Posts by Take Back San Jose

Santa Clara County officials want their largest city’s support in hiking sales taxes to keep their public hospital system alive against federal cuts. But San Jose leaders have conditions. Congressman and former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo suggested the city could tie its support for the sales tax measure — now known as “Measure A”…

Image from SHIFT-Bay Area The failures of RM4 and Prop 5 notwithstanding, SJ Mayor Mahan voted (as a member of VTA board) to opt into Senate Bill 63, which aims to raise local taxes to help bail out our obsolete and spectacularly wasteful county transit system–especially when compared to emerging alternatives. SHIFT-Bay Area on Substack explains. Senate…

Photo by cottonbro studio At the end of the day, whether you’re a free marketeer or socialist, or somewhere else on the spectrum—cost of living matters. Like putting food on the table. Being able to pay rent, a mortgage. Running a business without gov’t running it into the ground. So we asked Opp Now contributors…

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 Joshi reports in…

Trump Media Begins Public Beta Testing AI Search Engine Perplexity Partners on Truth Social Search Function SARASOTA, Fla., Aug. 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. (Nasdaq, NYSE Texas: DJT) (“Trump Media” or the “Company”), operator of the social media platform Truth Social, the streaming platform Truth+, and the FinTech brand…

For all the hundreds of millions the struggling transit agency will spend on a better control system, it refuses to automate away the costly jobs of train operators. So says Gregg Dieguez, writing for the SHIFT Bay Area Substack, in which he calls out transit worker unions for pressuring BART’s directly-elected board members to prioritize…

Image by Daniel L. Lu (user:dllu), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons While SJ and Santa Clara county officials stretch credulity in efforts to explain away increases in area homelessness counts, our Southland neighbors are actually delivering real improvement. Overall # of homelessness is down in LA and % in shelters is improving more quickly than…

Image by David Rumsey, CC BY-SA 3., via Wikimedia Commons All 11 Supervisors stressed, three months ago, that SF shouldn’t pack shelters, clinics, and other services into just a few neighborhoods. Actually doing something about it is a different story. The exceptional Frisc reports Rejected six years ago, a City Hall effort to make each…

Here’s what you need to know this week — in 30 seconds or less: Keep scrolling for all the data and details. Dear Neighbor, When I ran for Mayor, I argued that making City Hall work requires embracing new tools and methods. AI has rapidly emerged as one of the most powerful tools available and…

Dear friends, We’ve just hit the 100-day mark of Steve’s campaign for governor, and the momentum is REAL.Californians across the state are stepping up to support our energetic, positive campaign. With your help, Steve is now leading the race and offering an end to 15 years of one-party control. Here’s what we’ve accomplished together in…