Mandated solar panel installations. Regional building quotas that are neither restrained nor reasonable. Gov’t experts Mark Moses and Susan Kirsch assert that cities like SJ can improve affordability—it just might require applying some pressure at the state level. An Opp Now exclusive in an ongoing roundup.
Read MoreCounty Assessor finalist Rishi Kumar surveys the post-election pro-Measure A infighting, and wonders, “Was this a bait-and-switch?” {From a No on A press release, Rishi Kumar (County Assessor candidate finalist), chair.}
Read MoreWhether you're a Silicon Valley housing provider, a start-up restaurant, a medium-sized services firm, or even a big tech concern--get ready for the one-two punch of bureaucratic micromanagement and sky-high levies.
Read MoreLocal housing providers tell a bracing story regarding how local gov'ts (inc. City of San Jose) impose not only a voluminous array of regulations, but how those regulations make it increasingly impossible to sustain, fund, build, and grow our local housing stock. Which of course leads to increased rents and prices across the board. Irene Smith of United Housing Alliance and commenters on Featured.com elaborate.
Read MoreNobody doubts that regulations, when properly constructed, can help implement the laws passed by Congress to improve quality of life and promote competitive and free markets. But too many--and too many poorly formulated--regs can have a chilling effect on growth and innovation. U.S. Chamber of Commerce explores where gov't goes wrong.
Read MoreHere's the reality: big business can absorb regulatory time and cost the easiest of all businesses, due to scale. And while the regulations may seem most onerous to small biz, start-ups, it's really the medium-sized businesses who carry the biggest burden--and get the least incentive to grow. Fortune explains.
Read MoreEdward Ring of the California Policy Center explains how hyper-regulation in SV cities and counties favors Big Business, is anti-competitive, and usually ends up hurting low-income residents.
Read More“We’ve crossed an important threshold,” says 2024 Libertarian VP nominee Mike ter Maat in an Opp Now exclusive Q&A. Even before the federal government misses its first interest payment, borrowing will become much costlier: he says cities in Silicon Valley that rely on credit should act now to avoid financial ruin in a crisis that’s as few as five years out.
Read MoreLongtime Opp Now contributor Philip Davenport reports from a hipster bar in Flatbush, NYC regarding the Silicon Valley Left's big win on 11.4. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreTexas’s “kill the protest veto” blueprint offers Silicon Valley a cheat code re: improving affordability: turn empty offices and 8,000-sq-ft lot minimums into housing, since SB 330 (Texas’ "Housing Crisis Act of 2019") failed to tame NIMBYs. Texas Policy explains.
Read MoreThat $2.6 million is not a typo. Financially burdened Santa Clara County--and its non profit extensions--had to burn through millions to get those extra 6% of voters to pass Meas A. That lavish disbursement was multiple orders of magnitude more than that spent spent by the No on A* forces, who still came within shouting distance of defeating the measure. Santa Clara Online explores.
Read MoreIf you thought Silicon Valley was unaffordable, unfriendly to business, and a loser place to start a career--you ain't seen nuthin'.
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