SJUSD's call to renew its $72 parcel tax for another eight is seen as a last-minute attempt to squeeze taxpayers for money the district shouldn’t need. Merc's sharply argued op-ed excerpted, below.
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Campbell mayor Sergio Lopez, former Gilroy mayor Marie Blankley, and Manhattan Institute fellow Tim Rosenberger request that SJ Mayor Mahan analyzes the regional homelessness situation (especially post-Prop 36)—and what San Jose's doing about it—in his 5.17 State of the City address. An Opp Now exclusive.
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SJ's Labor–Left candidates nabbed the top two spots in this April's D3 special election primary, as candidates backed by center-left Mayor Matt Mahan and local independents failed to make the runoff. Bay Area Reporter examines the results, excerpted below.
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The statewide rebellion over ethnic studies is not coming from conservative, overwhelmingly white districts; it's playing out within the traditional Democratic coalition, pitting social-justice-oriented liberals against high-achieving immigrant groups. Politico reports.
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Next Saturday, Mayor Mahan delivers his State of the City address. So we exclusively polled Opp Now contributors on what they think he should, and shouldn’t, discuss. For our first installment, Pat Waite, Tobin Gilman, and Marc Joffe request he speaks to housing construction, homelessness, and public transit (like, um, BART’s ill-starred extension).
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CA's embattled high-speed rail project will soon need at least $7 billion in order to move forward. No one knows where the money will come from. KCRA reports.
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SJ's tax-happy business bloc (Mahan, Mulcahy, Casey) might want to pay attention to a growing tax revolt in LA County, as citizens push back on a homelessness levy that's making life less affordable and not delivering on its promises. U.S. Sun reports.
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The Org for Economic Co-operation and Development explains how the online platform “Better Reykjavik” allows citizens to vocalize, debate, and amend hundreds of ideas. Another plus: city leaders end up with prioritized lists with varied, nuanced perspectives. Could Bay Area cities try a similar strategy?
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In every other state, options are severely limited by geography and climate. In California, they’re limited by politics. Edward Ring explains in National Review (excerpted and edited for brevity).
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Sure, it's easy to read about politics—but harder to discuss them with folks who may disagree (especially in the Valley's hyper-polarized culture!). Entrepreneur Vera Strauch educates, below, on why we're naturally prone to avoid discomfort—while exhorting us to leave the anxious “mental couch” for connectedness, meaning, and lasting change.
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For decades, New Urbanist orthodoxies in Santa Clara County railed against single-family-home suburban development and enforced a densification orthodoxy. The result: massive social inequities, skyrocketing homelessness, and a massive population exodus to more enlightened states. Even The NYT acknowledges the mistake.
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SJ and SF city gov'ts may endlessly swirl over small-scale and scattershot homelessness solutions, but Kern County and City of Bakersfield get to "functional zero" faster than any other CA city with quick, focused, and at-scale programs that work across gov't entities. From Community Solutions.
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