>>>I really doubt that the 11k people "already had jobs"!<<<<
I said many already had jobs.
>>>>Someone has a figure for the number of jobs lost during the Bush administration - maybe they'll fill you in<<<<
Fill me in with they, hmm. Once again it's politics with you and bs.
And by the way. I'm a bit more than familure with Oakland. I've been looking to invest there sense the A's started looking for a new stadium. My daughter lived there for like a year and a half. I've lived just down the road in San Leandro and San Lorenzo for years. Also I tailgate party at Raider games now for years with several acquaintances that live in Oakland. I worked in Oakland with one company two years. And months upon months constructing a couple of downtown buildings and many other verious duties one finds in the the construction trade as a crane operator. I'm familuar with Oakland you probably drove through it.
socialcompact.org
mercurynews.com
Study finds hope in Oakland
By George Avalos
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
OAKLAND - Some of this city's grittiest neighborhoods wield hundreds of millions of dollars in largely undiscovered economic power that businesses can parlay into jobs, housing, retail sales and profits, a study released Monday shows.
Residents of those neighborhoods have more spending power, control more real estate wealth and are more populous than reported by the Census Bureau and other official government analysts, according to the research by Social Compact Inc., a coalition of business leaders that promotes investment in lower-income communities.
Social Compact presented the results of its "drill-down" study of Oakland's Fruitvale, Lower San Antonio, East Oakland and West Oakland neighborhoods. The non-profit market researcher has used other studies to bring businesses and jobs to communities in Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Washington D.C., Houston and Jacksonville, Fla.
"I want to do more in Oakland," said W. Roger Haughton, chairman and chief executive with Walnut Creek-based PMI Group Inc., a mortgage insurer, a supporter of Social Compact. "There are still opportunities here. We want to be part of the solution."
By offering hard data about the untapped financial muscle of multiple areas in Oakland, the Social Compact researchers hope to stir interest on the part of developers, merchants, investors and others.
Some of the results are eye openers:
• The four neighborhoods have an aggregate income of $2.65 billion, which is 19 percent higher than the federal government's projected 2004 income for the neighborhoods, and about 36 percent higher than the findings of the 2000 Census.
• The 165,000-plus residents of the quartet of communities is about 7 percent higher than 2004 Census projections.
• The average home value is nearly $328,500, 35 percent more than the 2004 projections.
• The informal economy is described as "huge," with an estimated value of cash transactions of $405 million. The two largest informal economies are East Oakland with $130 million and Fruitvale with $129 million.
"We have a large, very active cash-based economy in the Fruitvale," said Gilda Gonzales, chief executive of the Unity Council, a non-profit community development entity.
Social Compact executives believe the prospects for Oakland are particularly bright.
"Oakland's results are very strong," said Karin Ottesen, Social Compact's president. "The trends in Oakland are the same as the other cities. But Oakland is one of the most dramatic cases."
Following a presentation of Social Compact's findings, entrepreneurs, politicians and community leaders took a bus tour of parts of Oakland included in the study. To be sure, iron bars still guard windows and doors in numerous spots and some streets suffer from urban decay.
But more frequently, the participants witnessed some striking transformations. A case in point is the 550,000 square-foot Eastmont Town Center, which has supplanted the burned-out, crime-laced ruins of the old Eastmont Mall. Instead of crumbling store fronts, Gazzali's Supermarket, DD Discounts, Payless Shoes, a supermarket, discount fashion store, bank, other retail shops and several government agencies have emerged to anchor the urban mall in East Oakland.
"There has been a tremendous turnaround there," said Mark Thomas, a broker with Santa Clara-based Retail Real East Group, which is handling leasing at Eastmont Town Center. "There is untapped potential in Oakland. The stores at Eastmont report strong sales."
About 50,000 people live within a mile of Eastmont Town Center, which is "a very dense number," according to Thomas. Developers intend to add housing for senior citizens at the site.
"There are some problems with being in that kind of a retail environment," Thomas said. "But the retailers who are in there are experienced with that and doing very well."
Officials in Oakland point with hope to the aftermath of other Social Compact studies. Target brought a store to Washington, D.C. along with hundreds of jobs. Retailers and a large bank leaped into Harlem.
"This will attract new investment," said Mary Lee Widener, president of Neighborhood Housing Services of America. "They were extremely successful in other cities." |
