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 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”…

Depicted: Proposed high-speed rail dubbed the “Portal” project by TJPA With the incoming Trump administration planning to defund California High-Speed Rail, it’s time for local transit officials to revisit the already weak case for extending HSR and Caltrain from 4th and King Street in San Francisco 1.3 miles to Salesforce Transit Center. Below, an Opp Now…

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…

Since 2021, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya—Stanford prof of Medicine—has stared down efforts to silence and cancel his fact-based critiques of the medical and gov’t establishments’ COVID responses. His positions have been wholly vindicated over time, and now he has been nominated with much acclaim to lead the National Institute of Health (NIH). Here at Opp Now, we’re proud to…

“Take Back D3” We need change with a business mind and experience like Irene Smith… This time, it’s different. When I ran for D3 councilmember in 2022 against Omar Torres, I think it’s fair to say that the race was fundamentally a contest between: More of the same–won. But as we kick off the D3…

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…

mage by Jana Kadah In a rare development, SJ City Council on August 27 couldn’t achieve a unanimous vote on endorsing Prop 5 (it passed 8–2). Prop 5 aims to lower from 66% to 55% the majority needed for new local taxes, undoing Proposition 13’s precedents. Prop 13 was passed by a large margin of Santa Clara County…

Erik the Phantom, in trying to control the woman he loves (Christine, pictured with him), inadvertently wrecks his chance to win her affection. From the 1943 adaptation of Phantom of the Opera. Continuing our exclusive Election ’24 analyses, Opp Now contributors argue that local/State gov’t’s tax mania ultimately brought the chandelier down on themselves this…