Posts by Take Back San Jose

We are not making this up: Murders. Stabbings. Open drug use. Fights. Welcome to LA’s Metro system, which may be giving us an early peek as to what unexpected civic amenities BART to downtown SJ might bring with it. Tim Deegan, the excellent city planning columnist for LA Weekly and Citywatch, provides analysis and first-hand…

Image by QuoteFancy Marin County community and tax authorities express serious concerns that monies generated by huge regional tax won’t be seen by the cities that pay for them–and that the whole regional bill may run counter to popular will in particular counties. Marin Independent Journal reports. Mary Stompe, a board member of the Coalition of…

Image by Wikimedia Commons Gabrielle Antolovich, Board President of the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center, approves of the SJ CMs’ calls for clarification of different gov’t responsibilities and precise focus on customized services for people in need. An Opp Now exclusive.  When COVID happened a lot of gov’t agencies–including the city, county, and the state– lost a…

San Jose, CA will lose crucial funding for interim housing units  as Los Angeles Council members push to freeze cops’ salaries. Having taken a break from handing out inflationary stimulus checks, the state now wants to explain the concept of lean government to cities and stakeholders. But teachers’ unions won’t learn the lesson—instead they’re asking for $23…

Howard Jarvis after California Proposition 13 victory. Image by Wikimedia Commons. ith the state’s cost of living skyrocketing and two tax-increasing initiatives looming on the statewide ballot, it’s no surprise that Californians are growing increasingly weary of their leaders’ relentless pursuit of more funds. Melissa Melendez in CA Globe says that efforts to boot the Taxpayer’s…

Image by Wikimedia Commons. David Schonbrunn, president of transdef.org, takes a look at Bay Area transit management and sees a business model that doesn’t work, services that are no longer in demand, and out-of-control misspending. From a Merc op-ed. My concerns run much deeper than the panic of the day — the “fiscal cliff.” Working…

Yesterday, SJ City Council agreed to endorse a $20bn (!) regional housing bond tax, the lion’s share of which will go towards subsidized, deed-restricted housing. Howard Husock at City Journal explains why this is throwing (lots of) good money after bad, as subsidized housing is just an economically illiterate approach. Maybe our housing programs haven’t…

Single family home next to 8 unit apartment building Irene Smith, head of the Independent Leadership Group and United Housing Alliance has done a deep dive into what works–and doesn’t–when all type of affordable housing ** developments are built in or next to traditional neighborhoods. Her recommended ground rules–which she says can improve quality of life for…

Image by Wikimedia Commons National Review suggests that the clock is running out for far-left politicos, as the City of Roses joins SF and LA (and perhaps Oakland?) in bidding adieu to soft-on-crime prosecutors. The removal of Mike Schmidt, a feckless progressive prosecutor in the city of Portland, Ore., is the most dramatic of several…

Local pols always say they’re in favor of small business–that is, until their insatiable yen for new tax monies reveals their true leanings. National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) comes out in favor of CA’s Taxpayer Protection Act (TPA), contra SJ City Council (save Doan) and Gov. Newsom. Their formal statement below. The National Federation…