San Franciscan constitutional/land use law professor Christopher Elmendorf questions the effectiveness of proposed ACA 10 to mitigate local housing problems. Specifically, he critiques the amendment's lack of clear instructions and points out potential consequences of granting judges undue control over housing policy. Elmendorf's comments on Twitter excerpted below.

Many in SJ, including Mayor Mahan, have called for the homelessness crisis to be addressed from its primary causes of mental illness and substance abuse, seeing that over 80% of SCC's (wait, isn't mental health the County's job, Supe Ellenberg?) jail population have an open mental health case. In an e-mailer, the LA Alliance For Human Rights sweeps us to SoCal, where the LA Board of Supes is hedging on bolstering much-needed treatment programs, in favor of subsidizing drug abuse and ignoring rampant mental illness. The destructive fallout—and need for reform, in LA and SJ alike—described below.

SJ's surging crime wave was a cogent focal point of Mahan's mayoral campaign. And many point to restrictive legislation as the culprit: under which even well-intentioned law enforcement must treat certain felonies as misdemeanors, release violent perpetrators without bail, and empty SCC jails as a reckless social statement. An email from Reform California breaks down how soft-on-crime policies jeopardize local public safety. Excerpted below.

The Wall Street Journal's Peter Grant reports that office vacancy rates are rising as the SV slides further away from the tech industry's early pandemic hiring boom—and as more residents are opting to skip the commute and work remotely. Now, companies like Google are increasingly interested in subleasing their office space, leaving landlords desperate and throwing incentives at anyone willing to rent.

Residents in their 20s and 30s are high-tailing it out of the Bay Area in droves, disproportionately aging our local communities. The SF Chronicle clarifies that (acc to CA's HCD) $96,000/year is considered “low income” for one-person households in the SCC, thanks in part to unreachable housing costs. Is it a surprise, then, that young folks who haven't nabbed high-paying tech jobs aren't sticking around?

Louis V. Gerstner Jr.—chairman of a NY philanthropic fundraising nonprofit—has seen firsthand how temporary financial aid programs are a cheap and effective way to keep folks from falling into the poverty cycle, tackling homelessness before it's an issue. Contrarily, putting unhoused people in shelters (whether long-term or quick-build, as advocated by SJ mayor Mahan) can cost taxpayers over 100x more. Gerstner Jr.'s analysis in the Wall Street Journal.

The National Review's Becket Adams reflects on imbalanced reporting in nationwide school board controversies, including the bogus claim that Tennessee restricts Black history instruction (nope, anything goes that isn't racist or divisive). The Bay Area, too, has seen elevated media slant since the last election cycle, and local school board members who don't submit to Woke doctrine often struggle to get their voice heard.