Image by Wikimedia Commons What $840 million deficit? Tasked with “painful decisions,” some SF department heads are simply ignoring the mayor’s directive to cut costs. SF Standard explores. During his mostly cheery inauguration speech in January, Mayor Daniel Lurie shared some grim but unsurprising news.  City Hall’s finances are in the red. “Painful decisions” — as…

Image by Wikimedia Commons Those fed up with San Jose’s barrier-free housing approach to homelessness may have noticed: Council may shift all funds from PSH to temporary housing and prevention. But, as contributors Johnny Khamis and Tobin Gilman explain, Housing First is probably stickin’ around (particularly via tiny homes). An Opp Now exclusive. Johnny Khamis,…

Image by Wikimedia CommonsImage To his credit, new SF mayor Lurie has identified bloated and ineffective bureaucracy as a key reason so much money has been misspent addressing the City’s homelessness. But do his solutions just kick the can down the road? The Chron reports. The city had 10 teams under different departments at one point, and an…

San Jose Mayor Mahan wants to tie merit pay raises for city leadership to outcomes across four key areas. In an Opp Now exclusive Q&A, San Jose native and licensed local real estate agent Mark Burns suggests adding “find and eliminate unnecessary expenses” to the list. Opportunity Now: Do you support Mayor Mahan’s proposal to…

Matt Mahan defeated Labor-backed Cindy Chavez in the SJ 2022 mayoral race–even though he was outspent substantially. And in this year’s primary election, Labor didn’t even mount a challenge to Mahan, who waltzed to an 86% victory. In this Opp Now exclusive, we asked local political watchers from across the political spectrum* why South Bay…

Tom Campbell, former Bay Area Congressman and State Senator, is chair of the nascent Common Sense Party, and below explores the vibrant center left wide open by our current two party system, and how increasing numbers of people are looking for a Third Way.  The two major parties in California have gone to their extremes. The…

Image by Kevin Wong Countering mounting evidence that nonprofits are grifting the City by the Bay, new mayor Lurie outlines plans to demand that nonprofits receiving taxpayer largesse actually deliver. The Chron reports. At the same time, Lurie wants to revisit San Francisco harm-reduction policies with an eye toward preventing city-funded nonprofits from distributing fentanyl smoking…

Image by USICH SVGOP chair David G. Johnson breaks down, point by point, the exorbitant failure that’s been San Jose’s Housing First method against homelessness. And why he’s glad Council is pivoting to more affordable (and effective) interim options. An Opp Now exclusive. David G. Johnson, Silicon Valley GOP chair: 1. The City of San…

Image by Public Domain Vectors Concerns about non profit accountability in SJ have a long history of being ignored. Irene Smith of the Independent Leadership Group and United Housing Alliance suggests that the blistering State Audit report on SJ’s out-of-control homelessness expenditures means it’s finally time to get serious about managing non profits that receive…

Image by Pacific Bus Museum During the recent transit worker strike, VTA responded by offering Uber vouchers to riders. Made many on social media wonder: why don’t they do this regularly? Truth is, they did, quite successfully, back in the 1970s. Randall O’Toole remembers, in this Opp Now exclusive. To its credit, VTA’s predecessor agency, the…

Mayor Daniel Lurie. Image by Wikimedia Commons Instead of quibbling at Council about small-ball homelessness remediations, our neighbor to the north—led by their no-nonsense new mayor—advocates for large-scale, immediate solutions to homelessness. The Chron reports. Mayor Daniel Lurie is launching a one-year effort to reform San Francisco’s homelessness, drug addiction and mental health services as he…

Image by Wikimedia Commons To his credit, new SF mayor Lurie has identified bloated and ineffective bureaucracy as a key reason so much money has been misspent addressing the City’s homelessness. But do his solutions just kick the can down the road? The Chron reports. The city had 10 teams under different departments at one point, and an…