'll call you" response from Wolff. San Jose has been waving its arms in air to get attention, but has been rebuffed by Wolff not just based on technicality (A's are focused on Oakland only right now) but also as a matter of principle ("I promise you, we will not write a check to the Giants."). It's not really worth trying to read too much into all of the public statements, because there's nothing behind them yet. When real plans and proposals become available, the debate can begin in earnest.
While doing my ballpark site surveys on Saturday, I stopped by the Amtrak station in Jack London Square. I didn't get a definite date on when the Coliseum station would be open, but I've been told it will happen sometime in the spring.
From the looks of things, it won't be ready in time for Opening Day, but the most of the hard stuff is done. All that's left is paving the access road and parking lot, and testing of trains running through the area.
A couple of years ago, the Raiders and Amtrak partnered up for a Raiders-themed Amtrak Capitol train that brought in fans from the Central Valley. There was no platform at the Coliseum, so fans disembarked at JLS and took a bus the rest of the way. Unfortunately, the relationship went sour after an incident involving drunken fans, where neither Amtrak/BART nor the Raiders took responsibility. The station will serve as part of an intermodal station, so trains should stop there regularly. What is unknown at this point is whether or not Amtrak and the Raiders will start up the special football service again, or if the train operator and the A's will do something similar.
Good news on the fares: The 10-ride ticket is good for up to 10 one-way admissions for any number of people. So it looks like it'll be a pretty good no-transfer option for those coming from the South Bay or the North Bay, even on weekdays. The nice thing about diesel locomotives as opposed to electric third rail-propelled trains (like BART) is that you can eat, drink, and listen to AM radio on them.
