Eyebrows were raised across the city recently, when Council decided to shut down public Zoom input into City Council and staff open meetings for fear that too much Hate Speech was interrupting the proceedings. Irene Smith, former D3 Council candidate and head of the local Independent Leadership Group and United Housing Alliance, says the problem isn't Zoom—it's a dated and corrupt input process that favors political donors, and disadvantages local residents. An Opp Now exclusive interview with our co-founder Christopher Escher. 

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In a 2.16 article, the Silicon Valley Business Journal tried to paint a rosy picture of how the VTA—after being ranked one of the worst-performing transit agencies in the country—was rolling out big plans to become a housing provider as well. Frequent Opp Now contributor Randall O'Toole of the Thoreau Institute brings a much needed professional, metrics-based critique to the dubious proposal. An Opp Now exclusive.

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Families & Homes San José (FHSJ), San Jose's leading citywide homeowners' group, came out with their election endorsements earlier last month. And in doing so, daylighted growing areas of concern for local neighborhoods: the abdication by City government of authority over important municipal issues, as well as an expansion of city lobbying efforts well outside the City's responsibilities. Sandra Devlin, a Board Member of FHSJ, explains it all in an exclusive phone conversation with Opp Now's Christopher Escher.

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This week, the VTA Board is expected to greenlight the Eastridge Light-Rail extension despite its nearly unbelievably bad cost-benefit profile. As Cato Institute’s Marc Joffe notes, the paltry number of new estimated riders is only about 1400/day, at a cost of over (Mind the Gap!) half a billion dollars. Opp Now readers can do the cost/new rider calculation on their own.

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It's been a rough year for open dialogue and tolerant debate around the bay. University students shout down and threaten speakers whose scholarship they don't like. City councils shut down Zoom meetings. And (predictably) Labor bigwigs blow bogus racist dog whistles at candidates that challenge their Woke orthodoxy. In this Election Week, we choose to recall the words of Berkeley Free Speech leader Mario Savio in 1964, reminding us that it hasn't ways been thus, and needn't be.

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Ever wander around Google and marvel about how issue-proponents from everywhere on the spectrum (but especially housing advocates) find data to support any conclusion they want? Opp Now's guiding light, Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek, had the same concern in the mid-20th Century. He held that excessive reliance upon what is supposedly measurable will produce misleading conclusions when applied to the human interactions and knowledge that comprise economics. Samuel Gregg explores the great man's thinking in Law & Liberty.

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It's an election year, and many local and regional municipalities are busy creating a new ballot measure to tax us more so we can “End Homelessness.” Santa Clara County’s 2016 Measure A tax, a $950 million initiative that promised to build 4,800 housing units for vulnerable populations and people who are chronically homeless, is currently being marketed as a successful model for future bonds and taxes. But did Measure A really do what it was supposed to do—substantially reduce homelessness—or is that a myth? Former SJ CM and small business owner Johnny Khamis kicks off Opp Now's exclusive Measure A Mythbusters series by revealing how there's a whole lotta exaggeration goin' on regarding what Measure A literally achieved.

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Despite Newsom's vocal condemnation of the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act (and scrambled attempt to pull it from 2024's ballot), the measure doesn't actually “restructure” the Constitution or scupper essential services. Yet San Jose CMs—all but Doan—claim the Act will compromise gov't operations. Below, OC Register's analysis with taxpayer advocate Jon Coupal.

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Local progressives have long advocated (sometimes aggressively) for permanent supportive units for our unhoused neighbors, despite an increasing public outcry that they're inefficient, unsustainable, and even dangerous. Meanwhile, SJ's homeless numbers continue shooting through the roof. The WSJ unpacks how the City of Reno took swift and productive action on homelessness, lowering stats by over half (58%) through a cost-effective quick-build tent.

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In a letter featured recently in the Mercury News, Santa Clara's William Ortendahl critiques BART's ever-delayed extension boondoggle to downtown SJ and Santa Clara: it's crazy expensive, pragmatically questionable, and—to complete the lineup—abysmally managed. Read Ortendahl's insights below.

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Amidst concerns that the transit agency is squandering taxpayer funds on BART's mismanaged and long-delayed extension project, VTA's announced it's been sitting on nearly 100 old, retired, depreciating vehicles and will soon auction them off. Board Chair and SCC Supervisor Cindy Chavez shares her concern with NBC Bay Area: that VTA's “critical window” to sell with high returns is likely gone.

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In SV Biz Journal, Assemblymember Alex Lee argues that companies should be limited to buying and renting out 1,000 homes, to keep housing affordable for Bay Areans. Howbeit, Reason's associate editor Christian Britschgi recaps two studies showing that corporate involvement actually safeguards low rent options—and when investors can't manage rental homes, neighborhoods start to “exclude” less wealthy residents. Britschgi's article, and Opp Now exclusive comment, below.

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