First posted on Oaklandseen.com as "Revive Oakland! with good jobs from Army Base project"

Last Thursday was a big day, for both my family and our city. I’ll start at home: on that day, my six year-old daughter finished kindergarten at an Oakland public school. I’ve been thinking a lot about the twelve years of school she has ahead of her. What kind of Oakland will she and her classmates inherit when they graduate high school in 2022? Will the Oakland of 2022 be a healthy and prosperous city, with family-sustaining jobs for those who live here? Or will devastating unemployment and dead-end jobs continue to cause economic pain for our communities?

A big part of the answer to these questions about our city’s future hinges on the fate of a gigantic piece of land, hidden in the Bay Bridge’s shadow: the old Oakland Army Base. In the coming weeks, both the City and Port will take major votes on a huge project to redevelop the Base. The project could create up to 8,000 jobs and strengthen Oakland’s economy – if the developers, City and Port make good jobs for Oaklanders a priority.

And that brings me to the other reason last Thursday was an important day. Over 100 Oaklanders joined an energetic noontime rally in front of city hall to launch the Revive Oakland! coalition and present a “contract with the community” to make sure the Army Base project creates quality jobs for Oaklanders.

The Good Jobs Contract includes a commitment to creating quality jobs, funding for a community job training center, and hiring local residents. Revive Oakland is asking the developers – Phil Tagami’s CCG and international corporation AMB – to sign the contract. At Thursday’s rally, community leaders, pastors, and elected officials – including a representative of Assemblymember Swanson, County Supervisor Carson, and City Councilmembers Kaplan and Quan -  signed on to a giant contract to symbolically endorse this vision.

The challenge: economic pain. EBASE’s research has shown that Oakland and East Bay residents had been trapped in a sort of “perpetual recession” even before the current crisis hit, with structural barriers to opportunity disproportionately impacting low-income communities of color. Oakland’s unemployment rate now tops 17% – underemployment not included. And as the LA Times recently reported, the small drop in unemployment this month is largely due to soon-to-vanish temp jobs.

Let’s revitalize our city! The redevelopment of the former Oakland Army Base could put thousands of Oaklanders to work in both construction jobs in demolition and cleanup, which could be available as soon as next year, and permanent jobs like clerks, mechanics, and forklift operators several years down the line. And the benefits of these quality jobs would be felt throughout Oakland as more money is spent at local businesses and opportunities expand for our youth. And let’s not forget that access to quality jobs can break cycles of crime and violence in our city.

It’s time to make sure there’s a bright future for the class of 2022 – for the next generation. And it starts with the developers’ signatures on the good jobs contract.

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 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.

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