CA Policy Center's Lance Christensen says the legal maneuvering to deny citizens the right to vote on the Taxpayers' Protection Act runs contrary to constitutional and democratic norms.
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While our San Jose City Council continues to enable the Housing Department to misspend hundreds of millions of SJ taxpayer dollars every year, real people are left to live in San Jose’s creek and riverbeds, creating massive environmental damage. And state and federal agencies threaten to slap stiff fines on SJ if our waterways are not cleaned up. Dean Hotop, a concerned citizen of San Jose, outlines the steps ordinary citizens can take to compel city government to deliver results, rather than just writing big checks to nonprofits that do little to solve problems.
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Ill-informed spokespeople went to local media this week, falsely saying it's not typical for cities like SJ to get punished with substantial fines if we don't clean up our waterways, which are environmentally damaged by prolific creekside homelessness encampments. While local media accepted the misinformation at face-value, alert Opp Now readers noticed that the spokesperson is peddling untruths. In fact, SJ already has been subjected to more than $100k in fines for polluted waterways, back in June, 2016. Paul Rogers and Ramona Giwargis reported for the Merc.
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Echoing the blistering critique of SJ's homelessness programs by the state auditor, District 7 CM Bien Doan, in a 5.14 Study Session, called out staff's ongoing dissembling and evasions regarding the humanitarian crisis on our streets and creek beds (Edited for brevity)
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CA schools were supposed to work in tandem, from UC’s down to CCC’s like Santa Clara’s Mission College. Today, they suffer from “mission creep”—degree inflation, union power grabs, and administrative bloat now cannibalize resources and inflate tuitions. California Policy Center’s Peter Constant (not the former SJ CM) suggests revisiting the Master Plan.
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Last month, AG Rob Bonta charged LA DA George Gascón’s head of ethics Diana Teran with improperly using confidential police officer personnel information in court or before a trial. Gascón faced recalls in SF and LA for soft-on-crime policies. Despite an informational black hole from the AG’s office Thomas Buckley of California Globe points out that Teran’s alleged misuse of documents could potentially have satisfied the DA’s ideological mission to help inmates get out early.
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Independent Leadership Group and United Housing alliance chief Irene Smith continues her call for a local Non Profit Registry by highlighting how local NPO mismanagement of affordable and Permanent Supportive Housing negatively impacts both tenants and neighborhoods with increased crime, fires, and blight. From Medium.
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SF Standard updates an ongoing story about a parade of nonprofits that have been swept up in investigations by the city, including J&J Community Resource Center, which was barred from funding in February after allegedly swindling at least $100,000 in reimbursements for things like booze, cigars and motorcycles. The newest NPO under the microscope: Providence Foundation.
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Roberta Moore of SJ's Housing and Community Development Commission (HCDC), takes issue with the hyperbolic comments from the subsidized, affordable housing lobby and calls for greater accountability and cost-effectiveness in SJ's housing policy. From a letter Moore wrote to members of the SJ City Council.
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Politicians and activists have long tried to dress old, failed, sometimes contentious and often intrusive ideas in new clothing. Kerry Jackson of the Pacific Research Institute says we’re seeing it anew here in Santa Clara Valley, where Democratic Assemblyman Alex Lee of Milpitas has introduced a bill with the title, “The Social Housing Act.” Jackson says he wouldn’t dare call it “The Public Housing Act.” Too much baggage associated with that terminology. Her analysis follows.
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The urgent need to reform San Francisco’s perverse business tax formula is getting support from across the City's political spectrum. SF Standard reports.
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Shocking data reveals that 898 homeless people died last year on streets, in shelters, on freeways and elsewhere in Los Angeles County. LA Times reports
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