Mandated solar panel installations. Regional building quotas that are neither restrained nor reasonable. Gov’t experts Mark Moses and Susan Kirsch assert that cities like SJ can improve affordability—it just might require applying some pressure at the state level. An Opp Now exclusive in an ongoing roundup.
County Assessor finalist Rishi Kumar surveys the post-election pro-Measure A infighting, and wonders, “Was this a bait-and-switch?” {From a No on A press release, Rishi Kumar (County Assessor candidate finalist), chair.}
Whether you're a Silicon Valley housing provider, a start-up restaurant, a medium-sized services firm, or even a big tech concern--get ready for the one-two punch of bureaucratic micromanagement and sky-high levies.
Local housing providers tell a bracing story regarding how local gov'ts (inc. City of San Jose) impose not only a voluminous array of regulations, but how those regulations make it increasingly impossible to sustain, fund, build, and grow our local housing stock. Which of course leads to increased rents and prices across the board. Irene Smith of United Housing Alliance and commenters on Featured.com elaborate.
Nobody doubts that regulations, when properly constructed, can help implement the laws passed by Congress to improve quality of life and promote competitive and free markets. But too many--and too many poorly formulated--regs can have a chilling effect on growth and innovation. U.S. Chamber of Commerce explores where gov't goes wrong.
Here's the reality: big business can absorb regulatory time and cost the easiest of all businesses, due to scale. And while the regulations may seem most onerous to small biz, start-ups, it's really the medium-sized businesses who carry the biggest burden--and get the least incentive to grow. Fortune explains.
Edward Ring of the California Policy Center explains how hyper-regulation in SV cities and counties favors Big Business, is anti-competitive, and usually ends up hurting low-income residents.
“We’ve crossed an important threshold,” says 2024 Libertarian VP nominee Mike ter Maat in an Opp Now exclusive Q&A. Even before the federal government misses its first interest payment, borrowing will become much costlier: he says cities in Silicon Valley that rely on credit should act now to avoid financial ruin in a crisis that’s as few as five years out.
Longtime Opp Now contributor Philip Davenport reports from a hipster bar in Flatbush, NYC regarding the Silicon Valley Left's big win on 11.4. An Opp Now exclusive.
