Nobody serious doubts the importance of healthy urban forests, but the process for deciding where and what to plant is much more complex than knee-jerk social justice soundbites. SJ CM Omar Torres supports demanding an "equity lens" to tree planting across districts, while expert Ethan Bodnaruk, environmental and geotechnical engineer at Atlantic Testing Laboratories, suggests a much more scientific and health-based model in Deeproot.com.
Read MoreWolf Street’s Wolf Richter analyzes Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) recent reversion in rider numbers—post-Covid progress eroding slowly but surely—which Richter attributes to prolific tech industry layoffs. BART’s expenses being mostly fixed, it’s unclear how the continually-expanded system can support itself moving forward.
Read MoreWriting for the Washington Examiner, Black Minds Matter founder Denisha Merriweather critiques claims that affording families more robust options re: their kids’ schooling is—yup, you guessed it—racist. Countering these ideas, Merriweather unpacks why initiatives that champion parents and communities are “anything but racist.”
Read MoreRose Herrera (District 8) and Forest Williams (then-District 2) have both served as SJ councilmembers, so they bring experienced points of view to how SJ politics have changed, and the challenges the new council faces. Both have applied for the interim seats the council will appoint. They chatted with us in this Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreNewsom wants to award state-funded “sorry money” to Black descendants of enslaved people. In the California Globe, Evan Symon breaks down the folly of slavery reparations: They’re objected to by most CA’ns, legally challenging to establish, and partially disregard past suffering of other minoritized races/ethnicities.
Read MoreBreaking down the West Contra Costa School District’s controversial bond measure of 2020, the California Globe’s Edward Ring highlights how CA’n school admins are egregiously overpaid. If the $281k and $235k salaries SJUSD’s Albarran/Mahon currently earn were delegated to the classroom, what a difference that could make. Even our state governor sits at $224k/yr. — are superintendents more important?
Read MoreUnsurprising to most, Gov. Newsom just announced California’s deficit of $23 billion, in stark contrast to Texas (currently juggling an extra $33 billion). Marketplace’s Matt Levin breaks down how CA tech companies — which continue to flee the state in record numbers — are integral to the stock market and wealthy residents’ incomes.
Read MoreThe latest chapter in a controversial legal battle has seen Calvary Chapel’s (Covid-era) contempt-of-court charges dropped. Yet, the case will be depublished, so it can’t be used as legal precedent. Law experts offer insight into this complex local bind in an Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreNew Zealand’s former Minister of Energy Barry Brill debunks Newsom’s idea that CA’s transition to renewable energy sources will be quick—and is possible before 2070. Assuming the Golden State can make a “green” switch soon, even the International Energy Agency (IEA) says it’s unlikely for global hydrocarbon dependency to stray below 84%. This analysis first appeared in Watts Up With That?
Read MoreIn EdSource, journalist Karen D’Souza breaks down the Golden State’s fall from literacy, tentatively attributing our dismal 77% of mid- to high adult literacy statistic to “underspending,” among other factors. Larry Sand takes to City Journal to rebut the misguided theory that CA should throw more money at public schools — that, instead, we must reform what amounts to a “subpar education” for local youths.
Read MoreSan Francisco office space vacancies continue to spike, reaching 27% on average this past year. The California Globe’s senior editor Evan Symon unpacks why converting unoccupied office spaces may “not be enough” to salvage them — and may not even be financially realistic.
Read MoreJust as SJ prepares to rip up downtown yet again for another brutally costly transportation system, the Wall Street Journal reports that BART, like many other U.S. transit systems, is basically going broke. Hold onto your wallet.
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