Posts by Take Back San Jose

March 20, 2025 Reforming Pensions: A Short Guide, by Nicholas Barr, 2009. Governments can offer retirement plans that don’t require lifer status—the defined benefit pension, after all, shortchanges employees who seek career-mobility. Instead, a defined contribution plan can deliver retirement security while breaking taxpayers out of unfunded liabilities. Reason Foundation’s Zachary Christensen writes how the…

November 11, 2022 The East Bay Times’ Katie Lauer examines California’s pension liability dashboard, in which San Jose is CA’s 2nd worst in funding for existing arrears. Boasting $9.5 billion in accrued pension debt (only $3.6 billion of which is funded), SJ’s economy may face a “looming crisis” barring intervention, says Lauer. After swimming in…

Special Reports November 13, 2025 “We’ve crossed an important threshold,” says 2024 Libertarian VP nominee Mike ter Maat in an Opp Now exclusive Q&A. Even before the federal government misses its first interest payment, borrowing will become much costlier: he says cities in Silicon Valley that rely on credit should act now to avoid financial…

Friend,  We are Charlie Kirk.  That’s the rally cry of millions of Americans — and the message they carry with their “We are Charlie Kirk” wristbands.  We want you to have one. To join the movement carrying Charlie’s legacy forward This isn’t just a wristband, Friend. It’s a symbol.   Of conviction. Of courage. Of the movement…

September 11, 2023 Vincent Van Gogh: Houses at Auvers The American Enterprise Institute’s Edward Pinto sn’t a fan of “ill-conceived” housing assistance policies that are mere Band-Aid fixes for surging construction costs. Instead of having taxpayers fund more subsidies, local gov’ts like San Jose’s should take the more affordable option: Remove regulatory burdens to housing…

April 20, 2023 Remember all the confetti around upzoning reforms in SJ? How advocates claimed that Opportunity Housing/SB9 would relieve the housing affordability crisis? And ADUs would provide much needed density? Well, those proposals passed and… not much has happened. A new report from the Urban Institute explains why (spoiler: it’s because the property deregulations were so…

Texas’s “kill the protest veto” blueprint offers Silicon Valley a cheat code re: improving affordability: turn empty offices and 8,000-sq-ft lot minimums into housing, since SB 330 (Texas’ “Housing Crisis Act of 2019”) failed to tame NIMBYs. Texas Policy explains. At the heart of the affordability problem is the lack of housing stock. It’s simple…

Group mad $7.04 million from theft, authorities say. SAN JOSE — Since at least 2020, police in the Bay Area have been attempting to stop a brazen Southern California heist crew that has made millions from dozens of nighttime burglaries and highway robberies, targeting shipments of tech industry hardware. They broke into warehouses, distribution centers,…

Dear John,  The establishment has packed up and left. California just pulled off the most extreme gerrymandering scheme in history. Millions of conservative voters silenced. And the so-called “leaders” in Washington? Sipping cocktails while the rest of us clean up the mess. I’m Steve Hilton, and I’m taking action where the establishment won’t. I’m fighting…

Dear Neighbor, These days, AI is everywhere. It’s in our pockets, in our cars, in our social media feeds – heck, I think it might even be in my toaster.  Some compare the moment we’re living in right now to the 1990s – when the dot-com boom was just beginning. Others say it’s more like…