Letter to MLB from Kathryn McDonald

Dear Commissioner Selig, Mr. DuPuy, and Major League Baseball managers,

I am a resident of Fremont, California and I am writing to implore you to rethink any plans of moving the A's to Fremont.

We, are not a city ready to take on the responsibility of a stadium and its 36,000 regular visitors. We have NONE of the synergetic features (tourist base, complementary entertainment venues, restaurants, etc.) a host city would need to offset the cost of growing our services. We agree that our Warm Springs location offers great access, but you already have such a location in Oakland, and many more local fans.

Taking the A's away from current fans in the hope of making "better" fans in a more affluent area is unrealistic. You will lose much of the fan base from Oakland and north, and suffer from image degradation. Concerned citizens will mobilize to create endless negative publicity about the proposal and its damaging potential impact to our small city infrastructure. We will bring to light a barrage of detrimental data regarding the use of city and redevelopment monies, redirection of hundreds of thousands of dollars from our state's depleted education funds, and potential harm to local businesses that will impact your ability to attract sponsorship dollars, and important clients.

Many of us are fans of baseball. I have attended A's games, Met's games from NJ, and Rangers games in both the old and new stadiums. We love hanging out in the sun with friends watching a game. I agree Keith Wolff's argument that Arlington is a BEAUTIFUL stadium, but Arlington, TX is not Fremont, CA. Love of baseball will not pay our bills.

Compared to surrounding communities, Arlington, TX is a lower-cost bedroom community/college town with an economy based on hosting large venues (i.e. University of TX, 6 Flags Over TX, Cowboys Stadium, Maverick Stadium, etc.). Its median household income of ~$50K/yr is less than half of the median in Fremont, and the mean detached home price is ~$150K (one of the lowest in the nation). Even with the depressed economy, the median Fremont home runs over $700K. The land alone for this project is estimated to cost $2 million an acre ($240 million for the footprint of the proposal). Arlington had little opportunity cost, as it had a high percentage of labor for part time/temporary jobs (students) and cheap real estate. Fremont has a highly educated population requiring high paying permanent positions, and expensive prime real estate. The potential cost to our community is exorbitant because we will not only bear the cost of the land and infrastructure (we are not fooled by the implications of access to county funds as yet uncommitted and nonexistent), but also the opportunity cost in real, living-wage jobs for the residents of our community and our region.

Please reconsider the fit of the location you think you have found in Fremont, and focus your efforts on improving the prime location you already have in Oakland.

Kind Regards,

Kathryn McDonald

Tags: letter to MLB, no stadium

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michael on January 25, 2010 at 3:01pm

Kathryn,

So your point is that since Arlington has lower per-capita income than Fremont, they can better afford the ballpark?

Only 7% of A's fans travel south to Oakland. 45% travel north. So your argument about leaving the fans is invalid, especially given that there will still be BART access to the games.

Sounds pretty arrogant to me, that Arlington is a bedroom community but Fremont is not? 39% of Arlington residents work in Arlington, only 31% of Fremont residents work here. We don't even have a movie theater in Fremont! we have no mall with any type of shopping like Macy's or Penny's. We have a Target and a Walmart though. We are a suburb of San Jose.

What is our opportunity cost? There are millions of square feet of industrial and office space vacant in Fremont right now, and there has been for a long, long time. Why would anyone move into the Nummi plant when these buildings sit vacant and ready to occupy? Opportunity cost is only valid when there is an opportunity.

The most arrogant part is this however: Fremont "requires" high paying jobs. What about the high-school kids, or people who just might want a part time job. Where are the high-paying jobs that the ballpark will preclude? Why would they in any way be exclusive of each other? Our population is only slightly more educated than Arlington (31% to 43%) however, and in US degrees, ours is less educated 27% to 25%).

You'll also note that the industries that accompanied the sports stadiums in Arlington came AFTER the stadium. You don't usually see medical complexes springing up until AFTER the hospital, right?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Randy R. on January 25, 2010 at 6:31pm

Oh, Michael, you're so funny! Tell the truth, you're really anti-stadium but you post your hilarious insults just to give us practice in refuting them. Thanks, Michael! You've allowed us to really hone our points!
You are so very good at what you do that I know someone must have asked you to do it and we couldn't ask for a better sparring partner. I know it's hard to come up with insults over and over that make no sense but you're doing a bang up job of keeping at it. With you as a sparring partner, we'll be prepared for anything!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Harry on January 25, 2010 at 7:15pm

Michael should be out at Saddle Rack eating free spaghetti. I have friends who said they were going there to take advantage of this free spaghetti.

Randy Russell said:

Oh, Michael, you're so funny! Tell the truth, you're really anti-stadium but you post your hilarious insults just to give us practice in refuting them. Thanks, Michael! You've allowed us to really hone our points!
You are so very good at what you do that I know someone must have asked you to do it and we couldn't ask for a better sparring partner. I know it's hard to come up with insults over and over that make no sense but you're doing a bang up job of keeping at it. With you as a sparring partner, we'll be prepared for anything!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Richard McGuire on January 26, 2010 at 6:22am

Very well written.

If a private citizen would be engaging in this, it would be theft and fraud. When government officials take part in the same behavior it’s labeled as fairness and development.

The question I have is, “If the market in Fremont demands additional entertainment, why haven’t any new capital projects/investments begun?” Perhaps, many entrepreneurs and investors are wary of being in the “eye of the storm,” or laws and regulations could be playing a part in driving away business to more “friendlier” locations. The results of the stimulus and bailouts should be a clear sign that government cannot create jobs or growth. They merely push back necessary corrections, which distort the market balance with additional malinvestment.

It’s time for everyone to consider if this necessary evil has become unnecessary, limit local government power (development), stop them from re-directing funds, and keep the money in the hands of the individual. We are the ones with the rights! The government has been granted a privilege to exist by the citizens of Fremont. Flex some political muscle.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by JN on January 26, 2010 at 3:58pm

Great letter Kathy. You are so right Richard. Not everybody gets it, but hopefully changes in November will show that the American people are tired of the ridiculous spending occurring within our administration. Our country, state and city are out of control!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ram & Vara on April 15, 2010 at 3:09pm

With respect to warm springs being close to Freeways :
We agree that our Warm Springs location offers great access. This may be close to the freeways, but this strech of the freeways- 237, 680 & 880 are the most congested freeways in the bay area. In the evening times, it takes a long time for people to get back to their homes from Silicon valley. Adding additional 10-15,000 cars will make it the most horrendous we have seen around here.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Michael on April 23, 2010 at 5:11pm

Ram and Vara,

So how will you get all these people to the Nummi site to work in the strip mall or at the manufacturing plants that will not cause increased congestion? Will they fly there?

I'm just curious how you can get thousands of people into an area for work (1.1 people per car, 260 days a year) or shopping (1.3 people per car, 365 days a year) and it's not a traffic problem but a baseball park moving thousands of people into the area (2.6 people per car, 81 days a year) is a terrible traffic disaster?

Ram & Vara said:

With respect to warm springs being close to Freeways :
We agree that our Warm Springs location offers great access. This may be close to the freeways, but this strech of the freeways- 237, 680 & 880 are the most congested freeways in the bay area. In the evening times, it takes a long time for people to get back to their homes from Silicon valley. Adding additional 10-15,000 cars will make it the most horrendous we have seen around here.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alex Singh on November 3, 2010 at 9:19am

Kathy, I did not vote for you and Vinnie because of this. I also contributed to your opponents because of this.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alex Singh on November 3, 2010 at 9:21am

Hey Randy, how does it feel to have your censor of the comments here come back to roost by defeat of your candidate? How about the ballpark defeating your candidate?

Randy Russell said:

Oh, Michael, you're so funny! Tell the truth, you're really anti-stadium but you post your hilarious insults just to give us practice in refuting them. Thanks, Michael! You've allowed us to really hone our points!
You are so very good at what you do that I know someone must have asked you to do it and we couldn't ask for a better sparring partner. I know it's hard to come up with insults over and over that make no sense but you're doing a bang up job of keeping at it. With you as a sparring partner, we'll be prepared for anything!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Randy R. on November 3, 2010 at 8:35pm

Dear sweet Alex! Always such a happy voice, spreading sunshine wherever you go. Have a nice life.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by bbox231 on November 4, 2010 at 8:50am

It is interesting the furvor with which developer interests need to lever this outcome to warn those who might attempt similar opposition in the future.

Some lessons I take away from this years' outcome (which haven't changed significantly in the last couple of cycles of Fremont politics ) -

Fremont is a wildly diverse community with a constituency highly fragmented along ethnic and economic divides. These divisions serve to slow community interaction and discussion.

The status quo exhibits a solid grasp on some 15 or 20 thousand votes. But, as usual, voter apathy and non-participation is evident as even these numbers are a relative drop in the bucket compared to the total available Fremont electorate.

For whatever reasons, the political apathy made obvious through low voter turnout does not appear to extend to the lengthy lists of names of those who seek to run for City Council. There are clear examples of those who apear to have little or no desire to achieve any outcome except to add a name to the ballot. . . . . despite the fact that there is a not-free cost to doing so. These additional names clearly work to the benefit of the interests which drive the 15 or 20 k votes since a high percentage of anti-incumbancy voters will simply check any box on their ballot without the word "incumbant" appearing next to it.

A press which is responsive to the concerns of the larger community, first, and takes seriously its political "watchdog" role, has every opportunity to change some of these dynamics. Or, the electorate can be continually soothed and reassured with ongoing and healthy doses of lightheartedness, and occassional platitudes, all masquerading as "news".