Oakland Projects and Business Development (Montclair, Nice: zoned, light rail, suburban)

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by jsba

brewing.

^^^This. Can't have too many microbreweries in the Bay Area. Or anywhere, really.

[oaklander510]

Oakland is steping away from its industrial past and is starting to look up. As in two new tall kaiser buildings up maybe a little giant solar harvester building up too.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by Bozackin

Whats the name of this organization?

Forgot the name. An acquaintance works there. Their office is in the Kaiser building I think, or somewhere really close to there.

[jsba]

Ya im not so confident about Oakland stepping away from its past. Why should it. Other cities in the bay already fill most of the other tech markets why not focus on something we were once good at that is still needed. Plus the only building I think will actually get built is the shorter Kaiser tower as for the rest of those buildings, I foresee many many years of "the market just isnt right" before they just sell off the plots and nothing ever get built. even the giant hole in the ground 601 city center isnt going to get built. They're just going to sell it off and jump ship. Sad but true, and i truly wish it wasn't. Once the new towers in SF get built that will sort of kill Oakland's chance of building any new office space. the transit tower alone is what 3 million square feet.

[jsba]

Didn't mean to put a down on it im just really sad about how much we get jerked around for little to no results. the city is sort of afloat in the land of limbo not quite knowing what it wants to jump on to kick start our local economy and turn the city around. we need to quit fooling or selves, Oakland is a port city, thus an industrial city. Live it, love it, and build on it.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by jsba

we need to quit fooling or selves, Oakland is a port city, thus an industrial city. Live it, love it, and build on it.

Well, if they go that route, hope they don't end up like Stockton.

[jsba]

Stockton never really built on it plus Stockton also doesn't have the natural appeal of the Oakland in terms of location and surroundings. Its sort of a generic central valley city with no real draw other than cheap cheap cheap land. Not saying its a bad city just saying it has a different set of circumstances. Also Stockton is a river port city, much different than an ocean port city like Oakland. Much broader market at an Ocean port.

[athleticsfan72737489]

Originally Posted by jsba

Ya im not so confident about Oakland stepping away from its past. Why should it. Other cities in the bay already fill most of the other tech markets why not focus on something we were once good at that is still needed. Plus the only building I think will actually get built is the shorter Kaiser tower as for the rest of those buildings, I foresee many many years of "the market just isnt right" before they just sell off the plots and nothing ever get built. even the giant hole in the ground 601 city center isnt going to get built. They're just going to sell it off and jump ship. Sad but true, and i truly wish it wasn't. Once the new towers in SF get built that will sort of kill Oakland's chance of building any new office space. the transit tower alone is what 3 million square feet.

Yeah I'm pretty convinced that 601 City Center, 1100 Broadway and 1640 Broadway aren't happening. The only way those buildings are built is if the economy comes roaring back - who knows when that will be? Even if somehow finally see prolonged periods of economic expansion, these projects will face new competition from new towers in San Francisco as you said.

[oaklander510]

sf is running out of space prices are to expensive in sf. oakland has huge amounts of land waiting to be filled with new buildings because the land is dirt cheap. there can be two large citys around one area like saint louis and minneapolis. more and more investors are starting to realize this. with the little land sf has left to build upon they better build 4000 foot tall buildings because if they do not companys will move to oakland which is actually still inevitable. the only real questions are when and will we over build like sf? we cant go back to industrial because most stuff is now made in china computers,phones,tvs,cloths etc. If we try to go back our economy will crash because there is nothing to go back to. Way i see it we only have two choices either build up and make a saint louis minneapolis relationship out of oakland and sf or become one huge bedroom town for sf and san jose hmmmm that means when sf runs out of space totally and we reject offers to build highrise buildings where do they go to build? silicon valley? yah and and billons of new tax dollars get away from oakland and downtown becomes one huge place for cargo containers to sit what i would like to see is a city that does not depend on one source of money dubai went on some huge growth spree off there oil but what happens when it runs out. east oakland was once a quiet side of town until oakland industrial jobs market crashed because of the outsourcing of jobs to china what if somehow they take our port economy away too? a whole new economic failer hovers over the city again? scary thoughts man.

[jsba]

I'm not saying Oakland should go into heavy industry but Oakland can go into one of the few industrial uses we have in the US that can be off shored and that food packaging and distribution. California has one of the wolds best and most productive farm regions and much of what is grown in California is exported out of the country and around the US. Oakland can provide both the export location and packaging facilities for these products as well as manufacturing facilities for food products. Like baked goods, prepared goods bottled goods and so on. i'm not saying Oakland should try to go back into car manufacturing or making kids toys, that wouldn't make since. But food products we could certainly do.

That also doesn't mean we can't build up and try and collect some of the priced out companies from San Francisco as well as Silicon Valley but to base our economy on that alone is foolish when the relationship between the two cities has existed for decades now and we haven't really benefited in a large way from it. Very few companies that are priced out of SF actually come to Oakland, they mostly head south to San Francisco immediate peninsula suburbs. In addition Oakland and San Francisco are 7 miles apart, much MUCH closer than any other competing cities pretty much anywhere on earth. Saint Louis and Minneapolis are in two separate states, unless you mean St. Paul which even still is 14 miles from Minneapolis according to google earth as the crow flies im sure its shorter but not greatly.

Those two cities have a much different relationship Minneapolis doesn't need St. Paul Its more like a Tacoma Seattle relationship. Neither Tacoma or St. Paul were ever major cities and are reliant on their larger sibling. Oakland and San Francisco are fully independent cities with their own suburbs and and metros. they are each the center of their mini metros with Oakland in the east bay and SF on the Peninsula. They do share somethings but over all have little or nothing to do with one another. Oakland is a port city and transportation hub, San Francisco is a Tourist and financial hub. Thats why they are never referred to as sister cities despite their close proximity. The same can be said for San Jose.