When free marketeers daylight the massive subsidies needed to operate public transit, transit advocates often retort that private automobile driving receives gov’t subsidies, too. The fearless Marc Joffe explores the question in the Cato at Liberty blog, and finds the transit advocates have a legit point.  Subsidizing any form of transportation raises both normative and…

Image by H. Michael Karshis According to the California Apartment Ass’n, economists and housing experts from Stanford and UC Berkeley warn that Proposition 33 would worsen California’s housing crisis by hindering new affordable housing construction and overturning state laws mandating more affordable housing. Additionally, Proposition 33 would remove protections for homeowners, allowing regulators to control…

Regional housing tax. Parks tax. Measure E extension. Prop 5. SJ Unified parcel tax. The list could go on, but the threatening tide keeps rising: politicos are coming at Silicon Valley taxpayers with a tidal wave of new taxes–surging over Silicon Valley’s already super high tax rates. But analysts suggest that residents may have had…

Yesterday’s rent control advocates are suddenly getting cold feet regarding statewide caps on rental prices, as they realize belatedly that their market-busting schemes have constrained new housing development, exacerbating cost of living and homelessness. The usually liberal SF Grow Report says No to Prop 33. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors endorsed Prop 33. That…

Image by Vincepal on Flickr The pandemic lockdowns accelerated flight from states with onerous taxes and a high cost of living. The latest data from the Internal Revenue Service shows that the exodus has continued after life got back to quasi-normal. And CA’s revenue drain–led by Silicon Valley–is the hardest hit. The WSJ reports. The…

Image by Ken Lund Public transit experts warn that investing in struggling transit systems’ expansion while ridership remains low could be a recipe for financial disaster, as these expansions may lack the future ridership to cover the cost of their growth in the future. Kenneth Schrupp explains in The Center Square. SB 125 in 2023…

Denver gave homeless people cash and now half of them live in their own place. While humanitarian middlemen like SNAP and Medicaid impose severe spending restrictions, basic income relies on trust. Denver’s pilot suggests that people who know what they need can spend it rather efficiently—and housing is a popular choice, as 45% of recipients…

Image by Wikimedia Commons As tent cities filled with homeless people proliferated in West Coast communities in recent years, elected politicians dealt with the problem by passing the buck, saying they were tied by a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that prohibitions on homeless encampments amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment.” In City of…

Image by World Bank Photo Collection Following Gov. Newsom’s blistering critiques of housing and homelessness spends, so-called affordable housing programs got cut substantially in the state budget. Lynn La reports for Cal Matters about which programs came out on the short end in the budget negotiations. • Affordable housing advocates: In a blow to efforts helping to…

The list lengthens. To review: SJ Housing Dept. VTA board. Sta Clara City Council. SJ Unified. And now Oakland–all torched by independent entities for crummy governance. Natalie Hansen from Courthouse News surveys the safety critiques in the East Bay. City leaders in Oakland, California, say they may soon dedicate millions to support an overwhelmed 911 call…

Rejecting the argument that preventing homeless from appropriating public parks and spaces violated the 8th Amendment, SCOTUS empowers cities like SJ to enforce anti-camping ordinances. Legal Insurrection unpacks the decisions logic and issues.  Today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided whether cities should enforce anti-camping ordinances against the homeless in an Eighth Amendment challenge to an…

Image by 10 10 on Flickr In fairness, it only took nine years to complete one of the bullet train’s first structures, which appears to be floating in space. Even a cryptocurrency creator marvels at the impracticality. Critics wonder if the SF-LA line will come barreling through Santa Clara County by 2400, and perhaps being…