Phil Matier: Oakland Mayor's Plan For The Kaiser Convention Center
(KCBS) - Oakland Mayor Jean Quan has made a suggestion to sell the Kaiser Convention Center, which has been closed since 2006, to the city's redevelopment agency.
The KCBS and Chronicle Insider Phil Matier calls the idea of the city selling the convention center, which has hosted everything from roller derbies and its own redevelopment center to boxing matches, James Brown, and the Grateful Dead, absolutely incredible.
KCBS and Chronicle Insider Phil Matier:
"They want to sell it to their own redevelopment center to get some quick cash -- about $28 million," Matier said. "The beauty of it is a year ago they tried to sell it to the community college district for $19 million."
Matier said that redevelopment funds are set up to take places that are depressed and put in the infrastructure to create jobs. This plan doesn't do that, he said.
"You're not creating jobs by doing this, you're not improving the neighborhood," he said. "You're basically selling an empty building to yourself."
(© 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
