In KRON4, Alex Baker and Charles Clifford analyze the completely foreseeable findings of the Bay Area Council's recent BART survey: If our local transit system had tighter security and was cleaned more often, residents would take more frequent trips. Bay Area leaders claim they're taking steps to effect safer, more vibrant transportation; but it'll take more than lip service to reverse near-universal concerns.
Read MoreIs everything “far-right” now? SF's Dem Central Commitee lambasted a newly-founded Dem family club for a litany of absurd complaints—including the unfounded suspicion that the co-founders are racist or, worse, conservative. Bari Weiss discusses the leftist phenomenon of nervously name-calling anyone signaling individualism, and how this undermines language's impact over time.
Read MoreMinimum wage in SJ is, as per usual, on the rise, and is now sitting pretty at $17/hr. David John Marotta explains in Forbes that increasing the local minimum wage disproportionately hurts less privileged, lower-income residents—who find they've been replaced by more qualified (or even automated) counterparts.
Read MoreRecently disciplined Dr. Luis Reynoso, of the Chabot-Las Positas Community College board, compares his censureship to ongoing free speech colloquies around Stanford Law and the Los Gatos Town Council. Reynoso's takeaway? While liberal folks get the “free speech” defense, conservatives' talk is too-often penalized as offensive. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreCutting BART's budget per Newsom's Jan announcement may have been an unwelcome surprise to some legislators, but the CA Focus's Thomas Elias points out that it's high time we focus public funds on more efficacious services. With BART's ridership 45% below pre-Covid numbers, expansion into DTSJ is neither logical nor fair to taxpayers.
Read MoreChabot-Las Positas Community College board member Dr. Luis Reynoso recently came under fire for reposting an allegedly offensive meme on LinkedIn. After being investigated and censured in what he calls an unprofessional “witch hunt,” Reynoso speaks exclusively with Opp Now about the precarious state of protected free speech—and his vision for reforming college education.
Read MoreVTA's light rail system is widely considered one of the worst-performing in the country. BART's expansion to downtown SJ is riddled with dubious cost overruns and declining ridership projects. And now we learn: those empty metallic beasts will get extended to Eastridge. Mark Joffe at Cato Institute runs the numbers on local transit boondoggles—and it's not pretty.
Read MoreIf Bay Area Rapid Transit is such a broken, anachronistic system, why are we forking over the big bucks to extend it to downtown SJ? Even Bloomberg acknowledges that with its dismal ridership numbers, dearth of adequate funding, and declining credit score, BART has no business expanding to DTSJ and Santa Clara. Rather than hoping taxpayers will shell out additional dough to keep BART alive, the transit agency should consider closures and service cuts, says analyst Skylar Woodhouse.
Read MoreEdward Ring reports for American Greatness on what voters originally green-lit, way back in 2008, as a $33 billion endeavor: CA's high-speed rail project, now estimated to cost $127 billion. As taxpayer money melts into nought over decades, the HSR can hardly promise any environmental or communal benefits.
Read MoreAs SJ continues climbing out of its longtime drought status, Edward Ring reminds us in the WSJ that additional rainfall means nothing if we aren't adequately extracting and storing water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Such approaches would eliminate CA's water deficit without harming the environment.
Read MoreSupervisor Catherine Stefani voiced her concerns at a recent committee meeting that SF's chosen replacement for partner org UCHS—which is the Felton Institute—might be just as dangerous. FI has been accused of disrupting union organization via withholding raises, not-good-faith bargaining, and bullying behavior; yet SF still hedges on enforcing accountability in nonprofit partners' contracts. The SF Standard's report below.
Read MoreBarrier-free taxpayer-funded homeless housing is often lauded by the left as The Compassionate Approach. Housing First meets individuals where they're at, whether they're addicted to substances or experiencing a severe mental illness. However, the Daily Caller's roundup of recent stats tells a different story: Unrestricted housing policies have only seen increased rates of homelessness and death.
Read More
