The Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the corruption of the American City
The Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the corruption of the American City

Bay Area at center of devastating critique of nonprofit malfeasance. From American Affairs.

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Jax Oliver
Train, train go away
Train, train go away

It's cheaper and faster to get to the moon than to build the CA High-Speed Rail. Thomas Buckley reports on Substack.

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Jax Oliver
Research proves definitively: CA's ridiculous housing prices due to wild gov't regulatory overreach
Research proves definitively: CA's ridiculous housing prices due to wild gov't regulatory overreach

RAND Corporation does a gigantic study on CA's housing affordability crisis and notes that onerous regulations, as well as built-in labor-friendly contracts, make costs for new housing soar. Take a look at Texas, they recommend, where prices are half of CA's.

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Jax Oliver
Just what downtown SJ doesn't need: more drunk people on the street at 4:00AM
Just what downtown SJ doesn't need: more drunk people on the street at 4:00AM

State bill would allow struggling downtowns to establish “Hospitality Zones” to extend Last Call on weekends and holidays. Matt Haney's (D17-San Francisco) office explains.

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Jax Oliver
Moderate San Franciscans give thumbs-up to SJ's shift away from Permanent Supportive Housing
Moderate San Franciscans give thumbs-up to SJ's shift away from Permanent Supportive Housing

Centrist coalition SF Briones Society affirms SJ's focus on interim shelters, reminding that homelessness is also deeply intertwined with issues of substance abuse, drug trafficking, and property/violent crime.

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Jax Oliver
Cutting edge tech + landlord outreach + no gov't infighting = keys to Bakersfield's success on homelessness
Cutting edge tech + landlord outreach + no gov't infighting = keys to Bakersfield's success on homelessness

B'field and Kern County—city and county gov'ts—eschewed scattershot and uncoordinated homelessness efforts (sound familiar?) and instead utilized multi-layered, integrated management techniques familiar to successful tech startups. Result: first big CA city to reach homelessness functional zero. Community Solutions explains.

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Jax Oliver
Extremist rent control efforts not dead—only delayed
Extremist rent control efforts not dead—only delayed

The California Legislature will not be tightening the state's rent control law this year—but local rent control advocates like Ash Kalra are still trying to keep the deeply misguided concept around. Reason mag reports.

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Jax Oliver
What's at the root of CA and Silicon Valley's incoherent governance?
What's at the root of CA and Silicon Valley's incoherent governance?

Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Ass'n blames an addiction to short-term thinking and unserious executive leadership. From his HJTA weekly column.

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Jax Oliver
☆ Advice to Mahan: Metrics, metrics, metrics
☆ Advice to Mahan: Metrics, metrics, metrics

Ahead of SJ’s State of the City address this Saturday, Opp Now contributors Ron Kirkish and Jim Zito praise Mayor Mahan’s attentiveness to the homelessness epidemic—and ask how we’re measuring success. Ongoing costs. And our target date for “functional zero.” An exclusive.

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Jax Oliver
Why we write with the lights off (and you should, too)
Why we write with the lights off (and you should, too)

If we follow online algorithms to value attention over connection, our voice—when discussing politics, culture, etc.—loses its power and depth. Enlightening conversations become banal transactions. Below, an excellent Substack article on reclaiming complex, real, even risky communication (and the Opp Now team smiles behind our glowing laptops :-)).

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Jax Oliver
Lived experience: critics of shelters miss the point
Lived experience: critics of shelters miss the point

P. W. Robinson is a homeless advocate and was formerly homeless himself. He responds to the misguided criticism that some politicians (including SJ councilpeople) raise about shelters, while offering a clear-eyed perspective on why shelters may not be right—right now—for all our unhoused neighbors. From CalMatters.

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Jax Oliver
☆ Advice to Mahan: Bring DOGE to San Jose?
☆ Advice to Mahan: Bring DOGE to San Jose?

Excessive biz regulations. Unfunded pensions galore. All while core services—and, um, individual liberty—go to the wayside. Should Mayor Mahan propose a local Gov’t Efficiency revival in his State of the City? An Opp Now exclusive with Peter Verbica, Starchild, and Johnny Khamis.

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Jax Oliver