San Jose is a charter city, which means that its little-read 1965 charter clearly delineates what the city should be focusing on and how it should function. But a close read of the charter reveals that the city has gone well beyond its original brief. In a time of cutbacks, should this matter? Opp Now co-founder Christopher Escher explores.
Read MoreCalifornia High Speed Rail just announced ideas for ripping up lots of San Jose. VTA and BART still plan to demolish downtown San Jose for a BART extension. Light Rail continues to run empty trains around the valley. All at mind-boggling costs. Will it ever stop? Brad Templeton at Forbes magazine explores how coronavirus might finally move mass transportation into a safer, better place.
Read MoreThe coronavirus outbreak has called into question the sometimes unclear deliniation of responsibilities between different branches of U.S. government. And re-ignited debates about federalism not seen since the New Deal. Richard Epstein on the Libertarian podcast explores the issue.
Read MoreSJ City Council recently approved big cuts--$45 million--to the city's upcoming budgets, due to the coronavirus health crisis and concurrent business shutdowns. Pierluigi Oliverio of the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association parses the cuts, and explores why the city spends so much money on programs outside its charter.
Read MoreSan Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle bravely shut down consideration of a rent cancellation ordinance (in which landlords would be forced to provide free rent for an indefinite period of time.) But the idea may return in the guise of federal legislation, with far-reaching ramifications. Tyler O'Neill of PJ Media explains.
Read MoreAndrew Doyle, creator of the satirical Twitter personal Titania McGrath, who is an “activist,” “healer,” and
“radical intersectionalist poet." McGrath is an imaginary amalgam of some excesses in the modern social justice movement, which expresses itself in local Santa Clara County politics in concepts such as equity filters, structural discrimination, and race privilege. In an interview with the American Mind, Doyle discusses what he sees as the religious underpinnings of the Woke Movement.
Alix Ollivier, policy analyst at the Reason Foundation takes a close look at the community report which is informing the city's upcoming displacement policy. He finds it may end up raising housing prices and worsening the area's painfully constrained housing market.
Read MoreDo we repeat ourselves? Constrained housing supply makes Silicon Valley the bottom feeder on a Forbes listing for affordability and market tightness. Brenda Richardson reports.
Read MoreScott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute explores the interrelated actions and metrics necessary to slow the coronavirus' spread, take care of the most vulnerable, and restart everyday life.
Read MoreIn early April, San Jose City Attorney Rick Doyle concluded that a proposal to cancel rents for 90 days for tenants financially harmed by the coronavirus outbreak would be unconstitutional. Tony Francois of the Pacific Legal Foundation agrees and finds Doyle's analysis refreshing, in an exclusive interview with Opportunity Now.
Read MoreModern economists and local politicians usually focus exclusively on how financial incentives propel social behavior. But is it always true? Jonathan Aldred's new book, License to Be Bad: How Economics Corrupted Us, upends traditional notions. Review by Paul Johnson in the Literary Review.
Read MoreJonathan Rothwell of the Brookings Institute wonders why cities such as San Jose are so fragmented into separate racial and ethnic groups (see Census map illustration). He examines, in Reason magazine, how zoning laws, essentially unheard of in the United States until the early 20th Century, have disadvantaged minorities and caused vast social inequities.
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