Hey, where do we send our resumes? An SF nonprofit gets caught expensing tequila shots at Kaliwa, first-class round trips to O'Hare, and (the one we want the most) tickets to Soul Train. SF Standard unpacks the grift.
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Sacramento’s Camp Resolution was supposed to be a national model of managed encampments for the unhoused. It recently closed in turmoil. The Sac Bee wades through the finger-pointing, providing further warnings and recommendations for San Jose's upcoming Watson Park sanctioned encampment.
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The more Bay Areans learn about Prop 5, the less they like it. Even the historically liberal Chronicle Editorial Board now joins the San Jose Mercury News & East Bay Times in opposition to the constitutional amendment, which makes it easier to pass local housing and infrastructure bonds. Where would Prop 5’s new tax money go? To build on abandoned parking lots, argues the Chronicle, and to down-payment assistance that has nothing to do with infrastructure.
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CA has spent over $20 billion (no typo) on homelessness solutions—to little (and perhaps negative) effect. CalMatters reports that much of the failure is due to petty feuds between City and County gov'ts—a FUBAR increasingly witnessed between City of SJ and County.
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The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression flips back this year's calendar, recalling 102 unsettling "deplatforming" incidents at U.S. colleges (i.e., an event was substantially disrupted or canceled due to controversy, a speaker's invitation rescinded, etc.). On the repeated incidents list—along with big players like Harvard and Dartmouth—see our very own San Jose State University, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis.
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Tom Wolf, once homeless and struggling with addiction, now advocates for our unhoused neighbors as director of West Coast Initiatives for the Foundation For Drug Policy Solutions. In an op-ed for The Voice of SF, Wolf breaks down where he thinks Proposition 47 fell miserably short, and how Prop 47 reform could promote safety, accountability, and healing for those needing help in our communities.
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A year ago, the LA Alliance successfully sued LA City and County regarding hugely expensive and wildly ineffective gov't homelessness programs. Now, reports the excellent Berkeley Scanner, nine East Bay business and property owners have filed a lawsuit against Berkeley regarding the longstanding Harrison St. homeless camp.
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The University of Austin, founded recently by classically liberal scholars, has turned heads for being an alternative to narrow-minded Woke colleges (hear that, SJSU?). In a moving convocation speech to UATX's first class ('28), president Pano Kanelos unravels why we learn, how true “revolution” is education's grail, and what Plato's Akademy can offer the Bay Area's world of fast news and free speech antis.
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Frustration is mounting among business owners in Santa Monica, where incidents of crime and widespread homelessness are affecting daily operations for the coastal community. LA Local TV 11 reports.
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It's easy, after scanning the tenth article about who has access to keys to SJ Parks, to get skeptical about the status of our local political discourse. Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti finds a way out—reclaiming wonder—from his "A Coney Island of the Mind," 1958.
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There's been a lot of discussion in the Opp Now community about the risks and benefits of AI—as workers, as writers, as artists, and as polemicists. Jacobin magazine's Marianela D’Aprile chimes in with an essay worrying about the potential anti-social elements of AI, as it might strip away our ability to think for ourselves and understand others.
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Not long after SJ's Housing Dept was blistered by an internal audit over lax oversight of housing nonprofits, a grand jury rips the County Housing Authority re: mishandling property transactions. The Merc reports.
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