Archive for August 2024
Opinion: Expect university deplatformings to repeat endlessly, unless admins “grow backbones”
he Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s Greg Lukianoff and Sean Stevens explain that 2023 was the worst year on record for colleges’ deplatforming of speakers, and 2024 might just beat it (see: antisemitic mobs terrorizing SJSU and UC Berkeley). Putting an end to this ever-perpetuating cycle will require universities to dole out real punishments…
Read More☆ Former Los Altos Mayor: to combat the housing crisis, Sacramento should give back control to local governments
The more Sacramento forces rigid zoning requirements onto local communities, the less likely CA cities will be to help subsidize housing. In this Opp Now exclusive, former Los Altos Mayor Anita Enander also questions the need for state and regional control of housing solutions. After all, she says, several Bay Area cities have successfully raised…
Read MoreAngelenos rip Mayor Bass’ failure to escalate homelessness programs in response to Newsom directive and Grants Pass
LA Mayor Karen Bass has rebuked the Supreme Court and Gov Newsom and committed LA to continuing its zealous embrace of the misguided Housing First ideology. Yuval Kremer in the excellent CityWatchLA finds Bass’ strategy wrong-headed and likely to increase homeless suffering in the City of Angels. Unlike Mayor Karen Bass and LA County Supervisor Lindsey…
Read MoreInflux of migrant families taxes region’s supportive housing services
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936. Image in Public Domain SF says there’s been a dramatic increase in migrant families arriving in The City since last year, and it doesn’t have the resources to house and support them adequately. SF Standard investigates. A total of 372 families were in line for shelter as of Tuesday, according to…
Read MorePutting the car before the bus when it comes to parking
OK, think hard: who remembers the principle of “double effect?” It’s the concept that says, hey, if your intentions are good, then it’s OK if you cause harm. Kind of a rough way of thinking (we can blame St. Thomas Aquinas for this one Sadly, the City of San Jose continues to follow this discredited…
Read MoreOne of Skid Row’s largest housing providers faces financial implosion
Tents lined up on San Pedro Street on Skid Row, downtown Los Angeles, in April 2021. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) By Benjamin Oreskes and Doug Smith Feb. 7, 2023 Updated 2:52 PM PT Skid row’s flagship owner and operator of subsidized housing is on the verge of financial collapse and seeking a lifeline to keep its doors…
Read MoreCitizens ask SJ Council to refrain from taking positions on ballot initiatives
Image by Investopedia On the heels of their ill-advised unanimous endorsement of RM4 (which turned out to be shot-full of inaccurate math and misinformation), next week the SJ City Council is considering taking positions on a number of state ballot initiatives. Critics say those initiatives should be directly decided by The People themselves. Critics’ letter to Council…
Read MoreFresno County bans public camping
Image by GVWire Taking advantage of the legal flexibility provided by SCOTUS’ Grants Pass decision and in alignment with Gov. Newsom’s requests, Fresno County has taken a more aggressive approach to ameliorating inhumane and unsafe homeless encampments on public land. The excellent Fresno Bee explains. Camping by the homeless — or anyone else — on sidewalks…
Read MoreTop destinations for SF homeless bus caravans are other California cities
The on-the-ball SF Standard digs into the numbers about where all the homeless people SF is bussing outta town end up. And–no surprise–the most popular destinations are California cities. Since August 2022, the city has sent at least 857 homeless people to other states and California counties. While the city is unable to say where hundreds…
Read MoreSJ Council, acknowledging voter fatigue re: new taxes, pulls parks parcel tax idea from Nov. ballot
Image by A. McLin Polling finds insufficient support for new park taxes, and city officials say citizens are increasingly fed up with constant increases to local cost of living. The Merc’s report surveys the situation, and is excerpted below. “Obviously, it’s not the feedback we were hoping to see or at least many of us…
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