Before SJ’s State of the City speech, SCC Libertarian Party officer Elizabeth Brierly has some rec’s for Mayor Mahan: Discuss deregulating. Trimming SJ’s budget (without harming core services). And, yes, protecting the free market. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MorePolitical commentator Denise Kalm believes the Bay Area over-prioritizes high-cost transit projects (like the disastrous BART extension), and should consider how some poor or elderly residents don’t have an affordable way to get to transit points. Could private (or public/private) self-driving vehicles be the answer? An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreMayor Mahan’s State of the City address is almost a week away. Below, some Opp Now contributors suggest he emphasizes how SJ solicits, utilizes, and values community feedback (and could that extend to VTA?). An Opp Now exclusive with Pierluigi Oliverio, John Low, and Families & Homes SJ.
Read MoreCulture writer Addison Del Mastro worries that living in Silicon Valley's tech bubble is over-inflating our egos, supercharging our paranoia, and bombarding our attention with (pretty frivolous) minutia. From Substack.
Read MoreNew mayor says denser fit per block is more important than apartment towers if the city is to hit ambitious goals. The exceptional Frisc analyzes.
Read MoreAhead of SJ Mayor Mahan's State of the City address, Opp Now contributors Jon Coupal and Irene Smith share their exclusive suggestions on what he discusses. And, spoiler alert: they're hoping Mahan focuses on how we're fixing gov't inefficiencies, limiting core services, and (you guessed it) spending within our means.
Read MoreUnlike San Jose and its flawed reliance on metrics-free orthodoxies like Housing First, some cities have let clear-eyed review of metrics inform their homelessness strategies and programs. And to good effect; Bakersfield uses multi-layered data analysis & technologies to become the only big CA city to solve its homelessness crisis. Community Solutions explains.
Read MoreSJUSD'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.
Read MoreCampbell 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.
Read MoreSJ'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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreNext 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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