☆ Keeping home construction affordable in Silicon Valley: a multi-pronged approach

Special Reports December 17, 2025 Image by Pickpik Pre-approving modular design libraries. Waiving impact fees for workforce housing. And–yes—keeping CEQA under control. SF Briones Society’s Jay Donde and former Hollister mayor Victor Gomez lay out how local gov’t might streamline the building process—and save residents thousands along the way. An Opp Now exclusive. Jay Donde,…

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☆ Should Silicon Valley even have a public school system?

As top-down state policy degrades student achievement in SJUSD, the argument against public schools could be gaining purchase. But Gus Mattammal (candidate for CA Supe of Public Instruction and author of A is for Average) makes the case for reforming, not discarding, public education. While distributed opportunity to children everywhere is key to our economic health, he asks if California’s…

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Dive bar predictions

Cristabel’s -Crystal Ball An end-of-year addition to the vaunted Opp Now team, local grad student Cristabel Cruz offers our first in a series on What To Expect in The Coming Year. Welcome, Cristabel, and welcome, 2026. “I haven’t seen you in awhile. Where you been?” “On vacation.” “Oh, where?” “Club Elmwood.” That’s a snippet I…

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EMERGENCY: The Impeachment Plot Is Now Active.

Dear John,  The threat is no longer theoretical. The establishment’s plan to weaponize the House and secure the votes necessary to impeach President Trump in 2026 is moving forward, powered by an unconstitutional map in California. CLICK HERE: They believe they have won. They believe the House majority is guaranteed. They believe the America First…

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Stacked sales taxes, stagnant services

August 8, 2025 Santa Clara County leaders keep stacking “just a little more” onto the sales tax rate—now eyeing a countywide health-care tax atop SB 63’s potential 0.5% transit levy. With flat population and a county budget that’s tripled since 2012, residents are paying more for the same potholes and emptier buses & trains. Athan…

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☆ Huge & deceptive transit bailout tax planned for next fall

Special Reports December 17, 2025 Ganbaruby, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons f you thought it was over with the bait-n-switch Measure A, think again. November, 2026 will see SB63 on the ballot–a deceptive measure which aims to hide the bailout of the region’s bankrupt  and unsustainable mass transit systems under the guise of “road repairs.” An…

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