Oakland News: Mayor Libby Schaaf’s MLK, Coliseum City Errors Fixable

I want to get this bit of Oakland News out of the way and off to the right start: Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is someone very close to me, but I have a job to do and a company to run, and that calls for continuing to report on issues locally, regionally, and nationally, and internationally, and run and maintain a giant network of 80 blogs and well over 300 social network platforms. Thus, I put my hat on from that perspective for this blog entry for Zennie62.com.

Mayor Schaaf is starting out her wonderful and dream-come-true tenure as our leader sending the right tone around the “Made In Oakland” religion (note, I did not say ‘brand”). It’s about time. Priming the pump of Oakland’s civic pride is something no other elected official has ever done in our city’s history (at least to my research). But with that, Libby has, unknowingly, placed upon herself a giant microscope that no other Mayor before her has had, not even now Governor Jerry Brown.

As a friend of mine at the local gym said last night “I’m watching her every move because I believe in her.”

Think about that.

Because she is a true Oaklander, and because of a image she has crafted of being what, in a way, she is, which is everyperson, now she has a real large problem: every person in Oakland expects her to deliver. Libby’s been placed on a pedestal so high that if it was a building it would be not just the tallest one in Oakland, but in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Thus, the tone was set for the Monday morning 5 AM protest in front of her house. It was done because a group of Oaklanders was upset that Libby met with the Oakland Police during her inauguration week, and did not, they contend, address the matter of the police and the black community.

Fortunately for Libby, the media content on this is small, and thus, the footprint will be, too. This is the only embedable shareable video from the protest (CBS5’s non-YouTube system is just plain useless):

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

Moreover, the story wasn’t picked up nationally.

Personally, I felt for both Libby and Sal, who now has to take on the new challenge of being a public figure on a scale he did not experience when she was an Oakland Councilmember. Like the good man and husband he is, Sal went out and met with the protestors on her behalf. Some have said that Libbby was “afraid” but that wasn’t the case, it was Sal taking charge. That’s what he does. That’s what husbands do. Good ones at least.

Also, Libby wasn’t there at the time. Something else to consider as we move forward: bodyguards for Sal. I’m not being funny here at all. This is no joking matter. I’m very concerned that Sal gets caught in the crossfire of protests at times when the Mayor’s not even present, and has no backup save for folks like me. (I guess that means we’re gonna have to be his security – so be it.)

The protest seemed to set the tone for the idea that the Oakland Police were more important than #BlackLivesMatter to Mayor Schaaf. I and others know that’s not true. But what Libby has to work to do is make sure her actions send the intended message and that she doesn’t leave it to the media to spin it. This habit of hers, of not making her own media via her own staff news website that’s placed on Google News and YouTube channel, is going to come back and bite her, and faster than she realizes. Her online content is being ruled by others (including myself as that’s how I make my coin), and this emerging trend must be countered – fast.

For example, a search for “Libby Schaaf MLK” should have revealed a list of media reports on an event she planned. Instead, it was taken up by the small number of accounts of the protest. Fortunately, their was one video of a few seconds of part of a speech she gave on MLK Day.

But the fact remains, Mayor Schaaf missed a golden chance to make a statement about #BlackLivesMatter on MLK Day. There was no press release, or statement on MLK Day that was issued to the media. In fact, the only MLK-related email I received was from now former Mayor Jean Quan. A planned event would have been a great counterpoint to the morning wake up. Libby could have invited the protestors to it.

This is not to say the MLK Day protestors are considered heroes – the action of #WakeUpTheMayor was risky and wrongheaded. It assumes that Mayor Schaaf is against the cause of #BlackLivesMatter rather than for it.

Still, Libby has to send a powerful message that she is, and she’s not done that. The Oakland Police have, all things considered, a good community record in the second decade of the 21st Century.

I remind you, if you’re jaw’s on the floor about now, that it was BART Police who killed Oscar Grant, and also that had Oakland Mayor Jean Quan not let everyone sleep on what Frank Ogawa Plaza during the Occupy Wall Street / Occupy Oakland protests of 2011, the stage would not have been set for the violent confrontation between OPD and law enforcement and the protestors. The City of Oakland should have eaten part of the protestor fine just for being stupid – or add some part of it to Mayor Quan’s tab.

But back to my main point: the Oakland Police of today is a much better civic unit than the one that existed during “The Riders” days of 1998 to 2002. What Mayor Schaaf should do is have one event that brings OPD and the black community together as one. One LARGE GIANT STATEMENT to meld the city. Something that is at once healing and new media savvy – something that causes a viral video. If you read this and laugh, and you’re a decision maker, we’re all in trouble.

The January 24th #BlackLivesMatter event will be a good barometer of where we are as a city in this mess: the creation of lost manufacturing jobs for blacks and whites, and white lower-middle-class men who would, in the past, be steel mill workers, applying for police jobs but without the cultural competence needed to work in urban areas like Oakland.

The email reads:

“On Saturday January 24, the Oakland City Council will convene a special meeting to hear from community groups and individuals about concerns raised in recent protest activities and to discuss what the City can do to improve police/community relations. If you would like to speak at the meeting, you can fill out a speaker’s card in advance or on the day of the meeting go here: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CityClerk/s/SpeakerCard/index.htm “

Libby is thinking she doesn’t want to do anything to have the Oakland Police turn their backs on her. But that’s where she’s wrong. If she takes steps to bring both together – to send OPD the message that they’re the caretakers of all Oaklanders. If she can get OPD to say #BlackLivesMatter, that ends the problem, at least the image of one (yes, I wrote that). If she can make serving Oakland and Oaklanders regardless of color as high a calling as serving America, then they will be at her side, no matter what. “Made In Oakland” – a solution that ends the #BlackLivesMatter problem. Libby has a window of opportunity to do this, but she must grab the moment.

The Other Mayor Schaaf Error: Oakland Coliseum City

The other error I point to may shock you (and it’s the focus of a separate blog post too): it’s Mayor Schaaf’s proposal for having the Oakland Raiders and The Oakland A’s form their own developer teams to come up with a plan for Coliseum City, just as she’s proposing to extend the “exclusive negotiating agreement” with New City, the current group that was forming a proposal to build what we now see as Coliseum City, at least when you consider the models and artist renderings.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf issued a press release Monday that reads, in part, this way:

Mayor Libby Schaaf, Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney and Council President Pro Temps Larry Reid today announced their support for extending the negotiating agreement with New City, as well as bringing the A’s and Raiders to the table to discuss developing the coliseum land themselves. Mayor Schaaf has also secured a commitment from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to consider formally joining the City of Oakland in this new approach at their next meeting January 27th. The Oakland City Council will vote in a closed session next Tuesday, January 20th, to extend the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) for up to 90 days, with an express condition that the City may negotiate simultaneously with its sports teams about developing the entire coliseum site.

The error here is in Mayor Schaaf’s proposal for having the Oakland Raiders and The Oakland A’s form their own developer teams to come up with a plan for Coliseum City, just as she’s proposing to extend the “exclusive negotiating agreement” with New City, the current group that was forming a proposal to build what we now see as Coliseum City, at least when you consider the models and artist renderings.

But now, what may be considered a politically genius move on Libby’s part, is one that’s as clear as mud to anyone who’s worked with developers or formed a plan to build a building or a set of them. In case you’re wondering, my background is as follows: undergraduate from Texas Arlington in “General studies” because then I could form my own set of classes to take for in city planning. In effect, preparing myself for a master’s degree program in it, which, in 1985, I was accepted into at UC Berkeley, the number one school in America to this day.

My first job was with the Oakland Office Of Economic Development and Employment as an intern. Those lights you purchased as the Home Depot in Emeryville? That big screen TV you got at Best Buy in Emeryville? You can thank me for them because, in 1987, I wrote the economic impact memo that prevented that crescent of land from becoming a wet-weather storage facility for EBMUD. In 1987, I also worked with a real estate broker to have EBMUD pipes relocated from land across from the Oakland Coliseum that is now an office building, but was then owned by the utility – the idea was to clear the land to build what was then called “Price Club” but the plan failed because then-Assistant City Manager Ezra Rapport was working behind the back of the EBMUD property manager. (That person hit the ceiling when I called her for property information.)

When Elihu Harris made me economic advisor in 1996, I cold-called Robert A.M. Stern and got him to send Paul Whalen, his top architect, to Oakland, and to form a what would have been a design-build competition that was to be ran by Forest City. Only problem was Elihu didn’t want to pay Robert A.M. Stern $500,000 to get it started. A good idea and a plan that would have worked, derailed. Recalling that brings tears to my eyes, but what the hell – I’m not mad at Elihu about it anymore, but I have to tell the truth.

I could go on and on with examples of what I’ve done to make the point that I know what the hell I’m talking about, and better than most – hell, I’ll just say everyone. Do you realize I brought Forest City to Oakland after a great presentation at the International Council Of Shopping Centers Spring Convention in Las Vegas in 1997? Anyone who was in that room in Vegas will tell you I kicked major ass, and that includes former City Manager Robert Bobb and Oakland Councilmember Larry Reid (and they better not say otherwise, either. They remember.)

We were going to have them do the plan I mentioned above, but Jerry Brown took over and steered them to his 10K effort, working with Forest City’s Greg Vilkin behind my back. But even then, I was asked to form a way to draw potential developers to Oakland, and so I created a “design symposium” that drew to my Oakland office in the Administration Building many real estate developers and brokers – many who are friends of mine to this day.

So Oakland got far less than we could have had.

And then there’s the Super Bowl Oakland Bid, but I’ll not take up time getting myself pissed off over how Mayor Brown treated me on that one. But all of that sets the stage for what I’m about to explain.

What Mayor Schaaf should have done, and can still do, is say she’s going to have a design-build competition. The current idea of telling a developer they have an “exclusive” negotiating agreement but then telling the sports teams they can make their own proposals, is crazymaking.

What should be done is this: the City and the County jointly run the competition with a task force that consists of sports execs, sports marketing specialists, planning consultants, elected officials, members of the sports teams and members from the community. A foundation of what is offered should be crafted: land available, land stats on infrastructure, and how much in financing the City and County can contribute. Developers from around the World would be invited to an event presenting the opportunity to be in the Coliseum City Design-Build Competition. Each one would have to form their own team of developer, architect, and investors. A small entry fee of $50,000 each would be charged not just to help with City and County staff costs, but to weed out those who can’t really do the project.

The teams would have to make their own scale models and renderings. Then the public would vote on the outcome. If this reads like the Harold Washington Library Competition, or the San Francisco TransBay Transit Center Design – Development Competition below, you’re right. See my video:

That is the right way to do what, I think, Mayor Schaaf is trying to achieve. What the Mayor should want is managed competition, not competition. I don’t know who’s idea the current proposal was, but it’s not in line with what’s done – it’s messy. It not only sends a bad message to the current developer, it still does not deal with the question of what the City and the County can bring to the table. There’s no foundation for planning. Plus, there are too many politicians involved at too high a level. Libby needs to bite the bullet and tab someone as the “czar” for this project. Look, none of this is rocket science: there are people who have done this before. The examples are many. Design-build competitions work, and it will work for Oakland and Coliseum City.