Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft stood on the steps of the Veteran’s Memorial Building on Monday morning, December 15, surrounded by a dozen veterans, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, Alameda City Councilmember Greg Boller, Interim City Manager Adam Politzer, and staff from the offices of Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, California State Senator Jesse Arreguin, and District 18 Assemblymember Mia Bonta. They were holding a press conference to address the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) cancellation of plans to build a health care facility and columbarium (cemetery) at Alameda Point.
The $395 million dollar project had been planned for decades, but on August 28, 2025, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon’s office received a notification that the projects had been canceled. A VA spokesperson told the Alameda Post that they planned to develop a clinic in Oakland instead and were considering a cemetery in San Francisco. The City of Alameda had not been officially notified of any of these developments by the VA.
Congresswoman Simon, along with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, wrote an open letter to VA Secretary Douglas Collins demanding answers about the cancellation.
Mayor Ashcraft and the City of Alameda, in the meantime, have vowed to fight the cancellation of the projects in Alameda.
“We do not shrug and say, ‘Oh, well, I guess that’s the way it is,’” Ashcraft announced at the press conference. “We stand up. We fight back. And that’s what we’re going to do.” When Ashcraft introduced Barbara Lee, she told those in attendance that Lee fought and secured “over $400 million of federal funds dedicated to this project.”
Lee spoke about her father, who was a veteran who lived in Alameda. She declared that Alameda and Oakland would “not stop fighting” and would “continue to work with the federal government and pressure the federal government and remind them how wrong” it is to cancel building the clinic and cemetery at Alameda Point.
In response to what people can do to help stop the cancellation, Lee said, “We all need to circle the wagons,” and that now is the time to support the efforts of Congresswoman Simon. Lee encouraged people to write letters to regional and federal VA officials.
Mayor Ashcraft told the Post that Congresswoman Simon is “definitely rattling the cages” of the VA and is trying to get answers about the cancellation of the projects. The mayor agreed with Lee about contacting regional and federal VA officials to express concerns. She noted that Alameda residents can reach out to VA Secretary Douglas Collins, a Trump appointee, to “express displeasure in all the ways that this would impact their families.” No direct email is listed on Collins’ VA webpage, but he does have a Facebook page with an option to send a direct message. The main phone number for the VA is 800-698-2411.
Ashcraft also told the Post that the City of Alameda was going to speak to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is a longtime resident of Alameda, about “a possible legal challenge.”
Addressing the possibility of a VA cemetery in San Francisco, Ashcraft said, “I am hard pressed to visualize where you would add a cemetery in San Francisco. There is just not a lot of vacant land… I think that is just continuing the theme of there are a lot of unanswered questions.” Ashcraft did not address the possibility of the clinic being developed in Oakland.
Omar Farmer from the Alameda County Veterans Affairs Commission and Joe LoParo, a Marine veteran and Alameda resident, also spoke at the press conference. They talked about the need for veterans to have access to timely health care and nearby access to a cemetery. The projects, LoParo pointed out, “were not political talking points.”
When asked about the current state of healthcare services for veterans, Farmer cited that current clinics are spread out and that veterans, especially those with mobility issues, have a difficult time traveling to far away clinics. LoParo talked about long wait times, pointing to his foot, which had recently been in a cast. “The doctor referred me to physical therapy… and the VA called and said, ‘OK, we can see you in February.”
Jean Chen is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact her via [email protected]. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Jean-Chen.
