No cost to fremont?

[These are the quotes from various sources]

The A's claim they don't need public money for the stadium. They need to claim this so the project "does not requre" a city wide referendum. They can just get the approval easily from the 5-member city council. Is it really "at no cost to the City of Fremont"? Can they really avoid a city wide referendum?

The A’s claim the entire development will come at no cost from the City of Fremont. I don’t understand how they can make such irresponsible promise as they also seem financially stranded in the current economic downturn. Who will pay the large bill on the infrastructure, road upgrade, maintenance, extra police, etc?

Once the project starts, it will be point of no return, whether you like it or not (sound familiar?). Fremont could be dragged down into deep financial trouble. The A's proposal looks appealing, but I don't think city size of Fremont can sustain such big financial impact. It's better to leave it to big cities. We don't want to see our tax money drain down to help the A's.

The Council Members ask several times the how much “money” we spend so far on this project, and the answer is always "the expected $0”. This is good since we can stop the project now with no money loss from the city. True, the city haven't use "any money" on this project so far. But it has already dragged a large amount of time and resource from the city and local community to go through the meetings and discussion. This is a very big “cost” to the Fremont community.

The costs behind this stadium are extremely, well, costly! Especially with America's economy slowly dying, this is one of the last things we need.

Research suggests that though citizens bear the cost for the building and upkeep of stadiums they do not partake of the profits.

A stadium in Fremont will only be a burden to the tax payers and also allow for more conjestion. Studies have been done showing that stadiums are more a burden than an asset.

Strong support for stadium?

[These are the quotes from various sources]

Many people think there are strong support for the A's stadium in Fremont. Wrong! The big supporters are the A's, Cisco, some city officials and business interest groups. Most residents don't want the stadium in Fremont. Now even the retailers don't want them either. We need to let the media know the true voice from the citizens of Fremont.

Many family, friends, colleagues and local business don't support a stadium in our city. But don't have a platform to voice out. Now it's the perfect timing to let the Fremont citizens know we can still make difference.

Many people also mention Mayor Bob Wasserman won the November election because he supports the A's stadium in Fremont. Wrong! He only got 41.86% of vote, while the combined vote of Steve Cho and Gus Morrison (both against the plan) is much higher (33.05%+20.84%=53.89%).

We even hear people say: "we will do whatever it takes to bring the A's to Fremont". How can any people come up with such conclusion without thorough study of the huge impact to Fremont. Whoever city official said this should be removed from office immediately.

If you still supports a new Fremont stadium after seeing there are so many flaws in the current plan, please let us know why. Will the revenue justify the cost? BTW, we don't even sure whether it will bring or drain revenue. We welcome public debates. Have you seen any debate in the past two years for this stadium plan decision?

A: The A’s in Fremont will the best thing ever to happen to this town!
B: Have you study their plan? May be you should live next to the ballpark!

Only impact south Fremont?

[Many quotes from different sources]

We start the group from the Warm Springs community because we have immediate impact. Now after extensive studies, it becomes clear this will also impact the whole city of Fremont, whether the stadium is in Pacific Common or Warm Springs. We will need to find ways to reach out to all the Fremont communities.

Decrease in property values will surely and swiftly spread to other parts of Fremont, when all the streets and freeways are choked by the additional 9000 cars and crowd; polce/fire department understaffed because they are dragged to deal with additional visitors; city gets bankrupt and services are adversely affected. And, no one can guarantee that the city will profit from putting the stadium here. Not a single Fremont resident can be spared, whether you live in the south or not.

Regardless of where the Stadium is located in Fremont, the impact of the stadium is same for the entire city. So your life is going to change no matter where you live in Fremont. Don't think that I live miles away from these sites and so I am safe. No, you will face the same problems as anyone else regardless of the proximity to the stadium: Increase in violent crimes, sale of alcohol close to schools, outside folks littering after games, and not to mention 9000 cars coming in for every game which makes the already clogged roads impossible to use. People will use inside roads to beat the highways and therefore every major peaceful road like Paseo Padre Parkway, Fremont Blvd, Decoto, Dixon Landing, Stevenson Blvd will get unbearable.

The traffic impact on both 880 and 680 will definitely affect most people, unless you don't need to drive on either freeway or local road is south Fremont.

The crime and security concern will have immediate impact to the south Fremont neighborhoods. It certainly will affect the city's resource.

When the future Fremont is in deep financial trouble, everybody loses.

Where is our Voice?

[Many quotes from various sources]

It is just very easy for the city officials to ignore our opinions. Honestly, I think they know we are not happy but they are not going to speak up for us.

The whole thing is puzzling me: "the mayor & city council" push for a stadium plan to ask "the mayor & city council" to approve? while the "councilmembers", who are supposed to speak for the residents, are also the proponents of the plan? The current plan has too many flaws.

We need to organize multiple demonstrations at different locations and date to draw the attention of more people in the community and get them involve.

Our opponent has money and connections and we need to get as much help as possible. I believes that many people in our community do care and want to do something. We need to be visible to them and allow them to join our effort easily.

Yesterday, 12/09 meeting, the person who represented the Pacific Commons business park was extremely well prepared. They probably have an attorney (or a set of them) who has done enough leg-work to strengthen their case.

In our residential community, do we not have any attorney who can "voluntarily" take this issue up? I mean, there is a lot of difference in making ourselves present in these meeting, and representing ourselves in the right manner.

Secondly, I also had the same question as to how to make this petition that requires the city to vote. For if it comes to Fremont city residents to vote, we definitely stand a better chance to negate this proposal.

In the media, we only hear the rosy picture from the A's, Cisco and City official. The local residents don't have the money or resource to battle against the big corporations. Who will speak for us?

I think the Fremont Council and the Mayor, especially who was voted to look after the people's interest should all be recalled. They are doing a disservice to their people, trying to push the ballpark in a neighborhood full of children and not take in account of their voters and the proximity of the housing.

Let's recall any council who support this!!!

The leadership of Fremont is showing very poor judgment and poor stewardship of our city. The new location is a terrible choice given the surrounding neighborhoods.

In last month's election, Mayor Wasserman only got 41.86% of vote, not a majority.

Fremont needs a stadium?

[Many quotes from various sources]

San Jose, San Diego, AT&T, they are all build astadium to revitalize a DEPRESSED area close to the DOWNTWON of a LARGE CITY. Does south Fremont fit any of the above criteria?

Some claim Fremont is the 4th largest city of the bay area. But do we have the infrastructure of a large city? Even our city government is still a small town general city structure (the largest non-charter city in CA). People don’t even know where our city hall is;-(

The mayor picks San Diego and San Francisco as examples on how the area around the ballpark is booming. But he forgets to mention those two sites already have exisitng infrastuctures and are close to the downdown of a large city. (Another big reason for the boom in SOMA, south of Market in SF, is there are many new internet companies in that area.) We can find too many examples how a stadium can burden a city (eg. Oakland). If the plan can really work, why don't they just put in east Oakland, which is an area really need to be revitalized. 

The A's pick Fremont simply because they cannot get a good bargain from the city of Oakland. There are too many strong politicians in Oakland. They thought it will be easier to get approval from a small town like Fremont, which is still the largest non-charter city in California. They only need to convince the 5-member part-time mayor and city council. We urge the city council to prove the above statement wrong by scruntizing their plan and making sure the A's address all the issues properly (instead of just being the rubber stamp of the A's) .

The A's is smart enough the bring the "ballpark village" concept. Most people won't approve a stadium in their city. So they deceptively mix in the residential and Santana Row like retailers. Now with the real estate turning bad, they plan to delay the residential and retailer part and still expect the city of Fremont to approve their plan? Dear mayor and council members, please don't sacrifice Fremont's future to bail out the A's. BTW, I like the Santana Row idea, but I don't remember seeing any stadium near Santana Row last time I visited.

As pointed out by Mr. Wolff, the current ballpark village plan is suitable for a large city with huge downtown area. South Fremont is a bad location. If you really want the A's to stay in Alameda County, Oakland is a better place with many options. Fremont doesn't want to steal jobs from Oakland. Or the A's can easily turn the current Coliseum into a baseball-only stadium once the Raiders leave in a couple of years. If you really care about the A's future, you should really push a "baseball city" in downtown San Jose, since MLB is willing to tackle the territory right now. If you realy want to save the earth, you should ask Giants and A's both share the AT&T park. 

What has A's brought to Oakland over years? Has Oakland changed to a better place for kids and families by just having her name on the team? Why does Pacific Commons even oppose having A's stadium built next to it? It's a commercial district usually begs people to go there. Studies show that The professional sports environment in the 37 metropolitan areas had no measurable impact on the growth rate of real per capita income in those areas, instead, it has a statistically significant impact on the level of real per capita income in study's sample of metropolitan areas, and the overall impact is NEGATIVE. (Research publication of Dennis Coates and Brad R. Humphreys)

And, why the City of Fremont and those in the offices want to have the team? Cisco sells the land that had no use to them, Cisco could hardly keep their current offices occupied. Plus Cisco gets the naming right of the stadium, and projects for them to work on the stadium devices. What's in there for Fremont? Has the ones in offices exercised their due diligence on the study of impact of the stadium of the people live right next to the stadium, the impact of lives of people who put them to the offices? Are there going to be a binding documents to guarantee the outcome of the stadium for the revenue that it is said to be generated and for the lives of people who are affected by the stadium? Who will be held accountable if the things are going to be what promised to be? If not, Mayor Wasserman, stop what you are doing! You can not ruin the lives of your residents in the name of revenue. Are you willing to be held responsible for the adverse affect of the stadium to our lives? Fremont is unique, like nowhere else, please don't destruct our homes!

Don't bring the quality of the City of Fremont down by allowing a ballpark be built here. We all know what that will do to this area. Crime goes up, property values go down. It would make traffic congestion worse than it already is and transients on our streets make it unsafe for the residents of Fremont. Built it and Fremont becomes the new Oakland of the east bay. Is that what the City of Fremont really wants?! I don't!

I believe that an A's Stadium anywhere in Fremont is a reckless, costly venture for Fremont residents and will not be beneficial to anyone except the owners and developers. I strongly protest any location in Fremont for the A's stadium, regardless of what empty promises they make.

Ballparks should be in cities which have huge downtown areas, which we don’t have.

Building a new A's Stadium is the best thing could happen, to the team owner. But as city mayor and the City Council Members, you should put the fremont resident in the first place.

Dear Mayor, Vice Mayor and Council Members, please do not assume bringing A’s to Fremont is a project you will be proud of. Instead, it will be something you will be ashamed of.

Will we miss a golden opportunity for the jobs and revenue and A's will bring in? After all the Fremont citizens understand the cost and benefit, if the risk is too high, we would rather reject the proposal instead of jumping into deep financial trouble and irreversible damage. This is the same philosophy when a company hiring a new employee. If there are concerns, they would pass a good candidate rather than hire the wrong person.

The great majority of jobs stadiums create are part-time, sporadic, temporary, low-wage, non-union jobs, not the type of jobs this city needs. We also don't want to take away the jobs from Oakland.

Fremont makes A's better?

[Many quotes from various sources]

A's does not care about our communities. Look at the current Oakland area. Moving to Fremont will not suddenly make them change? The A's chose Fremont only because they can not get across the Santa Clara County border which is Giants territory (now they can).

The A's think moving to Fremont will make them a better team. Wrong.

A's does not treat their player well. Look how many times they traded their good players to other team. They maybe famous for their "Money Ball" to develop good players. But they are certainly not good at keeping a good team. They can argue because the A's is a "small market" team. Will moving the team to Fremont will suddenly make them become the "LA Angels of Anaheim"? But if they don't change the way they run the team, they will always live in the shadows of the Giants.

They won't even name the team "Fremont A's".