Deeply flawed, heavy-handed New Urbanist planning responsible for housing crisis

Over the course of the past 70 years, California cities have grown outward to create multiple new urban centers across a metropolitan landscape. Modern planners in Silicon Valley, however, can’t control this model of growth, so they have limited growth across the board, causing housing prices to skyrocket. These policies negatively impact lower-income residents—in both urban and…
Read More

CA’s “coddle-the-criminal” policies making crime rates soar

SJ’s surging crime wave was a cogent focal point of Mahan’s mayoral campaign. And many point to restrictive legislation as the culprit: under which even well-intentioned law enforcement must treat certain felonies as misdemeanors, release violent perpetrators without bail, and empty SCC jails as a reckless social statement. An email from Reform California breaks down…
Read More

☆ Local progressives use Trump-like tactics to silence legit political debate

If you’re rolling your eyes at the over-the-top accusations made by local left wing advocates against moderate candidates in this election cycle, you’re not alone. The Opp Now team analyzes how local lefty advocates are, in fact, cribbing Big Lie tactics from The Trump Team in their unhinged 2022 campaign schemes. An Opp Now Exclusive.…
Read More

High income tax to blame for CA’n business exodus?

The loss of CA’n companies continues to take a toll on the Bay Area’s once-vibrant economy, particularly in Downtown SF—where announcements of yet another closed shop have become a regular, and seemingly never-ending, refrain. The California Globe’s Katy Grimes analyzes how CA’s exorbitant income tax is forcing out businesses and individuals, who frequently relocate to…
Read More

Do locals actually want to kill property transfer protections?

Rembrandt Peale: The Court of Death. Image by Wikimedia Commons Taxpayer advocate Susan Shelley shines a light on California’s Proposition 19, which nullifies existing protections for parent–child property transfer, thereby treating a gift of property like a sale. Shelley wonders if many Californians—who voted against one-time estate taxes in 1982—truly want their yearly property tax…
Read More

Liccardo expresses worries about nonprofits’ lack of accountability

In an email thread recently released by the City of San Jose as part of an action by SJ Spotlight, Mayor Liccardo echoes a concern voiced here on Opp Now: how local nonprofits may be gaming the City’s lax management systems, and underperforming due to lack of oversight and accountability. Liccardo’s email and the Spotlight’s…
Read More

☆ Khamis: Why won’t cities solve housing crises by buying on the cheap (instead of building extravagantly)?

Image by Randy von Liski Everybody knows that building new housing to solve local affordability crises is brutally expensive, and requires vast, ongoing, unsustainable subsidies. Former D10 Councilmember Johnny Khamis posits that taxpayer money would go a lot further—and our homeless and needy neighbors would get housing relief a lot faster—if the City simply purchased…
Read More

MIT case study: How systemic institutional antisemitism chases away talent

Image by Roger W Cal and Stanford aren’t the only prestigious colleges driving off folks who oppose Hamas and support Israel’s right to exist. In December 2023, MIT lecturer Mauricio Karchmer stepped down from his dream job after observing his administration affirm antisemitic hate, while keeping mum on explicit terrorism. In a moving Free Press…
Read More

Newsom Sides with Parents Against Ban on Youth Tackle Football

By Ryan Sabalow / January 18, 2024 (San Jose Inside) Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said this week that he would veto any bill with an outright ban on youth tackle football. “My administration will work with the legislature and the bill’s author to strengthen safety in youth football — while ensuring parents have the freedom to decide…
Read More

GOP Lawmakers in Sacramento Split Over MediCal for Undocumented Farm Workers

By Ana B. Ibarra / January 24, 2024 (San Jose Inside) Photo by Shutterstock Two California lawmakers publicly blew up at each other earlier this month, hitting a nerve on an issue that has long-divided the state’s elected leaders: Whether and how much to offer government-subsidized health benefits to undocumented residents. In one corner, Corona Assemblymember Bill Essayli declared that…
Read More

One Year After Mass Murder in Half Moon Bay, Suspect Indicted

By Bay City New / January 23, 2024 (San Jose Inside) Scene of mass murders in Half Moon Bay in early 2023. File photo On the eve of the first anniversary of the mass shooting in Half Moon Bay last year, the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office announced the indictment of suspect Chunli Zhao on Monday.…
Read More

CSU Strike Ends After One Day, Classes Resume Tuesday

By Barry Holtzclaw (San Jose Inside) / January 23, 2024 After just one day of a planned week-long strike, negotiators for the California Faculty Association and California State University management announced Monday night they had reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, ending the first systemwide faculty strike at the largest four-year public university in the…
Read More