Posts by Take Back San Jose

Watson Park: Pearls and Perils   Let me say this as clearly and strongly as I can: We must get Watson Park right.   I’m referring to the sanctioned homeless encampment the City is in the process of developing near Empire Gardens Elementary School in the Watson neighborhood of D3.   We have to get it…

Image generated using Dall-E SF Valencia St’s center-corridor bike lane took out parking places and made cyclists feel unsafe. To restore business to local merchants, SFMTA finally agreed to return the bike lane back to the sides of the road. But this won’t be cheap. The design, which might include dangerous “floating parklets,” will slash…

Image by James Vaughan In a strange mea culpa, liberal SF senator Scott Wiener admits that progressive governance has failed local cities in many respects. But his apologia suggests he doesn’t really mean it. From an SF Standard editorial. Democrats must distinguish ourselves as the party of results by focusing on governing well in the places…

Image generated using Dall-E SF Valencia St’s center-corridor bike lane took out parking places and made cyclists feel unsafe. To restore business to local merchants, SFMTA finally agreed to return the bike lane back to the sides of the road. But this won’t be cheap. The design, which might include dangerous “floating parklets,” will slash…

Image by James Vaughan In a strange mea culpa, liberal SF senator Scott Wiener admits that progressive governance has failed local cities in many respects. But his apologia suggests he doesn’t really mean it. From an SF Standard editorial. Democrats must distinguish ourselves as the party of results by focusing on governing well in the places…

In 2022, then-SJ State professor Dr. Elizabeth Weiss drew attention to the university’s rule (now rescinded) against “menstruating personnel” handling anthropological remains. Last week, Weiss wrote in the Martin Center that SJSU’s alleged silencing of volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose indicates a larger issue of “failing to protect and respect women.” [SJSU having a transgender player…

Property taxes are uniquely burdensome because they tax homeowners repeatedly for something they already own, says HJTA’s Susan Shelley, who asks why the revenue can’t be limited to property-related services. But as Prop 13 protections are eroded by parcel taxes/bonds, local gov’ts—flush with extra dollars—often spend outside their scope. In this Opp Now exclusive Q&A,…

Image generated using Dall-E Across the Golden State, voters flagged their discomfort with pols and policies that accelerated social unrest. Prop 36 won because it reforms Prop 47, the starting gun for theft and disorder that collided with Californians’ sense of public safety. Soft-on-crime DAs have now been recalled in SF, Alameda, and LA—and some…

If voters’ Prop 13 protections are clearly under threat, they’ll push back, says HJTA Comms VP Susan Shelley. In this Opp Now exclusive Q&A, she recalls how Prop 5’s proponents claimed it wasn’t a tax, and they were “just asking questions”—but, she says, voters saw right through that tangled, deceptive messaging: although outspent, HJTA’s “shoestring”…

Cinderella and Prince Christopher grew up in separate worlds, but soon find their similarities—and mutual affection—overcome everything else. From Cinderella (1997). Concluding our Opp Now exclusive Election ’24 series, SJ Housing Commissioner Roberta Moore rejects the notion that ideological polarization is just a fact we must accept in Silicon Valley—pointing instead to common goals we…