In my 24 year politico-level relationship with Oakland Activist Shirley Gee, I’ve never known her to pull punches, regardless of whether I agreed with her or not.
In this case, Ms. Gee, who was known for her work in guiding the development then-new 1992 Oakland Redistricting Plan such that the voting power of Asian and Latino communities were preserved, wants the Oakland Athletics to consider another site other than the ballfields at Laney College for the planned new ballpark.
The reason? Gee says if the A’s get what they want in the form of the ballpark at Laney College, the Asian Culture in that Eastlake District part of Oakland will be eliminated due to gentrification.
Gee was my livestream guest Wednesday night at Zennie62 Daily Vlog Live, where she directly pointed out why she objected to the plan, and issued choice words for Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval, and Oakland Chinatown Business Leader Carl Chan.
In the case of my long-time friend Carl Chan, Gee was really hard on the ballpark proponent, and said he was not really the leader of the Asian business community, and then openly challenged him to prove that he had any real member of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce on his side at all.
As for Dave Kaval, Gee characterized his effort as more like, in her words, President Trump. Or more to the point, how she sees Donald Trump with respect to the immigration issue: as one who’s disrespecting Latinos and Asians. Gee said that is what Kaval and the A’s are doing by advancing the ballpark plan in the way they have done to this point.
There’s more in our hour-long talk, and you can see and hear it, here:
Stay tuned.