Continuing our annual tradition of listing our most popular stories of the year, here’s #2 (first posted 7.15): A quick quiz: if you were a local businessperson, and you received a letter on city stationery saying you should unionize, would you feel a little, you know, coerced? Former CM Pete Constant weighed in on the hijinks of Ortiz, Torres, and Candelas in their efforts to bully local business Premier Recycle Company into unionizing earlier this year. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreBetty Duong, Corina Herrera-Loera, and Madison Nguyen—all SCC District 2 Supervisor hopefuls—soar through the highs and lows of '23 to crown what they deem as this year's most meaningful podcasts and TV episodes. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreContinuing our annual tradition of listing our most popular stories of the year, here’s #3 (first posted 11.10): In November, Stanford junior and Free Press intern Julia Steinberg testified before Congress about rising antisemitism on college campuses. Her verdict? The hate didn't magically materialize on October 7th. Steinberg traced rampant anti-Israeli discrimination to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ideologies that “pit groups of students against each other.” The speech—hard-hitting and informative—excerpted below.
Read MoreContinuing our annual tradition of listing our most popular stories of the year, here’s #4 (from 1.30): Are nonprofits better than private developers at meeting the needs of San Jose residents? Market Urbanist's Scott Beyer did a deep dive into COPA's history and specifics; he concluded it's a misguided, cost-increasing approach to addressing legitimate affordability and displacement concerns, in this Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreContinuing our annual tradition of listing our most popular stories of the year, here’s #5 (first posted 3.9): Opp Now co-founder Christopher Escher took a ride on BART this March, only to realize he'd wandered into an anarchic, intimidating environment where regular citizens feel powerless to respond to menacing behavior. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreContinuing our annual tradition of listing our most popular stories of the year, here’s #6 (first posted 1.21): Bad ideas often reveal themselves in time—and so it was with SJ City Council's rushed decision on 12.5.22 to appoint CM's to open seats, bypassing historic precedent and citizen rights for a district vote. In the six weeks after Council's poorly-crafted resolution passed, what looked like a dubious idea turned into a train wreck, as promises of transparency and competence went off the rails. The Opp Now team surveyed the wreckage and the unsound nature of the appointment undertaking. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreContinuing our annual tradition of listing our most popular stories of the year, here’s #7 (first posted 3.14): In March, Stanford students/a DEI admin aggressively heckled controversial guest speaker Judge Kyle Duncan, disrupting and cutting short his prepared talk. Tim Rosenberger, Jr., president of Stanford Law’s Federalist Society chapter, sat down with Opp Now for an exclusive breakdown of Stanford’s dangerously “comfort”-driven student/faculty culture—and his proposed steps to restore diverse thought to the revered university.
Read MoreContinuing our annual tradition of listing our most popular stories of the year, here’s #8 (first posted 2.10): In 2003, San Jose released a Homeless Strategy plan, which promised it would “eliminate homelessness in ten years.” Whoops. It’s been 20 years, billions spent, and homelessness only rises in our fair burgh. Scott Beyer of the Market Urbanist untangled the flawed thinking that contributed to our ongoing housing catastrophe. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreContinuing our annual tradition of listing our most popular stories of the year, here’s #9 (first posted 6.5): An Opp Now contributor (anonymized by request) recently participated in a graduate program at a Bay Area public university. Rampant social justice conditioning and closed-minded conversations? Check and check. But here, they reflected on an overlooked consequence of systematic Leftist indoctrination: It can render young free thinkers numb to shock, outrage, and action. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreContinuing our annual tradition of listing our most popular stories of the year, here’s #10 (first posted 5.5): Any hopes that Sylvia Arenas' exit from the SJ City Council would signal the end of wild comments from the dais were dashed on 4.25 as District 5's CM Peter Ortiz picked up Arenas' mantle with gusto. Ortiz proclaimed that votes against a memo to expand SJ's housing preservation efforts were "violence against working families." In an Opp Now exclusive, the team unpacked Ortiz’s hyperbolic falsehoods.
Read MoreHoliday Season in Silicon Valley: A winter view through the bare trees. An unexpected shower. Lost clouds lingering along the bottom of Monte Bello Ridge. For many of us locals, this is a distinctive time of year: full of reflection about change, about remembering, about forgetting, about hope. Peter Coe Verbica hits many of these notes in his lyrical poem that journeys from Costa Rica to the crests of the Diablo Range. An Opp Now exclusive. And from all of us at Opp Now—Lauren, Jackson, Lucy, Jeff, & Christopher—we wish you an inspirational Holiday Season and a New Year full of (we had to say it) unlimited opportunity. :-)
Read MoreSan Jose's Mayor Matt Mahan and Councilmembers Dev Davis, Bien Doan, Domingo Candelas, and Arjun Batra cover the intellectual waterfront with their perspectives on the movies, podcasts, and games from 2023 that inspired them to better serve and unite our local community. An Opp Now exclusive.
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