Mayor Martinez and City Council Members,

 

The Red Oak Victory is in a perfect position now, located in an historic WWII shipbuilding basin within former Kaiser Shipyard 3 adjacent to the General Warehouse and Riggers’ Loft with a Whirley Crane alongside and at the terminus of the
Shipyard 3 section of the San Francisco Bay Trail.

 

The National Park Service summarizes the merits of the current location aptly is stating:

 

• Ship is part of historic ensemble including extant Shipyard No. 3 structures

• Location provides authentic context — visitors experience a WWII shipyard setting

• Bay Trail and Canal Boulevard extend to southern tip of Shipyard No. 3

• Location offers adequate parking

 

The last point on parking is a critical consideration. There would be little of no parking available at the new location with the Richmond-San Francisco Ferry parking lot often completely filled on weekdays by ferry commuters and those
visiting or working in the Ford Assembly Building. In addition to limited parking, there would be little to no “laydown” space alongside the ship to support ongoing maintenance.

 

In addition, consider:

 

• There is no compelling evidence that relocation of the ship will yield dramatically increased visitation and collection of fees that sufficient to make a significant difference in
  revenue for the Richmond Museum Association. In fact, the lack of parking could result in decreased visitation.
• The ship is in desperate need of major funding for ongoing maintenance, far more than even the most optimistic projections of visitation revenue increases. If $15 million to $20 million
  is available, it should be used for critical maintenance, not building new moorings and support facilities that already exist.

 

There is no valid justification for relocating the ship, even if the cost turns out to be as low as the Port’s initial estimate of $16 to 20 million. Experience has shown that projects like this normally cost much more than estimated initially.

 

The City should not squander $300,000 to study its relocation as proposed.

 

Resolution 25-09, General Management Plan and Richmond General Plan 2030

 

On April 7, 2009, the City Council unanimously adopted Resolution 25-09, Approving the Rosie the Riveter Worls War II Homefront National Historical Park General Management Plan/Environmental Assessment and Concurring with the Selection
of Alternative B as the preferred alternative.

 

 

In 2012, the City Council adopted the General Plan 2030, which includes the National Historical Park element based on the General Management Plan Alternative B. The overall goal, Goal NP, states:

 

 

Alternative B strongly supported inclusion of Shipyard 3 as a visitor destination that included the Red Oak Victory.

 

When the SS Red Oak Victory move was first agendized by the City Council in December 2025, I wrote:

 

The Red Oak Victory is owned by the Richmond Museum Association, whose board has never endorsed or officially recognized the plan to  move the Red Oak Victory to the
east side of the channel next to the Richmond Ferry Parking lot, Rather, the proposed move has become both an obsession and foregone conclusion with some Red Oak crew members, some Richmond City Council members and some City staff. The singular motivation
by the ship’s crew for the proposed move, as summarized in the Richmond Standard article, is anticipation of increased visitation resulting in increased revenue.

 

The City Council’s motivation is to clear out Point Potrero Marine Terminal to fulfill the dream of a future offshore wind support facility or even a new shipyard.

 

Fred Klink, the ship’s director or marketing, estimates “a three-fold increase in annual traffic” for the ship if it relocates to a more visible location near Rosie
the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park and the Ferry Terminal. 

“The major benefit to us is increased visitor traffic and the revenue that comes with that,” Klink said. 

 

Supporters of this proposed relocation include Mayor Eduardo Martinez, Vice Mayor Cesar Zepeda and Congressman John Garamendi. But some in the community don’t want
to move the ship from its current location near Riggers Loft and the historic Whirley Crane, including former Mayor Tom Butt.

 

Members of the Richmond City Council have been touting the Port of Richmond as a location to provide, “operations and maintenance facilities and potentially light manufacturing” in support of offshore
wind (The Port of Richmond
Investing in its Future, June 3, 2024). On May 23, 2025, the Port of Richmond

solicited proposals, “from qualified firms to provide conceptual design and preliminary engineering services for the Port of Richmond Offshore Wind Terminal.” In June of 2023,
the City Council
invited a consultant to make a presentation about opportunities related to offshore wind. The Agenda item stated,
“Various state and federal studies show that the Port of Richmond is a good candidate site to support the offshore wind industry …There are opportunities for the Port of Richmond to support the offshore wind
industry as a manufacturing / fabrication site, construction support site, operations and maintenance site, or as a shipbuilding site.”

 

The City Council is so invested in the offshore wind opportunity that they have directed City staff to start clearing out Point Potrero Marine Terminal, including two
historical items that are in the way – the Riggers Loft and the Red Oak Victory – now, even the whirley crane. Unfortunately, our president for the next 3 ½ years is doing everything he can to kill the prospect of offshore wind power.

 

In January of 2025, Trump ended leasing of all offshore sites for wind projects, “Under the authority granted to me in section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf
Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1341(a), I hereby withdraw from disposition for wind energy leasing all areas within the Offshore Continental Shelf (OCS) as defined in section 2 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1331.  This withdrawal shall go into
effect beginning on January 21, 2025, and shall remain in effect until this
Presidential Memorandum is revoked.”  Although the withdrawal did not technically affect already executed leases for California, it essentially shut down the program that was depending on federal finding.

 

President Trump strongly opposes the use of wind power for generating electricity and has pulled the plug on all offshore wind projects. Just this month ,“The White
House on Aug. 22
abruptly halted the nearly complete 65-turbine Revolution Wind project in the Atlantic Ocean, leaving developers and construction workers wondering how to proceed.

 

On August 30, 2025, the Trump administration canceled the $679 million previously earmarked for Humboldt County, the target development that the Port of Richmond was
hoping to support.

 

Estimates of the cost of moving the Red Oak Victory range from $12 million to $20 million, and no source of funding has ever been identified. There is no documented
basis for the estimate that the number of visits will “triple,” quoting Fred Klink, who also said, “We sell out many of our events and we bring in a good revenue stream that is more than sufficient to maintain the ship as a museum. But I agree that’s not enough
to meet our long-term goals.”

 

It’s no secret that the premier “long term goal” is to enable the ship to actually get underway on its own power, ultimately providing cruises like the SS Jeremiah
O’Brien. One obstacle is that the City’s agreement with Auto Warehousing Company (the adjacent car importer) prohibits the Red Oak Victory from firing up its boilers for fear the nearby imported vehicles will be damaged. The other is Coast Guard approval based
on the condition of the ship. Moving the Red Oak to the channel is no solution, as it will still place it under the Auto Warehousing prohibition. The Coast Guard restriction is an indication that major maintenance is required.

 

The logic of maintaining the existing location is that the ship is part of an historic ensemble that includes not only the ship, but the extant structures of historic
Shipyard 3 — six buildings (four of which have been repurposed and are in active use), the graving basins and the whirley crane. By the way, the City wants to get rid of the whirley crane, also.

 

The argument for moving the ship is based on the assertion that it is too hard to find by the public and that if it were in a more visible location, passers-by would
flock to it like grocery shoppers buying impulse items at the check-out counter. The proposed new location is not exactly high visibility either. It would be seen only by Richmond ferry riders, who are mostly in a hurry to get to work or get home and employees
and patrons at the Ford Assembly Building (the Craneway is closed indefinitely). It would not be visible from the Rosie the Riveter Visitor Center and would be over a quarter mile walk. In its current location, you can park almost right next to it.

 

The Richmond Ferry parking lot is already maxed out, and there would be no proximate location for the hordes of future anticipated visitors to park.

 

There is a lot of evidence that people will find their way to seemingly remote locations in Richmond if they want to. The Riggers Loft, right next to the Red Oak Victory
hosted 22,000 patrons in 2024. The East Brother Beer Co., on the way to the Red Oak Victory, probably hosted at least that many. There is no more remote location than Point San Pablo Harbor, but some 30,000 people annually find their way out there to the Sailing
Goat and various events.

 

This year is the 25th anniversary of Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front National Historical Park, and we should be building it up, not dispersing and abandoning its
components. There are many ways to increase visitation of the Red Oak Victory. Keeping the Riggers Loft as a public destination and event venue is one of them. Volunteers are already doing a good job organizing and publicizing events like pancake breakfasts
and movies, but surprisingly, there is no sign on I-580 identifying exits to the Red Oak Victory. There are wayfinding signs on Canal Boulevard, but they don’t start until you enter Pont Potrero Marine Terminal, and they are small. Wayfinding signs could be
added in Point Richmond and along Dornan Drive, providing wayfinding information to tens of thousands, at a fraction of the cost of moving the ship. A Bay Trail segment actually terminates at the Red Oak Victory, but it could be better signed.

 

With no money to fund a move, and the logistics of such a move making it at least five years in the future, probably more, the Richmond Museum Association should focus
on maximizing revenue at the current location.

 

Figure 5 – Current and proposed Red Oak Victory locations

The current plan is just the latest iteration of it becoming the focus of Richmond’s proclivity for political football and naïve initiatives by City staff.

 

When the Red Oak Victory was transferred to the Richmond Museum Association and towed to Richmond in 1998, it was docked at the abandoned Terminal One, which was a
good interim location. Because a deal was in the making to sell Terminal One to a developer, City staff jumped the gun and became obsessed with moving the Red Oak Victory out of the way as quickly as possible, going even so far as to file for eviction! Notably,
over two decades later, Terminal One has not been developed, and the berth and warehouse that once hosted the Red Oak Victory has been vandalized, covered with graffiti and damaged by fire.

 

Threatened by eviction from Terminal One, the Red Oak Victory was then moved in 2004 to a berth at the south end of Point Potrero Marine Terminal (Historic Shipyard
3), just south of the Riggers Loft. When the lease with Riggers Loft Wine Company was in play in 2012, Port Director Jim Matzorkis insisted that the Red Oak be moved again to avoid blocking the view of patrons of the Riggers Loft Wine Company. A discussion
of where to move it was subsumed by an hours-long debate by the City Council on whether or not to charge rent for its berthing. “Debate amongst the councilmembers and between the members and the audience was at times heated, causing Mayor Gayle McLaughlin
to twice order an abrupt recess and walk out of the room.” Councilmember Booze’s motion to charge rent was defeated 5-2 (Richmond
City Council debates charging to berth the historic SS Red Oak, July 11,2012).

 

Denied revenue from berthing, the Port Department wanted to have as little as possible do with the Red Oak Victory and recommended moving it to the least accessible
of the five historic basins, the farthest east Basin 1, which would have been a half mile walk from parking for visitors. In closed session, the City Council approved the move on June 30, 2016, but later reversed itself and approved a move to Basin 5, adjacent
to the Riggers Loft Wine Company. (Richmond: Mayor slams choice for new location
of historic World War II ship, August 15, 2016)

 

Butt, who was instrumental several years ago in securing funding to renovate Riggers Loft, a former warehouse that is part of the Kaiser Shipyards, said the move
would impact visitors’ experience of Richmond. “The Red Oak will now be isolated in a location that does not have adequate parking to support its growing number of popular events, and visitors to the Riggers Loft Wine Company and the whirley crane (another
historic structure) will be forced for years to look at the vast collection of rusty metal shacks and junk equipment that (tenant) Foss (Maritime) has assembled at Basin 5,” he wrote in an email blast to his constituents.

 

Now, less than ten years later, the City Council wants to move the Red Oak Victory again, purely for political reasons with no basis in reality.

 

Despite lamentations about its “remote” location, The Red Oak Victory is well known and much appreciated by the public, earning 4.5 stars from Trip Advisor and

rated as the 5th most popular of 44 things to do in Richmond. According to Trip Advisor, Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front National Historical Park is Richmond’s top attraction, but the largest photo
on the Trip Advisor Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front National Historical Park page is not the Visitor Center, it is the Red Oak Victory!

 

Figure 6

– Red Oak Victory earns 4.5 stars as Richmnd’s 5th most popular "things to do in Richmond."

 

Figure
7 – The most popular thing to do in Richmond is Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front National Historical Park, but the Trip Advisor page features the Red Oak Victory

The revenue challenges of the Red Oak Victory are not a result of insufficient visitation; they are challenges shared with other museum ships regardless of their location.
Essentially, a museum ship cannot rely on visitor revenue for long term maintenance.

 

Three World War II Victory ships still exist today as museum ships: the SS American Victory in Tampa, Florida; the SS Lane Victory in Los Angeles, California; and the
SS Red Oak Victory in Richmond, California. These ships are preserved as monuments to the wartime efforts of the men and women who built and operated them.

 

All of them face fiscal challenges. Museum ship maintenance faces major funding challenges from high, unexpected costs for hazardous materials, environmental cleanup,
and hull repairs, coupled with insufficient, long-term financial planning and a reliance on fluctuating donations. Many ships lack substantial endowments to cover major work like drydocking, leading to deterioration. Museum ships typically depended on volunteer
crews that are now aging out.

 

• The SS Lane Victory in San Pedro is owned
  by the U.S. Merchant Marine Veterans of World War II. According to the organization’s 2023 Form 990, the total annual revenue was $53,538.

 

• The
  SS American Victory in Tampa FL is owned by Victory Ship, Inc. According to the organization’s 2023 Form 990, the annual revenue was $730,373.

 

• The
  SS Red Oak Victory in Richmond CA is owned by the Richmond Museum Association. According to the organization’s 2023 Form 990, the annual revenue was $297,518. In
  addition to the SS Red Oak Victory, the Richmond Museum Association operates the Richmond Museum of History.

 

• The
  Jeremiah O’Brien, one of four remaining Liberty Ships of the 2,710 built, now docked in San Francisco, is facing
  
  severe financial challenges due to several factors, including post-COVID San Francisco tourism reductions and U.S. Coast Guard maintenance mandates.

 

Despite that fact that Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front National Historical Park is Richmond’s No.1, attraction both City Council members and City staff have had
a lukewarm affinity for it over the 25 years since its establishment, even though most of its assets are owned by the City of Richmond in a unique “partnership park” arrangement.

 

Instead of obsessing over moving the Red Oak Victory, we need to all pull together to support Richmond’s top attraction, our own national park, and focus on the large
grants or endowments needed to keep the Red Oak Victory afloat. If there is $12 million to $20 million available for the Red Oak Victory, it should be used for maintenance, not for a move with no proven benefits.