Most tax breaks and perks don’t influence where a company sets up shop. Even when they do, cities usually lose money. Instead, focus on tech-clusters and businesses with multiplier effects, say Timothy J. Bartik and John C. Austin in a Brookings commentary. Furthermore, when it comes to creating jobs, cash handouts are far less effective than investments in business services and infrastructure.
Read MoreWhile SJ and Santa Clara county officials stretch credulity in efforts to explain away increases in area homelessness counts, our Southland neighbors are actually delivering real improvement. Overall # of homelessness is down in LA and % in shelters is improving more quickly than SJ, also. NBC4's Ted Chen reports.
Read MoreFor all the hundreds of millions the struggling transit agency will spend on a better control system, it refuses to automate away the costly jobs of train operators. So says Gregg Dieguez, writing for the SHIFT Bay Area Substack, in which he calls out transit worker unions for pressuring BART’s directly-elected board members to prioritize unnecessary jobs over the needs of riders.
Read MoreAll 11 supervisors stressed, three months ago, that SF shouldn’t pack shelters, clinics, and other services into just a few neighborhoods. Actually doing something about it is a different story. The exceptional Frisc reports.
Read MoreFirst-time reader Jasmine Williams writes from Texas: "A work-colleague sent me your Weekend Reading about admitting and dealing with failure. Ooh, I like! I have forwarded it around to my team. You might also like the below from Greg Opelka in the WSJ, hits some of the same notes."
Read MoreBay Area school districts are bracing for a showdown over whether teachers should keep kids’ gender transitions hush-hush. A 2023 Real Impact chat spotlights Chino Valley’s “tell-the-parents” plan, and education-policy expert Lance Christensen chimes in that it’s a simple way to restore parental rights and some much-needed trust in public schools.
Read MoreMental health professionals suggest that finding a healthy "treatment community" raises the chances of reclaiming a past, upbeat identity--or forming a new one. Psychology Today explores.
Read MoreThe road back from a debilitating physical injury often requires overcoming mental blocs prevalent in--and similar to--other emotional disturbances such as political addictions. BYU Athletics interviews four athletes about their internal journey back to health.
Read MoreDr. Thomas Hendricks suggests that the emotional journey of Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice is like someone getting over the unhealthy biases (the "prejudice" in the title) often seen in Silicon Valley political circles.
Read MoreSan Jose and other Silicon Valley cities have long agreed to Project Labor Agreements, which privilege union recognition, compulsory union dues, and mandatory use of union hiring halls prior to the hiring of any employees for large construction projects. Other cities' experiences with PLAs suggest they lead to soaring costs and gross inefficiencies. The Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction reports.
Read MoreOne of the less attractive gifts London Breed left for new SF Mayor. Daniel Lurie was a mammoth-sized ($800m!) budget deficit. SF's Briones Society's policy experts smartly analyze Lurie's first steps to get our northern neighborhor's finances back into the real world, and offer pointers to Mahan and SJ City Council.
Read MoreWe all learned it in grade school: correlation ≠ causation. Unless you're a local Woke university trying to define (and box in) students by their heritage and skin color—which has huge consequences for The Academy's central mission. An Opp Now exclusive with experts Dr. Tabia Lee and Kenny Xu.
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