The State - News from April 25, 1988

The directors of Goodwill Industries of the East Bay, whose new secondhand store doesn’t merit a place in Oakland’s downtown redevelopment program, voted unanimously to sue the City of Oakland for at least $450,000. Goodwill may also seek punitive damages. Goodwill spent more than a year renovating the store, but the City Council rejected the final permit and ordered Goodwill not to stock the upscale, shiny-new facility. “It pains me,” H. Ronald Turnbow, president of the charity’s 13-store East Bay chain, said of the planned lawsuit. “We’ve been in Oakland since 1919. But I really feel we’ve been toyed with.” Oakland Mayor Lionel Wilson said Turnbow “had every reason to believe there would be opposition (to the store) from my office.”