Posts by Take Back San Jose
LA case study: Illegal homeless camps pollute beach water with “toxic” bacteria
Georgia O’Keeffe: Sun Water Maine, 1922. Like SJ’s system that reroutes street water into the SF Bay, LA’s urban runoff heads straight to its county beaches. Currently, many of these beaches are warning residents to avoid the water at all costs, due to high fecal-indicator bacteria (FIB). City Journal connects LA’s surging FIB numbers and…
Read MoreOpinion: Don’t believe media’s lies; Low-income Black residents want strong police forces
Carlo Bossoli: Ruins of a Large Genoese Fortress at Sudak, 1856. Image in Public Domain In a hard-hitting Free Press piece, Neighbors Together Oakland’s founder Seneca Scott observes that the Left assumes wealth/race divide people’s perspectives on criminal justice, with only affluent white folks wanting fortified police forces. Instead, says Scott, minority residents in poorer…
Read MoreSF case study: More affordable housing requires buy-in from private sector
Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Houses in a Park, c. 1911. Image in Public Domain For local jurisdictions to reach their Housing Elements’ lofty targets for new affordable housing units, private investors must perceive reduced risk and a higher potential for payoff, says SF real estate firm director K. Cyrus Sanandaji. Sanandaji proposes in the SF Business Times…
Read MoreOpinion: Why is CA Legislature so spooked about pro-Prop 13 measure?
Théodore Chassériau: Spectre de Banquo, 1855. Image in Public Domain The Legislature and Gov. Newsom’s panicked attempt to disqualify the Taxpayer Protection Act from 2024’s ballot only adds to Big Gov’t’s pattern of stifling democratic rights/processes, says the OC Register’s Jon Coupal. He goes on to argue that eliminating Prop 13 protections—which ensure that approving…
Read More☆ SJ BART extension makes less sense than ever
Image in Public Domain With news that VTA’s misbegotten plans to extend BART to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara have gotten (hold on to your seats) even more expensive than previous budget-busting estimates, Marc Joffe at the Cato Institute wonders anew if it’s time for a re-think on the whole project. Even the Merc…
Read MoreOpinion: Waite: In wake of SJ budget cuts, Housing Dept deserves “intense scrutiny”
SJ’s City Council bestowed generous increases on the unions representing about half of its employees. Up to $20 million may need to be removed from the 2025/26 budget to bring things into balance. Where should this come from, asks Pat Waite of Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility? Perhaps from SJ’s overspending, underperforming Housing Dept, he suggests…
Read MoreEmail Blast from Mayor Matt Mahan: Sept 9th, 2023: Good News on Homelessness!
Dear Neighbor, After 3.5 hours of debate at the VTA board meeting last night, we took an important step forward on the long road to ending homelessness. I want to thank my colleagues and the dozens of residents who came out to speak in support of placing 200 units of interim housing on the Cerone…
Read MoreOpinion: Single-stair construction could unlock local affordable housing
Overly broad, antiquated fire egress regulations drive up home costs in San Jose. Meanwhile, many European countries don’t even bother with multiple staircase requirements, given modern-day fire risk mitigation strategies. It’s time for reform, says Market Urbanist’s Scott Beyer. An Opp Now exclusive. Overregulation is the main culprit behind high home prices in San Jose.…
Read MoreMountain View turns hotel into permanent housing
A converted hotel is creating a home and hope for unhoused foster youth transitioning out of the system, families and individuals. Unlike other hotels that have been redeveloped as short-term supportive housing, the Crestview Hotel in Mountain View will provide permanent, supportive affordable housing to youth aging out of foster care and small families experiencing homelessness when it opens…
Read MoreOpinion: Data says: Housing First flounders on actually abating homelessness in CA/Utah
The Cato Institute team parses outcomes from California’s and Utah’s Housing First policies, and wonders why pols keep pouring taxpayer funds into initiatives that have only seen elevated homelessness rates. Between 2016 and 2022, for instance, CA’s rose by 93%—so really, what’s stopping us from moving on to alternate, data-evidenced approaches like requiring sobriety? Unfortunately,…
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