Posts by Take Back San Jose
☆ Mark Burns on SJ’s pay-for-results plan: “Why haven’t they done this before?”
San Jose Mayor Mahan wants to tie merit pay raises for city leadership to outcomes across four key areas. In an Opp Now exclusive Q&A, San Jose native and licensed local real estate agent Mark Burns suggests adding “find and eliminate unnecessary expenses” to the list. Opportunity Now: Do you support Mayor Mahan’s proposal to…
Read MoreSF’s Lurie aims to make homelessness nonprofits much more accountable (2/3)
Image by Kevin Wong Countering mounting evidence that nonprofits are grifting the City by the Bay, new mayor Lurie outlines plans to demand that nonprofits receiving taxpayer largesse actually deliver. The Chron reports. At the same time, Lurie wants to revisit San Francisco harm-reduction policies with an eye toward preventing city-funded nonprofits from distributing fentanyl smoking…
Read More☆ Opinion: Conservative playbook long supported SJ ditching Permanent Supportive Housing (2/4)
Image by USICH SVGOP chair David G. Johnson breaks down, point by point, the exorbitant failure that’s been San Jose’s Housing First method against homelessness. And why he’s glad Council is pivoting to more affordable (and effective) interim options. An Opp Now exclusive. David G. Johnson, Silicon Valley GOP chair: 1. The City of San…
Read More☆ Back in the day, VTA pioneered rideshare service
Image by Pacific Bus Museum During the recent transit worker strike, VTA responded by offering Uber vouchers to riders. Made many on social media wonder: why don’t they do this regularly? Truth is, they did, quite successfully, back in the 1970s. Randall O’Toole remembers, in this Opp Now exclusive. To its credit, VTA’s predecessor agency, the…
Read MoreSF’s Lurie shows SJ how to move fast—and big—on homelessness (1/3)
Mayor Daniel Lurie. Image by Wikimedia Commons Instead of quibbling at Council about small-ball homelessness remediations, our neighbor to the north—led by their no-nonsense new mayor—advocates for large-scale, immediate solutions to homelessness. The Chron reports. Mayor Daniel Lurie is launching a one-year effort to reform San Francisco’s homelessness, drug addiction and mental health services as he…
Read MoreCost of undocumented healthcare pressuring CA Democrats to consider cuts
Image by Pictures of Money Gov. Gavin Newsom touted California’s role as the first state in the nation to offer healthcare to all income-eligible immigrants one year ago. But cost overruns and threatened fed clawbacks are forcing some tough trade-offs in Sacto. LA Times reports. California became the first state in the nation to offer healthcare to…
Read More☆ Is it the end of the line for Permanent Supportive Housing in SJ? (1/4)
Image in public domain San Jose City Council looks to be zeroing out funds for PSH in the coming year: Measure E proposed allocation is 90% interim housing, 10% prevention. In this exclusive roundup, Opp Now contributors Pat Waite, Irene Smith, and Tom Weissmiller analyze how treatment-free “Housing First” has long failed our homeless neighbors—and…
Read MoreAI entrepreneur–philosopher on how the free market consolidates individuals’ knowledge into something bigger and better
Red ants working together. Image by Timon Cornelissen Brendan McCord—past research affiliate with Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, and successful tech CEO—discusses economist Hayek’s idea that the marketplace elegantly assembles human knowledge to make more efficient, developed, and truthful civilizations. From the University of Austin. Three years ago, I had my second of two kids,…
Read MoreThe need for speed
D3 has waited too long. D3 and San Jose representatives continue to pursue go-slow approaches to solving homelessness. The latest is a misguided idea to needlessly move unsheltered people into the justice system. Ask yourself, what’s faster: Eighteen months+ or 5 months? I am the only D3 candidate advocating for immediate implementation of a large-scale shelter plan. The…
Read More☆ A failure of privatization—or a sound adaptation to the market? The Sandy Springs story (2/4)
After contractor premiums shot up, Sandy Springs, GA pulled many services inhouse to save tens of millions of dollars. But going from a mostly privatized city to more of a hybrid model didn’t come without a sacrifice, says Mayor Rusty Paul in Part 2 of an Opp Now exclusive Q&A. When it comes to procurement,…
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