Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Ass'n blames an addiction to short-term thinking and unserious executive leadership. From his HJTA weekly column.
Ahead of SJ’s State of the City address this Saturday, Opp Now contributors Ron Kirkish and Jim Zito praise Mayor Mahan’s attentiveness to the homelessness epidemic—and ask how we’re measuring success. Ongoing costs. And our target date for “functional zero.” An exclusive.
If we follow online algorithms to value attention over connection, our voice—when discussing politics, culture, etc.—loses its power and depth. Enlightening conversations become banal transactions. Below, an excellent Substack article on reclaiming complex, real, even risky communication (and the Opp Now team smiles behind our glowing laptops :-)).
P. W. Robinson is a homeless advocate and was formerly homeless himself. He responds to the misguided criticism that some politicians (including SJ councilpeople) raise about shelters, while offering a clear-eyed perspective on why shelters may not be right—right now—for all our unhoused neighbors. From CalMatters.
Excessive biz regulations. Unfunded pensions galore. All while core services—and, um, individual liberty—go to the wayside. Should Mayor Mahan propose a local Gov’t Efficiency revival in his State of the City? An Opp Now exclusive with Peter Verbica, Starchild, and Johnny Khamis.
Local Salvation Army coordinator Major Daniel Freeman believes there’s a place for Permanent Supportive Housing—but it’s not a “cookie-cutter fix” for everyone. With that, he applauds San Jose’s expanding beyond Housing First to explore more interim, sober, and treatment-based options. An Opp Now exclusive.
Contributors Gregg Dieguez and Lance Christensen recommend that Mayor Mahan discusses (reining in) gov’t bloat and inefficiencies in his State of the City address. Like unproductive churn on homelessness. Or—you guessed it—VTA. An Opp Now exclusive.
CA Policy Center’s Edward Ring urges Mayor Mahan, below, to “tell the whole truth” about SJ’s bureaucratic–nonprofit approach to homelessness in his State of the City. Namely, that decades and billions of dollars later, we barely have any (positive) results to show for it. An Opp Now exclusive.
Most SCC shelters welcome women with kids, or families, but not single women. Thus, roughly 17% of the County’s homeless single women are left waiting, every night, for a shelter bed to open up for them. Salvation Army’s Major Daniel Freeman unpacks the implications—and some unique needs and opportunities—in this Opp Now exclusive.
