Surprise! V Smoothe is annoyed by the “news”

by V Smoothe | August 15, 2008 | 9 comments

There are lots of things I really should learn. I should learn to enough Spanish to communicate somewhere other than the kitchen. I should learn to sew sleeves and collars that don’t look like they were made by a child. I should learn PHP. And I really, really, really need to learn that when I get home after a lovely evening out, I should not check my RSS feeds because there will undoubtedly be something in them that ruins my good mood.

And so it was last night, as I absentmindedly starting scrolled through the latest headlines while pouring myself some bourbon, and stumbled upon like, the most pointless story ever, in which we learn that in the event the Fremont stadium doesn’t work out, the Mayor would like for the A’s to stay in Oakland, as long as it doesn’t require anything inconvenient from the City. The story prompted the following conversation:

VSMOOTHE: OMG OMG [redacted]
Did you see this?
http://tinyurl.com/5bqxjp
DTO510: Hey.
OMG, I know. Since when is Dellums wanting the As but with no plan news?
VSMOOTHE: Actually, that is news.
He’s changed his position.
DTO510: Yeah?
VSMOOTHE: Do you remember your very first post on Dellums Watch?
DTO510: Ha! Good memory.
I’m mad at the Trib for running an article that’s like a lie.
I mean, I guess it’s not.
Dellums hopes A’s will stay.
Chamber of Commerce wants the A’s to stay.
There’s no plan to get them to stay.
VSMOOTHE: BREAKING: The Trib sucks.

It turns out that my memory isn’t so good after all, because it was actually the second post on Dellums Watch, but the point remains that for the Mayor to even express vague desire to keep the A’s in town is actually a change of heart from when he was campaigning, when he called even the notion of the team staying around a “flight into fantasy.”

So, if you haven’t been following the Cisco Field saga and want to start, you should immediately bookmark the New A’s Ballpark blog, which is totally awesome, even if it is written from a pro-Fremont perspective. Anyway, if Dellums had been reading the new ballpark blog, or, you know, the newspaper, he might have noticed that team owner Lew Wolff has done every damn thing he can to make it perfectly clear to everyone that Oakland is not an option as far as he’s concerned, saying last fall at the Commonwealth Club:

We don’t want to move. We don’t want to start pitting cities against each other, but it’s out of the question we’ll stay in Oakland.

Sigh. Folks, if you want the A’s to stay in Oakland, well, you’ll probably end up being disappointed, but in the meantime, your best bet is to give money to Gus Morrison, former five-term Mayor of Fremont and a strong ballpark opponent who’s running again on an anti-ballpark platform. Then sit around and hope that the EIR mitigations turn out to be just way too burdensome. Meanwhile, cross your fingers that in the next year or two, Oakland is able to get crime (or at the very least the perception of crime) under control so that people aren’t afraid to come here for an evening. Then, in the unlikely event that Fremont falls through, we can start talking parcel consolidation on the central waterfront.

9 Responses to “Surprise! V Smoothe is annoyed by the “news””

1
dto510 Says:
August 15th, 2008 at 10:07 am
So, V, starting on advanced sewing? The Trib should write an article: Oaklander hopes to be on Project Runway. That will have just as much truth and relevance as this article about some people wanting to keep the A’s but taking no steps whatsoever toward that goal.
2
fakchek Says:
August 15th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Actually, the MOST pointless story ever is the one about the City in negotiations with a mystery manager for the Kaiser Convention Center. But it’s in the Tribune, if that makes you feel better. http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_10208675
3
Jonathan C. Breault Says:
August 15th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Given his proclivity for vacuous, meaningless sophistry any utterance by Ron Dellums constitutes an exercise in pointless, stream-of-consciousness expository nonsense. It would seem obvious that Dellums, to be charitable, is not the most informed person in town. And I do not doubt that he has little acquaintance with the news or the real state of affairs in Oakland. He clearly resides in an odd, delusional world of his own invention; one decidedly out-of-touch with the modern world. Dellums has no more influence or relevance in the Oakland A’s future plans than any ordinary person wandering the streets does. He has zero standing among those who have real money and operate within the confines of reality and not the absurd, looney world populated by Dellums and the sycophants who trail in his wake. Dellums is very hard on the intellect of anyone capable of rational, intelligent thought. But then, most imbeciles have that unsettling effect.
4
Born in Oakland Says:
August 15th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Gosh Jonathan, how do you really feel about Dellums?
5
len raphael Says:
August 15th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
to diverge, rumors were flying around the oakland ceda office that layoff warning notification letters were in the works, to be based on seniority. certainly wb stupid to layoff staff from revenue generating dept like ceda. any substance to the rumors?
6
Robert Says:
August 15th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
With regards to the Kaiser center, I actually heard this from somebody on the event management group side a couple of weeks ago, and his opinion was that things were close to an agreement.
7
Carlos Plazola Says:
August 16th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I know where someone can consolidate about 50 acres along the central waterfront in about 8 minutes. (OK, maybe 8 days, but that’s still a short time). And it just so happens we have a planning process underway. How convenient.
8
Ralph Says:
August 17th, 2008 at 11:50 am
back when i was a young laddy, this fellow by the name of robert irsay said to don schaeffer, we are not moving, we are staying in baltimore. within the month mayflower moving vans were taking the colts offices west to indy. lew may not want to stay in oakland today but if that fremont deal doesn’t work out – the right incentives and demontrated commitment and a real mayor might be all he needs to stay.

i just don’t get this automall site. people want a stadium on the water
9
Rebecca Kaplan Says:
August 17th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
It ain’t over yet. Which is to say, we should not rule out the possibility that we can keep the A’s in Oakland — I am certainly willing to try. And V does a good job of laying out a potential path to keeping the A’s here.

There are many reasons the Fremont plan might not work out. Not the least of which is the fact that there does not now exist a viable transportation system to get enough people to and from the new site, since the new site is not located on transit.

For fans to all travel by car would not only be environmentally destructive, it would be practically impossible, and would create the kind of traffic congestion that would make for a miserable experience. (Buses in a special lane could be an option, but would still cost money to implement and would need to be in the budget, and would only work if games were all scheduled only for times that the “carpool” lane is available for this purpose, such as on Sundays, or a whole new lane was built, for much more money. These options would be more likely to succeed for a football team, which only has a few games per year and can schedule around transportation needs, unlike baseball, with many more games per year).

And yes, in the meantime, we need to work on Oakland’s public safety, retail revitalization, outreach efforts, and more, to make Oakland a welcoming place to be. We need to do this whether or not we end up keeping the A’s. And, if working on enhancing our public safety and reputation as a City, then makes it easier to keep the A’s (and/or attract other services and more) then this would be a win-win.

len raphael: Unconfirmed that MJQ laid off 100 employees today, blaming RDA court case. How much did she and the CC waste in legal fees betting against Jerry’s lawyers?

ralph: No, Livegreen, Occupy Oakland is doing plenty good. They are the poster children for the new, “This is Your Brain on Dope” Campaign.

Livegreen: They seem to b determined to shut down Oakland and little else. They’ve forgotten Wall St. I can’t help but think the Officers who were preventing them from breaking in to City Hall could have spent...

gregory mcconnell: The Occupest disrupted City Hall today. They managed to make it difficult, but not impossible, to go into City Hall. They demanded that people who accosted cops on Wednesday should be released. I was out...

livegreen: I watched the M-Y mtg last night, & it was painful. Jose is a nice guy, but he has difficulty running a meeting that gets anything done. They debated for about 1 hour whether they should discuss recommendations...

len raphael: The murder of 5 year old Gabriel Martinez. Got a call from an acquaintance who lives in East O and often gets supper at his family’s taco stand. She asked where she can sign up to help on the recall.

Ravi: I’m sure that all of those Quan diehards (“a recall would be a waste of time and too expensive”) are very gratified that this lovely and deserving woman is having such a good time. No doubt they prefer...

len raphael: JQ “”I’m actually having a lot of fun,” she said after rehashing many of the lower moments from her first year in office.” “http://www.insidebayare a.com/news/ci_19651889R...

Ravi: And regarding police reform and the crime thing, Judge Henderson could decide to put OPD under Federal jurisdiction because the terms of the NSA haven’t been fulfilled by the City Administration. Those folks in City...

len raphael: Harbinger of things to come to the City Council when they eventually have to make similar decisions. But they won’t. The Fed bankruptcy judge will do it for them.

livegreen: Yeah, but OUSD has to do something. There are way too many schools for the school population. There’s simply no choice. At least they’re willing to make the tough decisions. Unlike the City of...

len raphael: Are those school board recalls entirely over the school closing decisions? Different groups or one umbrella?

Ravi: Two recall petitions for Quan; five recall petitions for five school board members.

len raphael: City says there are now 7 concurrent recall petitions. Not clear how many are for Quan and how many for Council Members. Direct democracy at work.

Ravi: Can the Oakland City Council lead? Nope, nor can the Mayor. It’s up to the citizens, who are deeply divided and have been for a very long time.

len raphael: Oakland Local is the only on or offline general circulation media that shows understanding of the depths of our fiscal situation and understands that it’s causes precede the real estate crash. One of these...

Mkilian: Related to the Cal Supremes haircut to Oakland with respect to RDA and the immediate need for a “fiscal operations plan” is another issue put forth in Oakland’s internet newspaper, Oakland Local, is...