Michael Alexander—the California School Choice Foundation president and Californians for School Choice chairman—breaks down what the recent Carson v. Makin ruling on a publicly-funded tuition assistance program means for California. The first of an exclusive series with Opp Now.
Read MoreExorbitant housing costs are the #1 reason ex-Californians cite for leaving; yet Houston, Texas continues steadily gaining residents and was ranked the #3 metropolitan area for population growth in 2020. Opp Now spoke with Ray Miller—Houston’s Assistant Director of Multifamily & Public Facilities in the Housing and Community Development Department—about Houston’s flourishing housing market and local takeaways for SJ.
Read MoreThe Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) has campaigned against California’s HSR fiasco since 2008, when their co-authored nonpartisan report found the project “highly risky for state taxpayers.” HJTA president Jon Coupal spoke with Opp Now to rebut pro-HSR’s elusive affordability arguments.
Read MoreYet another appalling budgetary upsurge (currently, the SJ–SF section alone will cost $5.3 million), and Brian Kelly still calls California’s failed high-speed rail project affordable? The Opp Now team spoke with Kelly Decker and Cindy Bloom of the SAFE Coalition about this fallacious claim and why HSR is a “Train to Nowhere” except taxpayers’ pockets. The San Fernando Valley-based SAFE (Save the Angeles Forest for Everyone) Coalition originally fought the HSR project on environmental grounds and now also its overall devastation to California.
Read MoreIn the last 10 years, San Jose has made substantial changes to its streetscape to make it more bike-friendly. In an Opp Now exclusive, we talked to John Brazil, Transportation Options Program Manager, and Colin Heyne, Public Information Manager in the City's Dept. of Transportation. They described the unique opportunities and challenges of creating a bike-friendly environment while respecting vehicular traffic.
Read MoreIn what universe is a $5.3 billion price tag (more than three times the original estimate for SJ–SF and likely to further escalate) a bargain? In an exclusive Opportunity Now interview, David Schonbrunn—president of the Transportation Solutions Defense and Education Fund (TRANSDEF)—provides perspective on CEO Brian Kelly’s recent claim that the SJ–SF HSR project is a fiscal “bargain.” TRANSDEF has spearheaded litigation against this project since 2008 and continues to advocate for effective Bay Area transportation solutions.
Read MoreConcerned citizen Dean Hotop agrees with Scott Beyer's analysis of SJ's housing permit woes (see nearby) and examines the unintended consequences of the Ellis Act which tries to "preserve" affordable housing.
Read MoreThe Mountain View Voice may be Sally Lieber's hometown newspaper (she's currently a Mtn View City Councilmember and is running for Board of Equalization), but home-cookin' can go a little too far, as we discovered from their election night coverage.
Read MoreScott Beyer, editor of the influential Market Urbanism Report, continues his close, metrics-based investigation of the local housing market, and comes up with another disappointing conclusion: Silicon Valley continues to underbuild residential construction, worsening its affordability crisis. An Opportunity Now exclusive.
Read MoreScott Beyer, Founder of the influential Market Urbanism Report and author of the widely respected book: Market Urbanism: A vision for free-market cities, is a leading proponent of classical liberal reforms to address the national housing crisis. In Part I of an exclusive 3-part series for Opportunity Now, Beyer begins his analysis of San Jose's current policies, and what needs to change.
Read MoreOnce-vocal progressive critics to Google's downtown project have gone strangely quiet. Maybe it has something to do with the $200m community slush fund Google offered up to get local approval for the project. Randal O'Toole of the Thoreau Institute wonders if the Google deal sets a precedent that makes it impossible for small and medium businesses to develop in San Jose in the future. An Opportunity Now exclusive.
Read MoreRandal O'Toole of the Thoreau Institute, in this exclusive analysis for Opportunity Now, provides a clear-eyed perspective about the problems facing the worst-performing transit agency in America, and how recent kerfuffles around VTA's governance deflect attention from the real causes of the transit agency's woeful status.
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