Updated: San Jose’s homeless and sensitive creek environment – can they both be saved?
While our San Jose City Council continues to enable the Housing Department to misspend hundreds of millions of SJ taxpayer dollars every year, real people are left to live in San Jose’s creek and riverbeds. Dean Hotop, a concerned citizen of San Jose, outlines the steps ordinary citizens can take to compel city government to deliver results regarding our homelessness and environmental crisis, rather than just writing big checks to nonprofits that do little to solve problems. This article originally published as an email from Hotop to a concerned citizen email list.
Read More
Like a bridge over a false divide
Local media and pundits like to frame local politics as a never-ending battle between labor and business interests. But does this dialectic withstand serious scrutiny, or is it just lazy thinking that privileges monied interests? Independent candidate for SJ District 3 City Council Irene Smith has talked to both business and labor leaders, and discovers--guess what? --they're a lot more aligned than people realize. From her Medium post.
Read More
SJ Housing Dept's outreach process criticized as flawed, partisan, ineffective
The SJ Housing department has a formal obligation to solicit broad and meaningful citizen input on its major policies. With the department's widely criticized COPA program (privileging unaccountable non-profits in the housing market) nearing a council vote, David Eisbach, in an open letter to the community, takes a close look at how that input process actually takes place. He finds more stagecraft than good faith exploration of citizen perceptions and concerns.
Read More
Tough governance lessons from SF Schoolboard recall
National media is still considering the political ramifications of the overwhelming rejection and recall of a trio of hard-left schoolboard members in that liberal suburb to the north. But aside from the politics of it all, perhaps a bigger question lingers unanswered: how on Earth did the democratic processes fail so spectacularly in SF? How would three schoolboard members with policies so out of touch with their voters get elected in the first place? Lia Rensin--a volunteer with Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies (a non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Northern California committed to removing ideological and political agendas from Ethnic Studies courses throughout the US) --provides perspective.
Read More
California’s housing market is broken—but legislative reform can turn things around, consultant says
Timothy L. Coyle, a veteran California consultant specializing in housing, proposes actions by which local legislators can make California’s housing market affordable and fulfill high demand. For instance, the housing element law and CEQA as we know it should be abolished—making way for cost-effective construction opportunities.
Read More
Transit leaders and experts concur with harsh criticism of VTA
Spurred by recent SJ Merc reports on collapsing ridership and dubious cost and construction timeline estimates by VTA, city, county, and state transit and political experts have joined the growing chorus for fundamental change at the embattled transit agency.
Read More
Where VTA went wrong
In an exceptional pair of stories this past weekend, SJ Merc reporters Maggie Angst and Eliyahu Kamishar delivered some top-notch reporting about the blistering criticism the Feds have delivered to VTA regarding dubious BART extension costs and timelines, as well as the sad (and tremendously expensive) tale of VTA and Caltrain's ridership implosion since the pandemic. Randall O'Toole of the Thoreau Institute provides some useful historical background as to how VTA took the wrong turn decades ago, and why we are still paying for those mistakes. O'Toole's piece is an Opp Now exclusive.
Read More
Understanding when nonprofits can, and can't, engage in political advocacy
Local philanthropists were surprised recently when many of the local environmental, health care, and community nonprofits to which they donate were discovered to have lobbied the SJ City Council in support of Labor's widely criticized redistricting maps, which have been credibly accused of suppressing Asian-American votes. The Labor plan failed, but the question lingered as to the appropriateness of those nonprofits' legislative solicitations. Opp Now co-founder Christopher Escher talked to nonprofit attorney Scott Hartley of Hartley Law (full disclosure: he’s also Opp Now’s lawyer) to get some clarity about the parameters that apply to nonprofits when it comes to political activity.
Read More
COPA Funding: The Measure E sleight-of-hand trick?
Local small housing provider Dean Hotop takes a close look at SJ Housing Dept's recent presentation to SJ City Council and discovers, voila, they appear to be raiding Measure E funds for another expenditure--handouts to the local nonprofit housing cabal. If you've ever wondered where all the billions of dollars local taxpayers have spent--to little or no effect--to solve homelessness and affordable housing crisis, take a look at the financial chicanery outlined below, not to mention the $200,000+/year salaries of executive directors of regional "nonprofit" housing providers
Read More
Overregulation is driving businesses out of California, creating a dangerously “hollowed-out Silicon Valley”
Kerry Jackson of the Pacific Research Institute argues that California’s economy is on the path to serious destruction. For years, residents and businesses have rampantly migrated out-of-state to avoid excessive legislation and costs. Though California—particularly Silicon Valley—is uniquely entrepreneurial and innovative, it’s become a challenging place to do business. The state’s steady loss of business will reap noticeable damage on the economy, Jackson claims.
Read More
Lessons for South Bay cities from SF's ousting of school board racial equity warriors
Three members of San Francisco’s school board were recalled Tuesday in the wake of widespread revolt over their woke policies and the slow reopening of schools shut down by COVID-19. What should concerned parents whose kids attend Santa Clara County public schools glean from the fiasco, and what it took to slow down the hijacking of their kids' education? The Opp Now editorial team parses the NY Post's news coverage of the special election and warns that the recall may be but a speed bump on racial equity warriors' long march through our public schools.
Read More
Behind the scenes at the KalraCare flop
State progressives indulged in another round of "eat-your-own" theatrics after local rep Ash Kalra pulled his proposal for a state-run, socialized healthcare regime. Prompted by their union paymasters, progressive reps and advocates threatened all sorts of retribution on the moderate Democrats who opposed the radical plan. California Policy Center has the inside story.
Read More
