From: Tod Hickman
To: City Clerk; Lara Weisiger
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Public comment 7-D Faction Brewing Lease Date: Monday, August 31, 2026 8:54:20 AM
Item 7-D, Faction Brewing, shows the true racist, discriminatory, and retaliatory nature of the City of Alameda and the individuals who currently control it. Building 43 Winery, a Latina and Veteran owned business, became late for a mere 2 days on roughly $3700 of rent and was aggressively and retaliatorily evicted by the City.
And here is one of the "whitest" businesses in the City, a mere $200,000 dollars behind in rent, being given another sweetheart deal in an effort to keep them afloat. And to what avail? Faction has no chance on a broken Spirits Alley absent the founding life blood of Building 43 Winery and Rock Wall Winery.
It's tough to fathom why the City even continues this charade of trying to keep Faction alive. The City has already made it clear they want to replace Spirits Alley with Tech Alley and yet they continue to effectively throw free money and opportunity at white-owned businesses while they aggressively and maliciously destroy Latina and Veteran owned businesses. Pretty ironic on the former Naval Base the City received for a $1.
The true irony here is that I'm actually going to give my support for this item even though Roger and Claudia were the worst business owners on Spirits Alley at giving their support when needed and appear to me to have zero business sense. When we were bringing up the road closure sabotage by the City we attempted to enlist Factions support. None was given, with statements to the effect of Faction distribution was so healthy that it didn't matter to them. And yet here they are whining about the road closure as a pivotal reason for their $200,000 in late rent.
Whatever the case, the City of Alameda, under the demise of the Ashcraft regime, is sure to squander the funds anyway, so why not give Faction ONE MORE CHANCE? I GIVE MY SUPPORT FOR ITEM 7-D.
Tod Hickman
Alameda NAS Historic Preservationist
CA Government Agency Watchdog Alliance