Oakland is a city council vote away next week from approving the former World War II-era Oakland Army Base’s nearly $1 billion transformation to a gigantic warehousing and logistics center for the Port of Oakland. Lots of jobs hang in the balance. The developers are pledging that half the construction jobs will go to Oakland residents, but that’s a little loose. Current requirements allow anyone to claim Oakland residency after just seven days.
Add: Other sticking points: Whether future commercial tenants with fewer than 50 employees get to skip the hiring requirements, and whether job applicants will be asked if they have a criminal record. That last one is no small potatoes for a city with an inordinately large ex-con population among its unemployed. Oakland Tribune
