Nostalgia & History > Big Victory for SP Oakland 16th Street Station!

Hello All,
Read on below for a note that was passed to me today after our PACKED Oakland City Planning Commission meeting last night regarding the future of the former SP 16th Street Station and Tower. Thanks to those fans who attended and to all who spoke in favor of preserving the baggage wing and SP Red Car Interurban Platforms.. I was at the meeting til about 1015pm, and there were many more speakers that followed my time on the podium..

In short.. VICTORY! with more work to come.. The City Planning Commission advised the developer to NOT demolish the baggage wing and most of the interurban platforms. 16th St. Tower is also safe, BTW.

There is more work to come, but this is a big first step in the right direction..

If you are interested in helping out, please feel free to email me per my "tracktime" link above.

Best Regards,
Harry Wong

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Dear People,

Thank you so much for all your efforts to make the train station a
viable reuse project! Everybody really pitched in on this one. I was
starting to list everything everyone did, but I don't have enough
time to write it all out! From phone calls and emails and meetings
and drawings to research and crunching numbers and back channel
contacts and speaking at the hearing: wow! Excellent well-reasoned
and coherent letters were submitted. Fascinating documents unearthed,
original plans located.

For anyone who didn't hear it:

The Planning Commission voted around midnight last night to recommend
adding the baggage claim area and a chunk of track and platform as
wide as the main hall to the parcel where the main hall was formerly
shown as isolated. The proposal was that the redevelopment agency
would contribute funds to cover the land purchase so that BUILD (the developer)
wouldn't be damaged financially.

The idea of including the baggage claim was brought up by Mark
McClure. The track part was suggested by Nicole Franklin.

Of course, we'll need to follow up on the whole thing, as there are
thousands of details and aspects that remain unclear. Stilil A BIG
WIN I think.

Special thanks (and strong coffee today) to anyone who stayed up late
enough to see what happened!
--
Naomi Schiff
Seventeenth Street Studios
1761 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94612