Saturday, January 17, 2009

Residents strongly oppose A's stadium in Fremont

[translated and edited from Chinese Word Journal]

Since the end of last year, Oakland Athletics announced Warm Springs would be an alternative site for the new baseball stadium. Many local residents have expressed strong opposition to this proposal. They recently set up an organization called "Fremont Citizens Network" (FCN) (http://www.FremontCitizensNetwork.org/) to formally oppose the stadium proposal in the Warm Springs areas.

One of the initiators of the organization, Mr. Xie, expressed on January 16th, "Because the City of Oakland has no further intention to retain the A’s, A’s move to Fremont is no longer just an idea, but is a reality about to happen." Based on his understanding, Warm Springs site was the A's initial preference. However, the team later reached an agreement with Cisco with plan to build the stadium at the Pacific Commons site, because Cisco would like to sell the use of the land near Pacific Commons. However, due to the opposition of several large businesses in Pacific Commons, the A’s are now reconsidering Warm Springs as their location of the stadium again.

Mr. Xie said that the Warm Springs site was designated as the alternative site in the A’s Notice of Preparation report to the Fremont City Council last December. Their intent was to take a short-cut as they would not need to start over again with a comprehensive Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for their alternative site.  

He pointed out that, there are many of the Fremont's best residential neighborhoods near the proposed Warm Springs site.  No other cities would have built a new stadium at such location. Mr. Xie said, "The business owners at Pacific Commons have strong financial and legal resources which have made it difficult for the A’s to reach any kind of agreement with the business owners.  As a result of it, the A’s started turnging their target to the Warm Springs residential area. This is actually a form of discrimination to the local residents." 

Mr. Xie said if the stadium is to be built at the Warm Springs site, it would result in traffic, parking, crime, safety and many other problems. He pointed out that BART extension to the South Bay is still nowhere in sight. South Bay fans will continue to drive to the games for many years to come. It will definitely lead to gridlocks on 880, 680 and local roads, which are already extremely congested during late afternoon commute hours. Due to the high cost of parking at the stadium, many people would preferentially park in the residential areas. This will result in severe disruption to the local esidents and their daily life. 

He pointed out there are misperceptions that traffic will increase revenue for local business. In fact, the vast majority of the ballpark attendees would only dine and shop within the confine of the stadium, for which would all be retained by the A’s and no benefits to the local businesses. Additional cars during the traffic hours would only result in gridlocks on freeways and surface roads. Gridlocks would result in a reduction of shopping time and a decrease of visits by the loyal customers, thus a decrease of business revenue. Mr. Xie also said that currently Fremont City Council members are inclined to support the A’s stadium proposal in Fremont, a proposal that will have great impact to all the residents in Fremont. Under the current situation, Fremont residents should speak out as one strong voice in opposition to the stadium project.  

Miss Bai, another initiator, expressed that Chinese are typically less vocal. But this project will have vital impact to our communities, personal being and welfare. “If we don't speak out, others will make decisions for us." She also pointed out that people from other ethnic communities all have similar concerns. We hope Fremont Citizens Network (FCN) would become a platform for all Fremont residents to get the honest and truthful information, share ideas and make Fremont a better place. 

Fremont Citizens Network web site: http://www.FremontCitizensNetwork.org/.

1 comment:

  1. Let's Go Oakland! is a group of A's fans, business people, labor leaders, and government officials who are committed to keeping the A's in Oakland. But it's about much more than just building a ballpark. As part of a larger plan to build new hotels, restaurants, and cafes, a new destination stadium will attract visitors from all over the region. Like AT&T Park in Mission Bay did for San Francisco, our ballpark will be a catalyst to bring new investment and jobs to Oakland, kick-starting the next phase of our community's successful economic development. If you support Oakland -- if you support the A's -- we hope you'll stand with us. Sign our petition, and urge Major League Baseball and team ownership to keep the A's in Oakland! letsgooakland.com

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