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Green Grass: Where Does Our Yellow Brick Road End? Part I

Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports

Editor's Note: For those newer to AN, Jeffrey August is a long-time AN contributor ("jeffro") who served as a front page writer, and as a moderator, "back in the day"... -Nico

A long time ago, I wrote a whole series of posts that I never intended to be a series of posts. I called it Greener Grass, Episodes 1-9, though I started out intending to write only 2. The first one comparing the Bay Area to all other markets that folks threw out about potential future homes for the A's, and the second one about the differences between San Jose and Oakland.

Boy howdy did that morph into something altogether different and uncivilized. When I look back and read those now, there were things I got right, things I got wrong and things that were just completely bananas (people saying bad things about my Mama in the comments, me saying bad things about their Mama in the comments). At one point, I was referred to as a member of "Lew's Legion" on twitter, which I still think is hilarious cause I don't know Lew Wolff and I certainly am not part of his "Legion." I am extremely excited that Dave Kaval has taken over, because I have followed his approach with the Earthquakes and I have come to the conclusion that he "gets it" in a way that no A's mouthpiece has since Andy Dolich. Happy days are just around the bend.

I say all of this to get to one point: I am sorry. Let's all be friends. We love the same thing. That thing is going to stay in Oakland, I have no doubt. If you do have doubts, I understand but we can agree to disagree for now.

Now, let's talk about the reality in 2016, bleeding into 2017. We know the A's are completely focused on Oakland. We know that this has been the case for more than a year. What else do we know? We know from published reports that what started as a mixed bag of 10 potential sites the City and the team discussed just about 1 year ago, it has been whittled down to just four: Laney College, Brooklyn Basin, Howard Terminal and the Coliseum.

All of these sites have advantages and disadvantages. I am going to dedicate a post to each of them starting with one that seems to be the most misunderstood of all of them: Laney College (shown below in relation to Victory Court and as depicted in the 2001/2 HOK Ballpark Study)!

Laney College in the HOK Study of 2002

For comparison sake, below is a Google Maps image of what exists now (and some stuff we should chat about in regards to both advantages and challenges). Note that no one is advocating for replacing the college, it is the athletic fields and the Peralta CCD Admin offices that need to move. HOK moved the Admin offices to displace a parking lot and the athletic facilities to displace the Admin offices.

Google Laney College

I am going to try to avoid editorializing and stick to just the facts! I am opinionated, so this is a struggle that is harder for me than maybe even Kylo Ren fighting the pull toward the Light (or Ashla, as the Bendu might say).

Challenges:

That gray line that cuts through the outfield of Laney College's baseball field is BART. I am not certain, but this could be a challenge for stadium placement.

There is a shell game that has to be played with a development timeline and I'd expect that the old HOK drawing isn't going to work for the A's. Meaning, the Admin offices should be moved off site and that isn't as cheap as it ever has been (this is a pay site but the headline should explain enough). The athletic teams need to find a new home, and though many suggest the College of Alameda's facilities, we shouldn't take that as a given or with a grain of salt.

There is an elementary school out beyond what could be Left Field, or Center depending on the way the park is lined up.

Also something to consider, part of privately financing this stadium will mean that there needs to be some ancillary development. I know this is editorializing, forgive me, but I can't see how that happens without getting rid of the only parking lot that is nearby.

Lastly, there has been no EIR conducted, that process alone can take 2 years or more.

Advantages:

Lake Merritt BART is a short walk away. 12th Street BART is, while a longer walk, less than a mile away. These two facts mean that this site is walkable from every BART line that passes through Oakland. This is easily the most transit friendly site beyond the Coliseum.

The parking lot that HOK used for Admin offices, and the moving of the Admin offices themselves, creates a nice little tract of land for ancillary development.

This site is truly on the edge of the urban core of one of America's fastest emerging happening spots! This means that within a mile, there are many existing parking locations (see below).

Oakland Parking Lots

In conclusion, the biggest challenge here is working out land acquisition, the athletic field/Admin shell game and a development timeline that makes sense for the A's. This site has been my favorite since around 2000, when Larry Jackson mailed me a package full of information on it. It was removed from consideration as part of the HOK study because it couldn't easily meet a 5 year development timeframe, which seems silly 15 years later. If only the A's had started working towards a park at the site back then, we'd already be enjoying games on the banks of the Lake Merritt Channel (one can dream).

If this site is THE site, it will need an EIR fast tracked and all the other stuff I refer to as a "shell game" above to happen in parallel in order for it to happen within 4-6 years. My fingers are crossed :)