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I read the latest news on the Oakland Army Base with more than the usual passing interest. I absorbed it and chuckled. I could not help it. Why? Because the Oakland Army Base land has sat largely unused for years -- since 1999 -- while the Oakland City Council and whomever happened to be Mayor jockied with the Port of Oakland for control of its development. That struggle is also itself countered by competing ideas of what Oakland Councilmembers want to do with the land. It's these political tug of wars that have delayed development of what is still the Bay Area's best infill development opportunity. I can go over scores of examples of land uses that have been proposed for that area, from a ballpark for the Oakland A's to a farmers market, which was the proposal of long-time Oakland development activist Steve Low, my friend and for some time the with the West Oakland Commerce Association (WOCA). But as much as I like Steve, even he's been part of the enormous num...

I attended the annual Fox Sports Network Baseball Luncheon -- held the first Thursday after the Super Bowl -- last week. In attendance were Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and sitting at the same table with Oakland A's Owners Lew Wolff and Jon Fisher, as well as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Giants heads Peter McGowan and Larry Baer, and Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. After the event -- videos from it will be on various blogs in the SBS network including this one -- I asked Wolff how the Fremont efforrt was going. He gave me a sincerely tense look and said "We've got a long way to go." And he emphasized "long." I think Lew's going to discover that the wheels of goverment in the Bay Area turn slowly. This fact and Lew's frustration with Fremont could work in Oakland's favor -- if Oakland does something.