The Murky Organization Trying to Stop Howard Terminal
What is the East Oakland Stadium Alliance, and what are the next steps for Howard Terminal?
On March 30th, the First District Court of Appeals cleared a major roadblock to making the proposed $12 billion revamp of the Oakland waterfront known as the Howard Terminal project a reality. After years of fighting by the East Oakland Stadium Alliance, their legal challenges to the City of Oakland’s Environmental Impact Review have finally concluded, paving the way for the city and the Oakland Athletics to come to a funding agreement that would allow the project to finally become a reality.
The Howard Terminal project includes a new ballpark for the Oakland Athletics, thousands of housing units, new commercial spaces, and a refresh to a waterfront property no longer suitable for modern maritime use. The A’s have been looking to move out of the Oakland Coliseum into a waterfront ballpark for over two decades, with A’s owner John Fischer favoring Howard Terminal.
The project has run into several major problems, however. Legal challenges from the East Oakland Stadium Alliance, funding uncertainty, and threats of relocation loom over the team and the city as pressure mounts for a resolution. Fischer and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred issued an ultimatum to the City of Oakland to figure out how to make Howard Terminal a reality or else he would move the team to Las Vegas — a process he has already started, with the location of a new domed stadium starting to solidify.
What is the East Oakland Stadium Alliance (EOSA), the organization most vocally opposed to the Howard Terminal project? While fashioning themselves to be a group of community partners saving blue collar jobs in the Port of Oakland and preserving the history of Oakland Coliseum, the group is actually a front for Schnitzer Steel and other shipping interests attempting to keep the stadium and accompanying developments away from their territory.
The partners listed on EOSA’s website include Schnitzer Steel, SSA Marine, and several trucking associations. Although the EOSA claims to care about the environmental consequences such as “pollutant emissions that far exceed the city’s thresholds,” the members of the EOSA are the ones actually polluting Inner Oakland Harbor. Since 2000, Schnitzer Steel (whose facilities are directly adjacent to the Howard Terminal site) has violated environmental regulations 18 times, totaling over $13 million in penalties. The company doesn’t plan to stop polluting anytime soon. They won a lawsuit against the A’s just this January allowing them to continue processing allegedly hazardous materials on the harbor banks.
SSA Marine also boasts a murky past, with Blackstone (yes, that Blackstone) buying into SSA Marine’s parent company Carrix in 2019. Under the “Board of Directors” tab of SSA Marine’s website, the chairman listed is the Senior Managing Director of Blackstone Infrastructure. Twitter user Chris De Benedetti (who’s tweet thread on the EOSA is extremely informative) highlights Blackstone’s role in the housing shortage crushing California today. How curious that Blackstone, through the EOSA, is working to block the construction of 3000 new housing units along the Oakland waterfront.
The trucking and logistics companies that participate in the EOSA have legitimate pedestrian safety concerns, although they can be addressed with improved pedestrian, bicycle, and traffic infrastructure. Rather than advocating for these necessary infrastructure improvements to make pedestrian travel safe, the EOSA has used this solvable issue as an excuse to derail the entire project, basing their court challenges on a lack of detail about pedestrian infrastructure in Oakland’s environmental review (EIR). An organization serious about keeping the A’s rooted in Oakland would explore creative infrastructure solutions rather than seek to derail the entire project.
To recap, the East Oakland Stadium Alliance is a group including polluters and multi-billion dollar companies who use solvable problems like pedestrian infrastructure to prevent a currently unusable piece of port property from being given new life as a thriving commercial and entertainment district. Luckily for A’s fans, the EOSA’s most recent loss in court appears to remove any last legal recourse the EOSA had left, and paves the way for the City of Oakland to negotiate with the team on the last steps for approval.
The next steps for the city and the A’s are perhaps the most politically difficult: hammering out a funding agreement. Thus far, the city has secured over $370 million in grants for off-site infrastructure improvements like those that would address the pedestrian safety concerns brought up by the EOSA, but some cost estimates on that infrastructure work have run as high as $600 million, leaving a budget hole that needs to be made up somehow. According to Oakland City Council member Carroll Fife, the member who represents the land that Howard Terminal would sit on, “the ball is in [the A’s] court,” when it comes to making a proposal to the city.
If and when Oakland and the A’s reach an agreement, the next step is to acquire the plethora of permits required from various agencies to break ground. There is some optimism that this process could go smoothly, as entities like the Bay Conservation and Development Committee and Alameda County have already signaled their approval for the project.
For the A’s fans who’ve watched John Fischer trade away their favorite players, send the A’s into the American League West cellar, and begin to explore Las Vegas stadium sites, it might be hard to look at the various roadblocks the Howard Terminal project has encountered and feel optimistic. It’s important to remember that the Port of Oakland supports the project, the City of Oakland voted to certify the EIR, and all lawsuits have been resolved regarding the EIR’s sufficiency. There doesn’t appear to be anything else left for the EOSA to challenge, hundreds of millions of grant dollars have been secured by the city, and the newly elected mayor of Oakland said the project was one of her biggest priorities. At this point, the only thing standing in the way of Howard Terminal becoming reality is John Fischer’s willingness to make an offer the city deems fair (he can certainly afford it). The A’s fans and the City of Oakland deserve it.
Nat: Great article, I like your writing and the subject is excellent, and I hope you keep it up! One issue with the new A's stadium that also somewhat relates to global warming is access to public transportation. The current stadium, although pretty bad in all ways, is excellently location on BART. As in ... you get off at the stadium stop, and there is IMO zero reason to drive to the stadium unless you want to tailgate party. The new location is about .8 miles away, which is not bad, but I wouldn't want to do it on a night game. I know they're going to offer a shuttle, but I feel that any impediment to using public transit means that less people will use it.
Well, Schnitzer Steel (perhaps autocorrect has reared its ugly head). Otherwise, great analysis!