Even the most casual visitor will notice that the boutique suburb to the north is cleaning up its act, as homeless sweeps, dramatically increased shelter capacity, and increased police presence bring a long-delayed improvements to the City's urban fabric. WSJ reports.
Read MoreSpiked online suggests that Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY), pro-high density housing advocates are correct in calling out the slow pace of housing production as key to our national affordability crisis. But wonder why cities where their policies are adopted keep getting more and more expensive.
Read MoreMuch of what goes into making a business-friendly environment actually falls outside the scope of a city’s economic development department. So says Mark Moses, author of The Municipal Financial Crisis, in an Opp Now exclusive Q&A. He points to ongoing and long-term factors like crime prevention, infrastructure maintenance, and lowering the cost of living.
Read MoreHolden Hughes, Mountain View high-schooler posted a picture of himself wearing an acne mask. It went viral—for all the wrong (and false) reasons. A chilling local case study in the tyranny of Silicon Valley's racialist, left-wing cancel culture—and the abject failure of leadership institutions to behave ethically. The exceptional Free Press reports.
Read MoreEx-De Anza College DEI Dean Dr. Tabia Lee and School of Woke author Kenny Xu attribute much of higher ed's free speech problems to this one pervasive theory. The kicker? It wasn't originally intended for academia—let alone free speech debates. An Opp Now exclusive Q&A.
Read MoreIt's a sign of the times, but we've all gotten used to local left-wing politicians and advocates making inaccurate race/sex-baiting charges against moderate politicians. Case in point: A political opponent floated some typically wacky accusations at Morgan Hill Mayor Mark Turner, but this time, an independent Personnel Investigation for the City of Morgan Hill concluded they don't hold water. Excerpts from the formal city report, below.
Read MoreJonathan Lansner of the Southern California News Group argues that "SALT" deductions (favored by both national parties, btw, that allow write-offs up to $40k/yr for property taxes) simply enable absurd housing prices.
Read MoreTony Santa Monica in Southern California has a potential present for cities like SJ that welcome a growing homeless population: a bus-full of homeless transplants. NY Post reports.
Read MoreEven worse than HSR? Marketed to voters as a "transformative" urban revitalization project, it's way over budget, super late, and hopelessly undercut by gov't dissembling. Athan Joshi reports for Ca Policy Center.
Read MoreDespite hundreds of millions of dubious spends, the homelessness picture in San Jose and Santa Clara County remains grim. The latest point-in-time count reveals that the majority of our homeless remain unsheltered, even as the overall homeless count continues to rise. Meanwhile, solutions such as high-capacity shelters (which many cities have used to achieve functional zero on homelessness) get short shrift from our elected reps. SJ Spotlight provides details.
Read MoreTwo years and hundreds of million dollars later, SJ City (and Santa Clara County) still haven't reduced the number of homeless people suffering among us, according to the most recent formal tally. Concurrently, other Bay Area cities are seeing decreases, and other CA cities have even reached homelessness "functional zero." In business, this would cause an emergency strategic re-evaluation. The Merc has the grim details (excerpts).
Read MoreIn a Freedom to Learn Substack post, psychologist Peter Gray argues that pushing local four- and five-year-olds into desk work doesn’t boost long-term achievement; rather, it hurts it. That’s a timely caution for Silicon Valley parents and lawmakers championing California’s universal TK (Transitional Kindergarten) roll-out.
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