Gabe Guidarini explains in American Greatness that the Right as a whole isn't attracting young folks—because its narratives are too-often jaundiced by cynicism and impending danger, leaving opportunity and excitement on the back burner.
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Even the Wall Street Journal concedes that billions of taxpayer dollars later, CA's efforts to ease its homelessness plight have barely scratched the surface. While cities like SJ prioritize developing barrier-free housing, the WSJ's Christine Mai-Duc and Jim Carlton remind that unhoused individuals often also need comprehensive treatment—for mental health and substance abuse disorders—to break free from the cycle.
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Earlier this year, Dr. Tabia Lee—the Foothills-De Anza Community College's Equity, Social Justice and Multicultural Education faculty director—was fired for, yep, not being Woke enough. This is just one of many incidents of local Leftists ousting moderate allies. The Cato Institute breaks down how this Black professor's earnest challenges to anti-racist orthodoxy got her the boot.
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Metro Silicon Valley's pot economist Dan Mitchell spotlights California's suffering cannabis market. While Prop 64 legalized weed back in '16, dispensaries still struggle to operate under onerous state regulations and taxes, which are forcing many locations across CA into exorbitant debt. Then, it may not blow anyone's mind that cannabis sellers are heading back to the black market, where revenue is more promising.
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It's no secret that SF's once-booming hotel market faces a downhill plunge post Covid. Owners struggle to fill rooms amid rampant crime and filthy streets. But is San Jose's tourism industry headed for the same “gloomy” fate as SF? The San Francisco Business Times' hospitality reporter Alex Barreira shares, in this Opp Now exclusive, why less supply constraints and better street conditions could spell victory for SJ's local hotel market.
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The homelessness epidemic is not chiefly an issue of high housing costs or welcoming weather, says the California Globe team, but drug laws. In progressive states that keep homeless numbers down, consequences for hard drug use include substantial fines and sentencing—while in CA, perpetrators get little more than a slap on the wrist, and can stay in the streets while averting needful mental health interventions.
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Local progressive nonprofits added a new item to their ever-lengthening resume of ridiculous protest stunts on June 7, when for almost an hour they occupied the offices of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors (R) (SCCAOR) and threatened staff. Trespass and assault charges are being considered. SCCAOR's sin? Actually supporting an initiative—not approved by local housing nonprofits—that would provide quick, high-quality housing for our homeless neighbors. Opp Now co-founder Christopher Escher sits down with SCCOAR's Gov't Affairs chief Gina Zari about why the protest stunt backfired and why she's unmoved by efforts to silence her team. An Opp Now exclusive.
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Since State Farm announced it will no longer insure new policies in California, state gov't has been scrambling to peddle excuses such as global inflation and “climate change.” OC Register's Steven Greenhut pinpoints the real reason many insurance companies have pulled out of the Golden State: rampant regulatory overreach (especially via Prop 103, which makes turning a profit much more difficult for insurers).
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In a recent email memo (excerpted below), the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association announced an upcoming BART panel discussion for June 13th in Walnut Creek. Panelists—Independent Institute's Lawrence McQuillan and Cato Insitute's Marc Joffe—will address how to reform BART without more burdensome tax increases.
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In light of Opp Now urging that free thinkers rekindle their natural outrage in response to injustices, Bari Weiss similarly prods Free Press readers: The fight against illiberalism requires cultivating purpose and nourishing one's soul, though it's easier to become hardened to radical nonsense. Whether it's local landowner rights or gov't/NP transparency, the battle must “keep raging.”
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The Contra Costa News reports that BART's new two-year budget won't cut transit services despite consistently low ridership numbers. On the contrary, VTA is working to extend to Downtown SJ, a project that'll burn over $9 million while barely, if at all, improving traffic congestion.
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Downtown SF's flagship Old Navy location will soon close—joining DTSF's list of fallen retail tributes—due to out-of-control crime. The Globe's Evan Symon unpacks how the store's “rampant shoplifting” problem is easily traced to SF's dearth of criminal penalties and city officers. SJ, too, and other Bay Area cities are also suffering the effects of underfunded, slimmed-down Police Depts.
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