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17 June 2005

Notes on this week and next week

Next Monday night I will attend the Measure DD Community Coalition meeting held at Oakland's Lakeside Garden Center near Lake Merritt. Michael Ghielmetti of Signature Properties was present at last month's meeting to discuss the Oak-to-9th development. There's no indication he'll be at the upcoming meeting, but Oak-to-9th will be a discussion topic. Important note: I will try to ask questions related to the general opinion of the community about a ballpark on the site, but I will in no way be in any sort of advocacy role. Why? It's hard to rally for something that doesn't yet exist, for starters.

Speaking of not announcing a plan, Lewis Wolff was supposed to be touring around Oakland today to look at sites, according to Dave Newhouse's column from earlier in the week. Hopefully I'll have something to post about that later today. Wolff himself said he won't have any "solid ballpark information to announce for a month."

Going back to Oak-to-9th, the Measure DD folks also posted a blueprint for Signature's Oak-to-9th plan. It appears that I may have guessed right - the graphic I posted on Tuesday shows a ballpark on a patch of open space just east of Lake Merritt Channel. Based on what I've seen from the blueprint, it's the only space left that could possibly accommodate a structure like a ballpark. The downside is it would effectively eliminate most of the open space remaining there, and that may not sit well with the Measure DD folks. I do like Signature's use of parking under 880.

Finally, two more links on the state of the stadium-building industry, which was thrust into the spotlight with this week's announcements of new stadiums for the Yankees and Mets.