On August 18th, San Jose City Council is considering approving the Planning Commission’s proposal for upzoning of the whole city, in which historic single-family-home zoning will give way to high-density, multi-story, multi-unit zoning, with by-right development and no parking requirements. Some of F&H's key concerns:
Hey, we're all used to wildly prejudicial, not-very-smart, pro-tax media coverage in the Bay Area. But this last weekend offered something new: local opinion leaders rising up and taking the reliably lefty SF Standard to task for their transparently biased coverage of the transit tax opposition. A selection of comments from X follows.
Rather than hike taxes in five counties to “rescue VTA,” transit bureaucrats could find easy savings if they wanted. For example: a yearly $15 million that goes to fund a diesel train to Gilroy that serves hardly anybody. Here are five reasons the South County Caltrain is not exactly chugging along, courtesy of Gilroy City Councilmember Zach Hilton writing for the Gilroy Dispatch.
City officials crow, dubiously, that they’ve figured out “the model” for bringing down sky-high rents and making SJ more affordable. Facts on the ground tell a different, more sobering story. Apartments.com’s national rent report reveals that:
Rental prices in SJ (end of June 2026) are now up 5.2%, year-over-year.
The overall median rent in SJ stands at $3,058, after rising 1.4% last month alone.
--Apartments.com
In the frenzy to bail out boondoggle fantasies like a BART-to-San Jose line, bureaucrats’ appeals to the most vulnerable fall flat when you understand just how harmful their proposed half-cent sales tax will be to the region’s lowest income earners. Stacked on top of Measure A’s countywide 5/8-cent hike, struggling San Joseans could soon be paying a 10.5% sales tax.
The upsurge in violence in San Jose isn't just focused on donwntown's curiously-named "Entertainment Zones," which have attracted shootings, stabbings, and unruly crowds requiring police intervention. Domestic violence deaths in SJ are also tracking tracking much higher than 2025, according to San Jose Inside.
Tax and transit experts from the region's five counties are rejecting this November's ballot initiative that aims to bail out the underperforming and grossly mismanaged transit agencies like VTA, BART, and SF Muni. Instead, The Committee for Affordable Bay Area Transit calls for long-overdue fiscal and operational reform at the transit agencies.
Even though SJ tried to calm soccer watch events by requiring (free) tickets and moving the "parties" to SAP and Discovery Meadow, the July 5/6 scene devolved into mayhem--yet again. The Merc reports, below.
Predictably, more violent mayhem has occurred in SJ's downtown "Entertainment Zones." Multiple stabbings and property damage upended a June 30 soccer watch party at SJ's San Pedro Square. NBC Bay Area reports below.
