Posts by Take Back San Jose

Image in Public Domain Jerry Strangis, San Jose land use consultant since 1975, comments on the City’s attempt to get its Housing Element certified. Hand-wringing City officials worry—should the State reject their plan—developers will keep using the “builder’s remedy” loophole to avert zoning restrictions. Strangis praises SJ’s efforts toward a compliant Housing Element, while recognizing…

Image in Public Domain CBS News rewinds the tapes, and explains how the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency first went off track and began seriously losing business. When BART shifted its focus from effective service to social equity issues, it alienated key customer bases (and really, should that be a surprising outcome?). Fifty-one years ago,…

 WEBSITE  |  COUNCILMEMBER BIEN DOAN  |  MEET THE DISTRICT 7 TEAM  |  CONTACT  District 7 Residents, I have an exciting and pivotal development in our community to share with you!  A collaboration that holds immense promise for both the San Jose Earthquakes and the residents all over our city, especially in District 7. The city of San José, County of Santa…

Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury: Galileo before the Holy Office. Image in Public Domain Magistrate Judge Christopher Baker’s new 44-page report advises that CA Community Colleges and Kern Community College District (both of which face a lawsuit from Bakersfield prof Daymon Johnson) stop requiring faculty to submit to DEI ideology. Judge Baker explains that mandating DEI/anti-racist “proficiency” really…

In his exclusive report for Opportunity Now, Randal O’Toole of the Thoreau Institute explores how New Urbanist thinking and misguided anti-market policies created one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world—and how to fix it. First posted on 11.19.2020. High-density, mid-rise and high-rise housing is more costly to build and most homebuyers and…

Image by The Free Press on X This week, Stanford junior and Free Press intern Julia Steinberg testified before Congress about rising antisemitism on college campuses. Her verdict? The hate didn’t magically materialize on October 7th. Steinberg traces rampant anti-Israeli discrimination to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ideologies that “pit groups of students against each other.”…

Image by Charles W. Bailey Jr A recent Merc article observes that some developers are invoking the “builder’s remedy” to downsize or downzone SJ projects, while the provision was intended to encourage and expand affordable housing options in NIMBY jurisdictions. Yet, YIMBY Law’s executive director Sonja Trauss is all in favor of (what she frames…

Image in Public Domain University leadership that celebrates free speech selectively—i.e., for students chanting for Hamas to “smash” Israel, but not for scientists disproving school lockdowns or judges speaking at club meetings—is either part of the Woke mob or afraid of it, says the Wall Street Journal’s Ruth Marcus. Marcus recalls Stanford’s ousting of president…

Bartolomeo Manfredi: Midas Washing at the Source of the Pactolus. Image by Regan Vercrysse In a Reform California webinar, chairman Carl DeMaio breaks down the five key tenets of proposed Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act (starting with requiring voter approval of all State tax increases). San Jose CM Doan is the City’s lone supporter…

by Josue Torres (NewsBreak) Photo by Jose Rago on Unsplash In a new move impacting tens of thousands of Californians, a prominent insurance provider associated with Farmers Insurance Group, the second-largest property and casualty insurer in California, has decided to relinquish its Certificate of Authority. This decision, as seen in a recent filing with the California Department of Insurance,…