☆ Former Palo Alto Mayor: Prop 5 will increase cost of living, tax people out of their homes (3/3)
☆ Former Palo Alto Mayor: Prop 5 will increase cost of living, tax people out of their homes (3/3)

Prop 5 would make it easier for local taxes and regional bonds like RM4 to pass in the future, by reducing the threshold for approval from two-thirds to 55%. In Part 3 of this exclusive Opp Now series, past mayor Lydia Kou warns that voters will lose their leverage—surrendering it to wasteful, out-of-touch Sacramento pols—if they choose to set a lower bar for approval. With pressure to meet the state’s "impossible" housing need assessment, bonds that don't even target affordability could require property owners to subsidize people who make more than them.

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Jax OliverComment
☆ Opinion: Beware 2026, when developers will get free reign to build high-congestion Bay Area projects (2/3)
☆ Opinion: Beware 2026, when developers will get free reign to build high-congestion Bay Area projects (2/3)

Says past Palo Alto mayor Lydia Kou: Sacramento completely failed at promoting housing production, yet still wants cities to comply with the “un-compliable” Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA). In Part 2 of this Opp Now exclusive, Kou explains how cities that fail to meet the RHNA cycle midpoint quota by 2026 will lose control of the approvals process. Expensive, lousy projects will fall short of RHNA but still plague midpen neighborhoods with traffic congestion, environmental havoc, and an unraveling of the social fabric.

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Special ReportsJax OliverComment
Maybe the CA Legislature shouldn't be workin' nine to five
Maybe the CA Legislature shouldn't be workin' nine to five

California is one of 10 states to employ a full-time legislature, while the remaining 40 others propose and pass bills part-time. In the OC Register, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association president Jon Coupal argues that full-time lawmakers—effectively “professional politicians"—haven't proved they're worth the extra cost to taxpayers. More beneficial than allocating extra time for legislature (a fair promotion?), says Coupal, would be ensuring they make informed, grounded decisions.

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Jax OliverComment
☆ Palo Alto Mayor: RM4 crashed because it upheld the myth that the Bay Area can meet an impossible housing needs assessment (1/3)
☆ Palo Alto Mayor: RM4 crashed because it upheld the myth that the Bay Area can meet an impossible housing needs assessment (1/3)

According to former Palo Alto mayor Lydia Kou, it’s not only arrogance and sloppy math that undid RM4, the $20 billion housing bond that got unceremoniously yanked off the November ballot at the eleventh hour. In Part 1 of this Opp Now exclusive, Kou argues that the measure’s failure can be traced back to an impossible housing needs assessment figure, which was pushed through with little to no public input.

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Special ReportsJax OliverComment
Insight: Three threats to CA'n safety, and how Prop 36 endeavors to conquer them
Insight: Three threats to CA'n safety, and how Prop 36 endeavors to conquer them

Greg Totten, CEO of CA District Attorney's Association, spells out three of California's biggest crises that Proposition 36 seeks to ameliorate (via tougher crime legislation and mandated treatment protocols): retail theft, fentanyl, and homelessness. Totten's in-depth analysis of these problems, as well as Prop 36's proposed tweaks to Prop 47, reads below. From a chat with California Insider.

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☆ SJ Housing Commissioner: Yep, I'm "concerned" about the projected Seismic Retrofit ordinance
☆ SJ Housing Commissioner: Yep, I'm "concerned" about the projected Seismic Retrofit ordinance

Roberta Moore of San Jose's Housing and Community Development Commission (HCDC) chimes in on the City's proposed Seismic Retrofit ordinance, which is intended to keep our buildings structurally safe but—she says—could reap disastrous consequences for property owners, while failing to protect San Jose's most vulnerable properties. An Opp Now exclusive.

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Special ReportsJax OliverComment
☆ Khamis gives Mahan thumbs-up on plan to roll back job-killing downtown biz taxes
☆ Khamis gives Mahan thumbs-up on plan to roll back job-killing downtown biz taxes

According to SiliconValley.com, the city is considering an incentive plan that will waive business taxes and parking requirements for downtown businesses that purchase or lease office spaces downtown of over 1,000 sq ft. Former SJ CM and local business leader Johnny Khamis hopes it's the start of a new era of biz-friendly policies at 4th and East Santa Clara. An Opp Now exclusive.

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Special ReportsJax Oliver Comment
☆ Opp Now exclusive: Libertarian presidential candidate Chase Oliver tackles BART extension, Prop 5, hot local issues
☆ Opp Now exclusive: Libertarian presidential candidate Chase Oliver tackles BART extension, Prop 5, hot local issues

On his way to Milpitas last week for a meet-and-greet, presidential hopeful Chase Oliver—dubbed by the Rolling Stone as the “most influential Libertarian in America”—chatted with Opp Now's managing editor Lauren Oliver about some of Bay Area voters' biggest issues. The conversation, a special Opp Now exclusive, reads in its entirety below. (Psst: Stick around to the end for Oliver's #1 pick for your Libertarian reading list.)

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Special ReportsJax OliverComment
De Anza's ex-DEI Dean: My social justice talk was “hijacked” by “illiberal” academics
De Anza's ex-DEI Dean: My social justice talk was “hijacked” by “illiberal” academics

Since De Anza College ousted Dr. Tabia Lee as DEI Dean in 2023 for questioning radical orthodoxy, she has advocated for a more thoughtful Critical Social Justice framework. Recently on X, Dr. Lee reflects on her American Humanist Association convention presentation earlier this month, which, she says, was interrupted, muted, and “hijacked” by new AHA CEO Fish Stark—simply for sharing an unpopular viewpoint.

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Jax OliverComment
☆ Three haikus: Wildfires, wild birds, wild noises
☆ Three haikus: Wildfires, wild birds, wild noises

Just like that, it's fall. Fog-sky lingers past noon, school traffic wakes us in the morning, whiffs of smoke waft from fires somewhere. Peter Coe Verbica checks in with three haikus for the season in this Opp Now exclusive.

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Special ReportsJax OliverComment
School choice isn't enough?: conceptualizing worthwhile education in the free market
School choice isn't enough?: conceptualizing worthwhile education in the free market

While politicians continue to differ on school choice, First Freedom Foundation's Michael D. Dean, Esq., reminds that a “free market education system” is inevitably riven by a conflict between claims of state and parental sovereignty. Who gets to influence the influencers? And though neither group is truly ideologically "neutral," can we still visualize a system that's critical, wise, and informed by shared values (not someone else's forced, top-down agenda)?

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Jax OliverComment
Opinion: Why journalists should wear the philosopher's cloak more often
Opinion: Why journalists should wear the philosopher's cloak more often

In a world christened “Post-Truth” and drowning in wave after wave of superficial trends, The Critique's founding editor-in-chief Guillaume A.W. Attia looks to an unexpected figure—the philosopher—for journalism's next steps. Below, Attia reflects on two reasons why philosophy should be embraced by news analysis sites such as Opp Now (and we gratefully lend him our ears).

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Jax OliverComment