Oakland Raiders Mark Davis Invites Zennie62 To Submit Coliseum City Proposal

Oakland Raiders Mark Davis Invites Zennie62 To Submit Coliseum City Proposal On Tuesday, and at the NFL Spring League Meeting, and just an hour after Oakland Raiders Owner Mark Davis gave an impromptu press conference, Mr Davis, long-time friend Mike Silver of NFL Network, and I were having a conversation in the lobby of the San Francisco Ritz Carlton near the elevators, and I said to Mr. Davis that he should start a task force of his own to build a stadium in Oakland. That started a new exchange that ended with Mr. Davis saying “you submit a proposal”. So, and with Mr. Silver standing as witness (and Mike helped me with my Oakland 2005 Super Bowl Bid in 1999 as a member of my Oakland Super Bowl XXXIX Bidding Committee and Oakland Alameda County Sports Commission), I asked Mark to repeat that, and he did, a total of three times. After that talk, I made several calls and texts, and then informed NFL Senior Vice President Eric Grubman (the league's point person on stadium projects) and then NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, just moments after his press conference. Not a discouraging word came from either person. So, for me, that set in motion a round of private talks and meetings with a number of people who I can't name, but are in a good position to really get this going. For me, the motivation is simple: for the Raiders and Athletics to be able to stay in Oakland, and for Oakland to finally regain its once great will and initiative to complete big projects. My proposal, which some of you have seen the first two versions of, is now in its fifth version, and is being reviewed as I reform it more. But it calls for the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority to serve as master developer; it then will bring in developer partner / consultants. But if you think about it, the thorny problem of land development entitlements is simplified because the JPA already owns the land, and in my concept, we're not using land beyond its boundaries. All I am trying to do is set right something that went off the track years ago. Coliseum City was created as an idea but with redevelopment tax increment revenue in mind as a use = that's gone. But even with that, no effort was made to redesign the project. The 800-acre version of Coliseum City was the child of another Oakland Administration, and if you think about it, Oakland city administrators who stewarted the project are gone, and Gregory Hunter, who should have been the next head of economic development for Oakland, took off for the private sector. Now, we have a totally new group, and with the exception of Oakland District Six Councilmember Larry Reid, who's been around for this and got the Coliseum City idea from Frank Dobson and Bob Leste in 2009, the group of people in the City of Oakland at the highest levels in pretty much all new and with no institutional memory. A good task force of Oaklanders who have had experience with this matter would, and can, change that. But for now, I'm disclosing my intentions. I'm a news media publisher, but my background is in urban planning and economics. My first job out of UC Berkeley's City Planning Grad School was as intern for the Oakland Redevelopment Agency. You can thank my 1987 analysis for creating the argument for the construction of the retail area between Oakland and Emeryville that houses the Home Depot and Best Buy, today. I can go on, but stay tuned.

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