BAY AREA QUAKE : Oakland Looks Beyond Crisis to Start Mapping Way Out of Transit Mess

The city of Oakland is not yet able to sweep aside the debris left by Tuesday’s earthquake, pick up the pieces and get on with life. So, much of the city’s attention is still riveted on the tragic crumple of concrete and steel of the Cypress section of the Nimitz Freeway, where untold quake victims are still buried.

But while much of the city and the world focused on the Nimitz tragedy, officials of public and private transportation agencies were meeting Thursday to devise ways to keep Oakland humming as the transportation hub of the Bay Area.

The Nimitz, or Interstate 880, and the damaged San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge play a role in the city’s economy. They are the major routes for moving goods in all directions from the Port of Oakland, warehouses and other manufacturing plants that provide a significant number of jobs in the city.

For the time being, transportation concerns have found alternate routes around the collapsed portion of the freeway, according to Mel Wax, public affairs director for the port.

Trucks headed for San Francisco have been rerouted north to Richmond, where they cross the bay and head south across the Golden Gate Bridge to San Francisco, he said. Traffic headed for the South Bay from Oakland is crossing the San Mateo Bridge, he said. At a meeting called by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, barge companies agreed to haul trucks across the bay until the damaged portion of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is repaired.

But while everyone has improvised for the time being, some business people are worried about life without the Nimitz link once business gets back to normal and the city streets are clogged with traffic.

Along the shoreline and at port facilities just west of the Nimitz are dozens of warehouses, light and heavy manufacturing plants and transportation specialty companies that rely on the freeway.

Typical of these companies is Jorgensen Steel, which serves as a service and distribution center for steel mills and their customers around the country. Jorgensen has been a West Oakland staple since the mid-1930s. Some of its 71 employees were among the first on the scene Tuesday to help rescue survivors of the freeway collapse.

Like much of the rest of the city, Jorgensen’s attention has remained on the Nimitz tragedy, but on Thursday its managers began to assess the changes that the disastrous quake will bring to the business.

The company stopped shipping after the quake, but it expects to begin sending out trucks today, according to general manager Lawrence Paparelli. Once its trucks are back on the road, they will use city streets to get around the collapsed freeway. However, Paparelli foresees great turmoil for Oakland’s traffic once the army of commuters and shippers return to normal schedules. “The 880 has always been a main artery,” he said.

Already, the Oakland Convention Centers have had two cancellations because event sponsors were concerned about access to the centers. The centers have always attracted a certain amount of business because of the easy access to San Francisco’s cultural, dining and night spots provided by the Bay Bridge and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) trains.

Charles Patterson, general manager of the centers, was reviewing the calendar Thursday for other potential trouble spots. “We’re concerned (about the potential loss of business). The problem may get bigger. I’m hoping BART is the answer,” Patterson said.

It is unclear what the financial impact of the loss of the bridge and the collapse of the freeway will be. Mayor Lionel Wilson on Thursday put the losses to the city at $1.3 billion, exclusive of the loss involving the Nimitz Freeway.

Meanwhile, Oakland boosters were rallying Thursday to convince the world that the quake and its disastrous results would not stall Oakland’s redevelopment, which, when disaster struck, appeared to be finally on track after decades of fits and starts.

“I’ve been in the city seven years. For a long time, I watched one of the great cities growing very slowly,” said Henry Feldman, vice president of the Claremont Hotel in the hills above downtown Oakland.

“Because of location, great ports, great infrastructure and strong facilities, the city has unlimited potential. As San Francisco becomes more and more a difficult place to do business, Oakland can’t help but succeed,” he said.

In recent years, the city has attracted significant office development to its downtown, in part because of the high land prices and development restrictions in San Francisco.

“Oakland in every sense is in a terrific position,” said Glenn Isaacson, executive vice president of Bramalea Pacific, which is developing City Center, a 16-block collection of office buildings and small retail shops. Thus far, the development is home to Clorox Corp., International Business Machines, Wells Fargo and American President Lines.

Another major project is Jack London’s Waterfront, a $110-million office and retail project being developed on the waterfront by the port in a joint venture with private concerns.

Oakland’s major problem is its image, said Perry C. Page, the Rouse Co.’s vice president for redevelopment on the West Coast.

Rouse, which is developing a major shopping center in downtown Oakland, initially passed on the city, he said. But watching Oakland since 1981, the company realized that there is “tremendous growth there--a lot more than meets the eye,” he said. The city actually has great demographics--that is, lots of high-income people--for retailing, he said. Such facts convinced major department stores to anchor the mall. Nordstrom, Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Emporium Capwell have agreed to join.