According to the California Apartment Ass'n, economists and housing experts from Stanford and UC Berkeley warn that Proposition 33 would worsen California’s housing crisis by hindering new affordable housing construction and overturning state laws mandating more affordable housing. Additionally, Proposition 33 would remove protections for homeowners, allowing regulators to control rental prices for single-family homes and accessory dwelling units. From CAA newsletter.
Read MoreWhen free marketeers daylight the massive subsidies needed to operate public transit, transit advocates often retort that private automobile driving receives gov't subsidies, too. The fearless Mark Joffe explores the question in the Cato at Liberty blog, and finds the transit advocates have a legit point.
Read MoreBillions of redevelopment dollars squandered. The mayor's security detail accosted. Crime, blight, and chronic homelessness. Maybe it's time to just move on from the naive dreams of a mini-Manhattan on the Guadalupe. Joel Kotkin explains in the New Atlantis how SJ's failure to build a vibrant downtown isn't simply a local failure--rather, it's evidence of inexorable changes in how modern people want to live.
Read MoreSF's Mayor London Breed said the troubled suburb to the north will launch a much more vigorous crackdown on homeless encampments beginning next month. "Thank goodness for the Supreme Court," Breed said, re: SCOTUS' Grant's Pass decision. Maggie Angst at the Chronicle reports.
Read MoreYesterday's rent control advocates are suddenly getting cold feet regarding statewide caps on rental prices, as they realize belatedly that their market-busting schemes have constrained new housing development, exacerbating cost of living and homelessness. The usually liberal SF Grow Report says No to Prop 33.
Read MoreRegional housing tax. Parks tax. Measure E extension. Prop 5. SJ Unified parcel tax. The list could go on, but the threatening tide keeps rising: politicos are coming at Silicon Valley taxpayers with a tidal wave of new taxes--surging over Silicon Valley's already super high tax rates. But analysts suggest that residents may have had enough of high taxes and crummy services, and a new tax rebellion may be bubbling. Nicole Nixon explains in Capradio.
Read MoreTrade unions oppose statewide ballot initiative that would unleash local rent control, calling it anti-housing at a time when California needs to build more. Traditional political allies at odds in the fair suburb to the north. Adam Brinklow at the excellent Frisc website explores.
Read MoreCalifornia mandates a “housing first” model that places homeless people into permanent supportive housing where drug and alcohol use is allowed. Keith Humphreys of Stanford says sober living arrangements are required to help manage homelessness crisis.
Read MoreA $20 billion regional housing bond to raise property taxes for the next 54 years in Santa Clara and eight other counties has a somewhat strange definition of “affordability.” Since when did folks who make over $200,000 need a handout from working class homeowners, renters, and retirees on a fixed income? Will Sherman reports in this Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreIt's dubious that two-thirds of Bay Area voters would agree to a whopping $20 billion regional bond that raises property taxes by thousands of dollars. They may not need to. Enter ACA 1, the bond measure’s shotgun bride, also on the ballot this November. ACA 1 aims to immediately reduce the bond threshold to 55%. In an OC Register op/ed, Jon Coupal of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers' Ass'n reports that local taxpayers have organized, and they might loudly object.
Read MoreLocal county Dem leaders complain about potential reforms to the misbegotten Prop 47's extreme decriminalization and get-out-of-jail-free agenda, saying it represents a "return to failed mass incarceration strategies". Citizens out in the real world of our city streets, however, beg to differ, as violence and mayhem continue to escalate. LA Times reports.
Read MoreAn Open Letter from San Jose residents to SJ City Council requesting that the council stop endorsing ballot initiatives is getting thumbs up from leaders across the local political spectrum. Shane Patrick Connolly of SCC GOP and Irene Smith of the Independent Leadership Group explain why they signed the Open Letter. An Opp Now Exclusive.
Read More
