A new editorial in the Contra Costa Times takes a wait-and-see approach to Oakland’s efforts to retain the A’s.

Over at the Merc, Todd W. Smith, the lawyer representing the “citizens” group Stand for San Jose, outlined their rationale for rewriting the San Jose ballpark EIR. So far the response from the city has been, “We’re already doing that.” While the idea that the ballpark will be a drain on city services sounds downright hypocritical coming from a team who accepted public funds in much the same vein recently, there is plenty of room for revision in the EIR. Smith wouldn’t let it end there, including in his submission an argument coming completely out of left field.

Before we get into that, let’s take a look at his major bullet points.

Updating the potential traffic impacts on Interstate 880 from A’s fans driving down from Alameda and Contra Costa counties

Since the original EIR did not specify a specific baseball team, traffic patterns were drawn from an area equidistant from the ballpark site. It did not factor in existing A’s fans coming in the the East Bay. Now that the A’s are the target, the focused study will indeed include some percentage of fans from the East Bay. I’m curious about the percentage of fans they are forecasting, and where they might get the numbers from.

Analyzing if the original environmental impact report certified in 2007, before current talks with the A’s began, considered whether a stadium in the Diridon/Arena area was consistent with San Jose’s land use policies

The Diridon/Arena Plan was written in 2003, well before the current ballpark effort started. It makes no mention of a ballpark, and only discusses high speed rail in the most fleeting of ways. During the original ballpark EIR process, the Diridon/Arena Plan was referenced frequently, with great care to ensure that the ballpark fell without design guidelines and plan objectives. This included compatibility with redone traffic, bike, and pedestrian circulation, newly planned parks and open spaces, and development. The obvious difference is that a ballpark would supplant either medium-density residential or tower office space on the Diridon South parcels. There are more than enough precedents to say that the uses are entirely compatible. During the study session, at least one commenter asked if the ballpark would be better suited for a less dense San Jose parcel such as the 237/Zanker site or the County Fairgrounds. To use either those sites instead of Diridon would be a terrible example of land use, since they would only invite more sprawl, car trips, and discourage public transit use.

Studying the impacts of residential, commercial and mixed-use projects proposed near the stadium site.

While the residential neighborhoods nearby have been studied, it’s difficult to say how the six blocks between the ballpark and the arena will be impacted. As part of infrastructure building, those six blocks will be mostly wiped clean with the possibility of one block becoming a parking garage for the ballpark. The area could be dug up for years as VTA waits for the cut-and-cover construction for the BART tunnel to commence. Initially, most of that area will end up as surface parking to satisfy requirements for both venues.

Now for the bit of crazy:

Finally, Smith said the revised report must analyze the potential for urban decay around the Oakland Coliseum that could result from the A’s relocation.

… In his letter, Smith says the Oakland Coliseum, where the A’s now play, is a centerpiece in the city’s Coliseum Redevelopment Area Plan. Since the A’s use the Coliseum more than any other tenant, their exit would mean the facility could sit empty and unused on at least 81 additional dates.

Ah, so now the A’s will be responsible for contributing to the failure of the Coliseum Redevelopment Area Plan! Look, we’re talking about a vast amount of East Oakland, stretching from the Central Estuary and Fruitvale to the San Leandro border. Much of the area immediately around the Coliseum complex is zoned light or heavy industrial with small pockets of transit-oriented development near Coliseum BART. The plan doesn’t allow for mixed use along Hegenberger. Many plots of land would require massive cleanup prior to proper redevelopment. An October report on area blight shows how consequential the A’s are to the current economic situation there:

• Employment in the Coliseum Redevelopment Area was estimated at 51,300 jobs in 2005 (p. 9). That makes the A’s responsible for less than 1% of the jobs in the area.
• Deteriorated and dilapidated property is prevalent throughout the area, with the exception of the Airport subarea. More than 15 percent of surveyed parcels were categorized as deteriorated or dilapidated (16 percent – 26 percent, the latter high percentage in Central East Oakland) in all subareas except the Airport subarea (p. 32). In 2006, Lew Wolff proposed the Coliseum North plan that would’ve transformed up to 200 acres of the area into new mixed development. Area landowners were unwilling to sell and Wolff wasn’t interested in eminent domain, so the plan died on the vine. Even if that development had taken flight, there’s no way that one of the most economically depressed regions of the Bay Area would’ve suddenly been cured of its ills. Unfortunately, the problems in East Oakland go well beyond the impact of a cash infusion – one which would’ve received backlash due to likely gentrification.

Ultimately there’s only so much the A’s can do for a community. A typical MLB franchise pulls in a little more that $100 million in local revenue annually, which is about as much as a medium-sized business. While a pro sports franchise gets disproportionate amounts of media coverage, that coverage doesn’t directly translate into economic benefit for anyone other than those associated with the team, which is why I tend to look at any economic impact report with a somewhat jaundiced eye. What’s ironic is that Smith didn’t mention that none of the three sites being proposed by Oakland for a ballpark are in the Coliseum area. Any of those sites would provide much the same blight-adding effects to the Coliseum Redevelopment Area.