Image by Wikimedia Wikimedia Commons Last Dec, Opp Now filed a BART public records request for two simple stats from 2023. We got a reply—nine months later. BART Director Debora Allen’s also experienced the agency’s lack of communication and transparency since elected in 2016. At a recent meeting, Allen revealed she’d been asking BART the…

Image generated using Dall-E Upending norms that date back to 1849, Prop 5 strips taxpayer protections that are enshrined in the State Constitution and reinforced by Prop 13—says Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association’s Susan Shelley in this Opp Now exclusive Q&A. While the Bay Area’s RM4 may have been a uniquely spectacular ask, she warns it’s…

Friends, This is the time. The time for D3 to come together.  To collaborate and put differences behind.  And to unify around a new beginning for our community’s politics. I’m talking, of course, about the sad collapse of local faith for our elected councilmember, Omar Torres.  His authority as our representative has been fundamentally compromised by revelations…

LB City officials roll out a plan with legal enforcement alternatives to clear out encampments that pose a public threat or block access to libraries, parks, and beaches, as well as addressing homeless camps where people have repeatedly declined to accept service or shelter. LA Times reports. Long Beach will begin citing and possibly arresting homeless…

Prop 5 will help local leaders hand out bigger checks to government employees under the guise of public works, warns Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Ass’n spokesperson Susan Shelley in this Opp Now exclusive Q&A. With major ambiguity and little accountability, the measure will ease through almost any kind of local bond that fits the new, open-ended…

Hello all,   I was recently interviewed by SJ Spotlight regarding the sanctioned supportive encampment (SSE) at Watson Park; here are 2 considerations. 1. Consensus will be reached between the neighborhood and City on community commitments; San Jose will achieve those commitments and honor their agreement. 2. The nonprofit must continually update all stakeholders and…

  Dear Neighbor, There are a lot of things we don’t notice until they break.    The washing machine that springs a leak when we have a week’s worth of laundry piling up. The coffee maker that breaks when we have a big presentation at work in an hour. The remote control that runs out…

Image by Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building. The main characters are seen here illegally squatting in an abandoned apartment. As SF Chronicle reports, San Francisco recently announced they’ll be doing controlled demolition of deserted houses with illegal squatter residents. This project will provide (via redevelopment) 800 new affordable homes and 800 new market-rate units,…

Monica Resinger: Neighborhood, 2020. Council candidate and law enforcement veteran Joe Lopez shares his perspective that Prop 36’s mandated drug treatment for certain offenders would protect the most vulnerable in our neighborhoods and help clean up city streets, while reducing City spending. An Opp Now exclusive. D2 candidate Pamela Campos has not responded to our…

California Policy Center’s Education Policy VP Lance Christensen breaks down questions to ask re: SJ Unified’s $1.15 bn “facility repairs” bond measure: Where’s our money going, exactly? What should be prioritized? And (as many Opp Now readers echo) can we trust SJUSD’s fiscal discipline? An Opp Now exclusive. As far as ballot measures like SJUSD’s…

Image by a user on DeviantArt Since SF’s Mayor London Breed launched a plan in August to bus more homeless people out of San Francisco, many unhoused are taking cross-country overnights to states as far away as Texas and Florida. SF Standard, as always, is on the story. Of the homeless people who have been relocated…

A poignant article by Rachel Becker at CalMatters highlights the severe ecological crisis facing the San Francisco Bay and Delta rivers. Urban runoff, algal blooms, and historical contamination from gold mining and industrial waste are deteriorating the watershed, making fishing– an essential source of food and cultural connection for many– increasingly unreliable. The article also…