As we mentioned last week, redevelopment funds looked to be on the chopping block in Jerry Brown's budget, and it was. The governor is looking to save $2.7 billion by cuttting off any tax revenue earmarked for redevelopment and not already promised or committed to a bond. Redevelopment agencies statewide are crying onto their spreadsheets today, and it remains unclear to many which projects will be impacted. The Chron mentions Oakland's hope for a new A's ballpark and the planned MacArthur BART transit village as possibly dead in the water, as well as affordable housing on former freeway parcels in S.F., which we assume are those narrow lots along Octavia. Any hope of reviving the the Mid-Market Redevelopment Plan also looks gone.

San Pablo City Councilman Leonard McNeil calls this the "cannibalizing [of] local government." Jerry argues that "the private development that has occurred in redevelopment areas would often have taken place even without the program." We would argue that the huge and economically iffy rental development now in Uptown, Oakland would NEVER have happened without redevelopment money, and it was Jerry himself who struck that deal back when he was mayor. [Chron]