NBC Bay Area reports that small businesses across the O-Town are getting fed up with DA Pamela Price's soft approaches to crime—up in 2023 by 17% (all violent crime), 44% (burglary), and 52% (car theft). Turns out, crippling local police depts makes for a pleasant Woke catchcry but quickly wreaks havoc on public safety.
Read MoreThe Silicon Valley Business Journal's Ashley Farley reminds that while cities should relax zoning regulations—so developers can convert unused offices to housing—they must also make downtowns desirable, lively places to spend time in. We're scratching our heads: Any idea if rampant open-air drug use, criminal activity, and homelessness are spelling doom for DTSJ's foot traffic?
Read MoreWhile the Golden State struggles to accommodate skyrocketing homeless populations, its sanctuary status has other states busing—and, now, flying—in their overflow of unhoused people. Already strained CA'n resources are being stretched thinner. The LA Times reports on Alaskan city Anchorage's attempts to keep its homeless residents warm this coming winter, but without (you guessed it) building their own shelter.
Read MoreFormer political strategist Richard Maher is president of the San Francisco Young Republicans and has worked to build the once-flatlining social club into a robust, engaged conservative community. Opp Now exclusively asked Maher to unpack the tricks of the trade when it comes to reaching youth who question the ascendant hard-Left worldview—especially when many are U-Hauling it elsewhere.
Read MoreThe Cato Institute team parses outcomes from California's and Utah's Housing First policies, and wonders why pols keep pouring taxpayer funds into initiatives that have only seen elevated homelessness rates. Between 2016 and 2022, for instance, CA's rose by 93%—so really, what's stopping us from moving on to alternate, data-evidenced approaches like requiring sobriety?
Read MoreKerry Jackson and Wayne Winegarden took to CalMatters to explain why California's ridiculous homelessness spending just isn't driving results: More gov't control over housing keeps developers gridlocked, supply down, and prices up. Instead, local leaders should remove regulatory barriers (looking at you, CEQA) to constructing and turning profits on homes.
Read MoreIn March of last year, policy analyst and Opp Now contributor Randal O'Toole gave testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on public transit's doom spiral. Instead of subsidizing archaic, inefficient systems like BART, local and federal gov't should allow them to burgeon—or die—according to the free market.
Read MoreJoe Dehn and Brian Holtz—respectively the Santa Clara County Libertarian Party's chair and secretary—parse last Tuesday's vote by the SJ City Council to boost city workers' paychecks by 14.5% over three years. Raising salaries that are, by and large, already competitive creates short-term goodwill between pols/Labor, but needlessly shifts funds away from core services. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreArizona's public colleges just bid adieu to requiring DEI statements in the application process; and two CA lawsuits could change things up for local professors. SJSU Anthropology prof and National Association of Scholars board member Elizabeth Weiss breaks down these developments—and what's turning people off the once-universally lauded DEI statements. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreWSJ's Konrad Putzier and Will Parker break down an overlooked economic development roiling the housing market: Property investors are getting crushed by the combo of rising interest rates and diminishing apartment-building returns, as local Housing Depts like SJ's try to suffocate landlords via expanded rent control laws.
Read MoreA formerly unhoused man relays in the American Spectator that homelessness isn't solved in a snap by having enough gov't beds (sorry, SCC Housing First devotees). Instead, municipalities should heed how the community's freewheeling substance abuse keeps individuals away from shelters, job opportunities, and peaceful integration into society.
Read MoreTim Rosenberger, Jr., former president of the Federalist Society's Stanford chapter, analyzes the ABA's suggestion that colleges develop policy against “disruptive behavior that hinders free expression.” They mean well, says TJR, but fiascos like the Judge Duncan Incident will only stop if institutions take a firm stand. The ABA Journal's press release, and TJR's Opp Now exclusive statement, below.
Read More
