Here's the standard narrative: the state’s transit systems are still struggling because of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Therefore, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Muni and other public systems need a state bailout and higher sales taxes to avoid severe service cutbacks – and carry them over until ridership levels return to pre-pandemic levels. Pacific Research Institute explains how the narrative is bogus--that Bay Area transit is systemically flawed, and more cash won't solve its problems.
Housing development is notoriously difficult in California, with every project forced to hurdle over plenty of byzantine obstacles. Despite the complicated and often drawn-out process, Riverside County has managed to increase its apartment stock significantly in the past year, adding thousands of units, while SJ and SF lag. SF Gate reports.
Bay Area voters are being sold a new story: save transit, prevent “catastrophic” service cuts, keep the region moving. That’s the public pitch behind SB 63, the “Connect Bay Area” sales-tax campaign heading for the November 2026 ballot. So says Los Altos Institution fellow and wunderkind contributor Athan Joshi in an Opportunity Now exclusive op-ed.
The common understanding of a "right" is that it's something neither governments nor other people can take away from you. It's inalienable. It doesn't mean it's something your gov't is obliged to give you. Robert Valdez at Forbes contends that housing is what it has always been understood as: a commodity, and we should be focused on making it cheaper.
Bay Area's premier tax-and-spend concert series –Taxapalooza –announces 2026 headliners. An Opp Now exclusive.
Extending his ongoing efforts to jack SJ residents' tax burden even higher, SJ Mayor Mahan on Jan. 13 voted to oppose the "Save Prop 13" ballot initiative. And, yes, he was joined by his cadre of faux fiscal conservatives, CMs Casey, Doan and Mulcahy. They also voted to support the upcoming tax bailouts of the region's flailing, nearly bankrupt transit agencies. Opp Now roving contributor Tobin Gilman reports on Nextdoor.
Nobody’s arguing a city can’t survive year-to-year by deferring maintenance and raising taxes. But Mark Moses, author of The Municipal Financial Crisis, cautions that if Silicon Valley cities fixate on this year’s budget cycle, they risk ignoring the “compounding burden” of underlying, unaddressed liabilities. This could mean major service cuts by the end of the decade. An Opportunity Now exclusive warning for 2026.
Local governments’ aggressive tax, spend, and regulate agenda is already pushing tech innovators to greener pastures, says San Francisco Libertarian Party Chair Starchild. But what if policies to restrict AI and immigration intensify the exodus? An Opportunity Now exclusive 2026 prediction.
San Jose social media contributor MamaMilz reports on X that the alleged suspect in a sexual assault on a 15 year-old female student walking to school was, in fact, a resident at one of the city’s much ballyhooed interim homelessness shelters (One Branham Lane). Curiously, leading city officials and the Mercury News failed to mention this salient fact in their coverage and comments on the attack. The suspect also has a previous sexual assault conviction. From X.
