In 2020, when the Raiders football team moved to Las Vegas, they were able to walk away from a $189 million debt to Oakland and Alameda County taxpayers.

In exchange, the city and county received the team’s training facility near the Oakland Airport, assessed at $24.6 million and worth, by one account, perhaps twice that amount.

The lopsided swap raises questions about the state and federal tax treatment of the forgiven debt and the negligence of public officials who signed off on a deal that was a gross and inexcusable expenditure of public funds — questions for which local, state and federal investigations are needed.

The Port of Oakland announced this month the planned opening of a temporary container yard to help unclog the supply chain for agriculture exports.

The plan, hammered out in meetings with the Newsom administration, farm producers and transportation executives, would enable faster truck turnarounds, according to the port’s press release.

A new poll of Oakland voters, conducted by a professional polling company, indicates that Oakland voters reject spending taxpayer money to build a new A’s stadium, retail and condominium project at Howard Terminal at the Port of Oakland.

Further, nearly two-thirds of voters say they would not support candidates for mayor or City Council who voted to spend taxpayer money for the Howard Terminal development.

The real estate development at Howard Terminal proposed by billionaire developer John Fisher, the owner of the Oakland A’s, and backed by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf “will result in numerous significant and unavoidable impacts in critical areas of concern such as toxics, traffic, air quality, and public safety,” according to a factsheet released by the East Oakland Stadium Alliance (EOSA).

An examination of the 3,500-page Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) produced by city staff found that the Final EIR did not adopt any of the recommendations from the over 400 comments that were submitted by community members who pointed out numerous deficiencies with the Draft EIR, according to the factsheet released by EOSA.

The City of Oakland is in an abusive relationship with the Oakland A’s.

The A’s tell the city, “Give me what I want, and I will stop hitting you.” The city bends and the A’s demand more and hit the city harder. We, the voters must come to the aid of their elected leaders. Please intervene and tell our elected leaders to stop allowing the A’s to bully them. Just say “NO” and walk away.

Billionaire John Fisher, owner of the A’s, has things to do before he can take over Oakland’s public port property to build malls and housing for the rich.

It is such a bad idea and the costs to the public are so ridiculous that logically it shouldn’t happen. But this right-wing, Trump-supporting Republican has a boatload of money and a few corporation-oriented politicians to help him push it through.

When Oakland A’s fan Gabriel Hernandez received an email from the team Wednesday about renewing his season-ticket plan for the 2022 season, he balked at the price — nearly double what he paid for a left-field bleacher seat two years ago, he said.

Hernandez said he paid $456 to re-up his 24-game A’s ticket plan before the 2020 season. The pandemic left stands empty that season, and this year the team did not sell season tickets with capacity restrictions at the Coliseum carrying into midseason. On Wednesday, said Hernandez, who posted images of his ticket orders to Twitter, he learned that buying a similar 24-game plan for next season will cost him more than $800.

It certainly feels as though the Oakland A’s are going out of their way to alienate their fanbase. Between their ongoing flirtation with Las Vegas, the constant complaining about everything around the Coliseum, refusal to supplement a strong core to their roster, and general lack of interest in doing anything more than turning a profit, the A’s have become thoroughly maddening over the past few years.

The Oakland A’s continue to battle for a ballpark at Howard Terminal in Jack London Square, but city leaders highlighted some issues that the team will have to address before building can ever begin.

One of them deals with the height of the proposed residential towers that could be part of the finished plan.

"The concern was about the fit of it relative to Oakland as a city and its image, and that that's the basis for the concern on the right," said Clark Manus, chairman of the Oakland Design Review Committee.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors will not vote in September on the Oakland A’s $12 billion plan to build a waterfront ballpark and development at Howard Terminal in Jack London Square — causing what the team says is a “potentially insurmountable” financial gap in getting the project done in Oakland.

The city asked Alameda County in May to opt into a tax district to help with infrastructure costs. In response, supervisors said in June the earliest they could vote would be September. The city has said that without county help it’s unlikely the project can move forward.