Posts by Take Back San Jose

Image by Freepik SJ CM David Cohen revealed a lack of understanding of the nature of democracy on 8.27 when he equated democracy with majority rule, as part of his misguided defense of Proposition 5 (which would lower the long-held threshold for new local taxes from 66% to 55%.). Majority rule does not equate to…

he Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s Greg Lukianoff and Sean Stevens explain that 2023 was the worst year on record for colleges’ deplatforming of speakers, and 2024 might just beat it (see: antisemitic mobs terrorizing SJSU and UC Berkeley). Putting an end to this ever-perpetuating cycle will require universities to dole out real punishments…

The more Sacramento forces rigid zoning requirements onto local communities, the less likely CA cities will be to help subsidize housing. In this Opp Now exclusive, former Los Altos Mayor Anita Enander also questions the need for state and regional control of housing solutions. After all, she says, several Bay Area cities have successfully raised…

LA Mayor Karen Bass has rebuked the Supreme Court and Gov Newsom and committed LA to continuing its zealous embrace of the misguided Housing First ideology.  Yuval Kremer in the excellent CityWatchLA finds Bass’ strategy wrong-headed and likely to increase homeless suffering in the City of Angels.  Unlike Mayor Karen Bass and LA County Supervisor Lindsey…

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936. Image in Public Domain SF says there’s been a dramatic increase in migrant families arriving in The City since last year, and it doesn’t have the resources to house and support them adequately. SF Standard investigates. A total of 372 families were in line for shelter as of Tuesday, according to…

OK, think hard: who remembers the principle of “double effect?” It’s the concept that says, hey, if your intentions are good, then it’s OK if you cause harm. Kind of a rough way of thinking (we can blame St. Thomas Aquinas for this one  Sadly, the City of San Jose continues to follow this discredited…

Image by Investopedia On the heels of their ill-advised unanimous endorsement of RM4 (which turned out to be shot-full of inaccurate math and misinformation), next week the SJ City Council is considering taking positions on a number of state ballot initiatives. Critics say those initiatives should be directly decided by The People themselves. Critics’ letter to Council…

Image by GVWire Taking advantage of the legal flexibility provided by SCOTUS’ Grants Pass decision and in alignment with Gov. Newsom’s requests, Fresno County has taken a more aggressive approach to ameliorating inhumane and unsafe homeless encampments on public land. The excellent Fresno Bee explains. Camping by the homeless — or anyone else — on sidewalks…