On January 1, 2027, San Francisco Bay Area homeowners will awaken to an unwelcome reality: they can no longer buy or replace traditional natural gas water heaters. This represents a staggering indirect tax that will burden households with tens of billions in conversion costs for negligible environmental benefit. Marc Joffe explores on California Globe.
Read MoreWe asked our resident marketing expert (Philip Davenport works for an ad agency in Brooklyn) to take a look at two ads from the California governor's race: Matt Mahan's and Tom Steyer's. We asked Philip to keep the politics out of it, and just view the ads as he would if he were a client giving feedback to the agency. Philip is not a CA voter and assures us he wouldn't vote for either candidate. An Opportunity Now exclusive.
Read MoreMatt Mahan is the “sole gubernatorial candidate emphasizing governmental accountability,” says Johnny Khamis, president of the Silicon Valley Business Alliance. But, he argues, the SJ mayor’s state spending plan doesn’t go far enough: Mahan should commit to veto any tax-raising measures until politicians do much better at resolving the issues facing California. An Opportunity Now exclusive reaction.
Read MoreRegional planners aim to fix transit, housing, the environment, and the economy in their Plan Bay Area 2050+, a long-range nine-county development blueprint that hinges on high-growth estimates. But in a letter to MTC/ABAG, Marin County Executive Derek Johnson rejects the plan’s assumption of 22,200 new county residents. Actually, the state predicts Marin will lose 6,437 residents. Stopping short of demanding a rethink, Johnson instead recommends the planners do better next time. H/t to Susan Kirsch.
Read MoreSure, the SJ mayor is right to point out that California’s budget is broken, but by what standard will Mahan measure his results, asks Mark Moses, author of The Municipal Financial Crisis. He says the CA gov candidate’s spending plan doesn’t even hint at what real accountability would look like. An Opportunity Now exclusive reaction.
Read More“Even some who favor preferences in admissions would likely balk at a better package of aid simply because of an applicant’s race,” writes William McGurn in a WSJ opinion piece: ACA 7 would allow schools to offer more financial aid money to a wealthy black student, and on better terms, than to a poor Asian student.
Read MoreA special local tax in California needs two-thirds voter approval to pass. The “affordable housing” Measure E was never going to get that. But as a general tax it slipped through with a simple majority. So says twice-elected D6 Councilmember Dev Davis, who opposed it because now, as she predicted, there’s a yearly fight over how to spend the money. From the December ep of her excellent podcast The Upside of Down with SJ Chief of Staff Lam Nguyen.
Read MoreWith a heavy application of performance metrics, Matt Mahan’s statespending plan draws from the same formula as his San Jose mayoral race, says SVBA’s Pat Waite. He warns that a Governor Mahan would have to work through intractable grit at the state level. An Opportunity Now exclusive reaction.
Read MoreReAlpha (AI-powered real estate concern) ranked California cities for safety and affordability in November, 2025. Only one Bay Area city makes the top tier of the Safety listings--Sunnyvale. And none —that’s right, zero—made the combined Safety+Affordable listing.
Read MoreGubernatorial candidate Matt Mahan’s spending plan for CA does a good job of diagnosing California’s fiscal maladies, but his proposed treatment is not enough to cure the patient, according to Marc Joffe. An Opportunity Now exclusive reaction.
Read MoreCA voters already said no to racial preferences, but state legislators keep pushing for discrimination, says California Globe’s Katie Grimes. A reparations program under the new ACA 7 would give students of the same financial need different aid packages: free money for some, student debt for the rest. Why do the people’s representatives keep ignoring the will of the people?
Read MorePlan Bay Area 2050+ is a $1.5 trillion, 25-year mega-plan that entrenches failing transit and housing bureaucracies, says SHIFT Sustainability Director Gregg Dieguez. He argues MTC/ABAG’s regional blueprint ignores remote work and other transformative trends, spreading new taxes and costs across the region. To what end? To preserve an outdated status quo rather than re-imagining the Bay Area’s future in light of emerging technologies. An Opportunity Now exclusive comment.
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