Oakland - Tired of the outsized attention San Francisco is getting for hosting the 2025 NBA All Star Game, Oakland Vlogger and Las Vegas and NFL Vlogger Zennie Abraham, CEO of Zennie62Media, Inc (zennie62media.com) creator of The Vlog Report With Zennie62 Oakland Las Vegas NFL on YouTube, ZennieReport.com, builder of The Oakland Baseball Simworld and founder of Sports Business Simulations, Oakland’s first blogger and vlogger, once aide to two Mayors of Oakland, and the only person in history to form a bid for Oakland to host the NFL Super Bowl Game, believes that Oakland’s not taking bold steps to improve its blighted condition. To remedy this, he wants the NBA to bring a new team to Oakland to replace the Golden State Warriors.
In a recent vlog called “OAKLAND VLOGGER Zennie Abraham: NBA All-Star Game Isn’t At Oracle Arena, Oakland Needs An NBA Team”, and is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unneIlbQ_E4
Zennie said that “Oracle Arena looks like it's ready to host the 2025 NBA All-Star Game”, and the logo on its iconic glass walls would have one believe that the game was going to be played there. Mr. Abraham thinks the City of Oakland is not aggressive in doing the one thing the 20th Century Oakland had no problem doing; going after sports teams it lost to relocation. In that case, the Oakland Raiders, which moved to Los Angeles. Zennie says Oakland has lost its “mojo” and needs to get it back.
“The best way Oakland can get its mojo back is by actually going to work on formally bringing professional sports back to Oakland”, Zennie said. “Oakland lost all of its teams during a tight window of years in this century. And the basic reason for the loss is Oakland forgot how to use tax increment financing and started leaning on general obligation bond issues far too much.
The result is an Oakland electorate that’s overextended with fees and extra property tax adjustments, making the actual rate Oakland homeowners pay just over six percent, where the 1978 original Proposition 13 tax rate was one percent. We’re not using the very tool designed to be a catalyst for new development, which in turn removes blight, and that’s tax increment financing.”
Zennie Abraham adds that the other problem is a simple lack of vision or fear to offer a vision. He uses the Port of Oakland Howard Terminal Development Project as one example. In that, the City of Oakland and the Port of Oakland did not choose the land use that should go there after they failed to reach a deal with the Oakland A’s in late 2021.
Instead, the then-new Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao used the A’s as a political football and acted unprofessionally with A's President Dave Kaval, and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, and used the media to annoy A’s brass. What she failed to realize was that the A’s and Major League Baseball were serious about leaving Oakland. And by the time it became clear that was the case (and the City started forming draft documents leading to the use of tax increment financing in the proposed enhanced infrastructure financing district) the A’s were winning the right to come to Las Vegas via the Nevada Legislature.
So, what does the Port of Oakland do and the City of Oakland do? Rather than focus and form their own developer team and build the first-class million-square-feet convention center and hotel complex Oakland needs, they put the development conversation out to the public and ask for proposals for different land uses. “That invites the kind of politics that killed Howard Terminal the first time,” Zennie said. “It’s like we, and by that I mean Oakland, don’t want to learn and do better.”
Zennie says that instead of true vision we have public officials and city leaders who are afraid to ask for help from Oaklanders who have been involved, like himself. “And then you get folks running for office who say they will hire me after they get elected, rather than doing anything as a group right now. And I did not ask them for a job so I take it as an insult.” Zennie says that “politics is too important to be left to politicians, but we seem to be focused only on politicians or people who want to be one. That’s why Oakland’s ahead down the wrong road, and continues to go there.”
Zennie Abraham says "The NBA could help put Oakland on the right path just by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver calling for the City of Oakland to assemble a task force not just of politicians, but also business and community leaders and also citizens who just want to contribute their ideas, all to bring the NBA back to Oakland."
Zennie adds that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell could add his voice to that of Adam Silver’s and ask for the same project focused on an NFL team for Oakland. “That would help Ray Bobbitt and AASEG,” Zennie asserts, “who are the owners of the Oakland Coliseum Complex now, but without a good roadmap to move forward with.”
Something much like Oakland Sharing the Vision in 1991, where 500 Oaklanders gathered at the downtown Oakland convention center to agree on a set of goals and objectives for the future. That document helped shape Oakland over the next 15 years, but now that period of time is gone. “Its time for a new Oakland: Sharing the Vision”, Zennie says.
To view original press release, please visit: https://prgun.com/press-release/99910/oakland-vlogger-zennie-abraham-bring-nba-team-to-oakland-after-all-star-week
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