Despite pressure from vocal activist groups, two more California cities (Gilroy and Morgan Hill) officially declined to pass one-sided resolutions on foreign policy. Many locals are praising the Councils' decisions to stay in their own lanes, prioritizing core City obligations in lieu of extraneous initiatives. Gilroy Dispatch and the Merc summarize below.
Read MoreIn his continuing Opp Now exclusive series on dubious election-season assertions about Santa Clara County’s 2016 Measure A tax to address homelessness, former CM and small business owner Johnny Khamis asserts that the County fudged on its promise to voters by choosing to build new property from scratch—instead of buying on the open market.
Read MoreThe only formal action SJSU took after what has been called an antisemitic melee on 2.19 was against—get this—a professor who tried to defend his ability to take photos of the rowdy crowd. While the incident is still being investigated, missing from local media coverage and SJSU admin's statements is an understanding that taking photos in public is constitutionally protected. And impeding that right may run afoul of the law, as various legal experts explain below.
Read MoreThe results from this week's voting in that fair suburb to the north suggest that SF voters may finally be starting to get real about reversing the wild-eyed progressive policies that have turned their once-proud metropolis into a case study in municipal mismanagement. Axios reports below.
Read MoreEyebrows 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.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreFamilies & 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.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreIt'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.
Read MoreEver 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.
Read MoreIt'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.
Read MoreDespite 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.
Read More
