Last Thursday, over 100 Oaklanders gathered for a spirited rally at city hall to launch the Revive Oakland! Campaign for Real Jobs and Healthy Neighborhoods.

Thousands of jobs and millions of public dollars are at stake in the enormous Oakland Army Base redevelopment project. To make sure the project creates good jobs for Oaklanders, we're calling on the city, port, and developers to sign a contract with the community.

Huge site, huge potential: The Base spans more than 200 football fields. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to put up to 8,000 Oaklanders to work over the next decade and reinvigorate Oakland's economy.

To bring real recovery, we’re asking for a commitment to real investment, real job training, and real, quality jobs. Quality jobs are the foundation for healthy communities: with good jobs, we can take better care of our families, we can spend more money in our local businesses, and we can break cycles of crime and violence.

How can we make sure the project creates good jobs? At the rally, clergy, labor, community, and elected leaders stood together to call on the developers, international corporation AMB and local partner California Capital Group, to sign a good jobs contract with the community that includes:

• a neighborhood-based training center
• local hire requirements
• commitment to job quality with full time permanent jobs.

To show support, residents, workers, and community leaders signed their names on an oversized "contract with the community," leaving blank lines where the developers will one day sign. Speakers and signers included Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, staff for Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, Oakland Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Jean Quan, Rev. Clarence Johnson, Joe Brooks of PolicyLink, Shirley Burnell of ACCE, Josie Camacho of the Alameda Labor Council and Nikki Bas of EBASE.

Powerful press presence: The Oakland Tribune, KTVU, KRON 4, KCBS, KGO Radio, KQED, KPFA, Sing Tao, and the SF Business Times all covered Revive Oakland's launch, carrying our message to millions.

Next month, the City and the Port will make key decisions on the project, putting a 20-year plan into place to reconstruct the site. Revive Oakland! will keep working to make sure we reinvigorate our city for the next generation. Our children deserve a bright future!

Want to learn more? Visit www.workingeastbay.org/reviveoakland

Revive Oakland! includes Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Alameda Labor Council, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, the Workforce Collaborative and Center for Third World Organizing and is and is endorsed by All of us or None, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Causa Justa Just Cause, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Oakland Rising, PolicyLink, UNITE HERE 2850, Urban Habitat, Urban Peace Movement, Youth Uprising, Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, Supervisor Keith Carson, Dr. Steven Pitts.