How women feel when powerful white, male nonprofit leaders bully them
Sandy Perry is the president of the Affordable Housing Network of Santa Clara County and was a leader of the recent invasion of the offices of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors. In a recent op-ed, which exposed his organization's coercive politics and jejune policy ideas, he attempted to shrug off community disapproval of his storming the SCCAOR offices by characterizing the trespass as "nonviolent." Before dismissing community concerns, Perry might consider the lived experience of women, such as SCCAOR employee Jodee Sousa, when powerful white men like him overrun her workspace and bully her and her colleagues. An excerpt from Sousa's letter to City Council follows.
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Report: Strengthened substance abuse services needed to break homelessness cycles
Permanent supportive housing advocates peddle the long-disputed idea that homelessness is just that: lack of a home. If providing shelter is the one-and-done approach to abolishing homelessness, why are rates still soaring? The National Coalition for the Homeless, in a comprehensive write-up, highlights the strong link between substance abuse and homelessness. Housing alone is powerless to help unhoused folks, says the NCH, but addiction support services prove a valuable, necessary tool.
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Expert outlook: Post-employment benefits “a luxury that BART can no longer afford”
The Cato Institute's policy analyst Marc Joffe is a self-avowed transit advocate who has often used BART and “really want[s] it to succeed” (0:51–0:53). But the Bay's rapid transportation system requires more than wishful thinking—or mindless spending—to surpass 2019 ridership levels. During a 6.13 Walnut Creek presentation, Joffe suggested several fiscal reform strategies, including eliminating superfluous post-employment benefits like healthcare coverage.
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☆ Opinion on Measure E reallocation: A decision of fiscal risk, not ideology
In this Opp Now exclusive, Tobin Gilman chimes into the ongoing debate on whether SJ Council should direct funds primarily toward short- or long-term supportive housing projects. Whereas some like Khamis and Holtz posit the Measure E reallocation stemmed from “competing visions” about housing, Gilman says it was much simpler: all about consequences for our General Fund.
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Legal experts: Beware "proxy discrimination" in wake of SCOTUS vindication of equality in college admissions
Contributors to the Merc's op-ed page are pouting, but the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) is applauding SCOTUS' shutting down of race-based admissions to colleges. The PLF filed an amicus brief on behalf of its clients, the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York (CACAGNY) and Coalition for TJ, among other groups. Their response below.
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☆ SJSU prof on local college's Equity director firing: Even “nuanced” ideological diff's punished
San Jose State University locked Dr. Elizabeth Weiss out of the skeletal curation facility because she posted an allegedly offensive Twitter photo in 2021. Weiss then sued SJSU for suppressing her First Amendment rights, and the case has reached settlement. Opp Now exclusively chats with Weiss about De Anza College's termination of “not Woke enough” director Tabia Lee—and how both situations highlight narrow-mindedness in local higher ed.
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☆ Soon-to-be-ousted SJSU prof: University all for viewpoint diversity, until the “cancel culture mob” whines
In 2021, tenured San Jose State University Anthropology professor Elizabeth Weiss was punished—her research facility access was revoked after a scathing public letter by the Provost—for posting a Twitter picture of herself with a human skull. Weiss's legal challenge just reached a settlement, contingent on her resignation from SJSU. Here, she exclusively discusses the university's “cowardly” submission to Woke cancel culture with Opp Now.
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Opinion: Constitutional amendment guaranteeing “right to housing” advantages courts, could validate draconian housing decisions
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.
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☆ Experts disagree on ACA 10's impact for local housing construction, rental, zoning snags
Continuing an Opp Now exclusive series, two housing and urban design experts parse ACA 10's consequences—or lack thereof—for our housing market. Under ACA 10, CA would enshrine the right to housing into its constitution, and require that local jurisdictions “fulfill this right, on a[n]... equitable basis.” Two opposed takes below.
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Berkeley Law School dean: We still use “unstated affirmative action,” but will deny it if caught
Local universities are expected to continue gaming the system when it comes to sidestepping the Supreme Court's ban on affirmative action. Journalist Christopher Rufo's recent tweet highlights a video of UC Berkeley's law dean Chemerinsky. In it, Chemerinsky brags to students that though Berkeley appears to align with Prop 209, he—and others—make hiring decisions based on “diversity.”
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LA case study: Homelessness stats spiked by pols' indifference to mental illness, addiction
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.
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CA's “coddle-the-criminal” policies making crime rates soar
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.
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