Last Dec, Opp Now filed a BART public records request for two simple stats from 2023. We got a reply—nine months later. BART Director Debora Allen's also experienced the agency's lack of communication and transparency since elected in 2016. At a recent meeting, Allen revealed she'd been asking BART the same 10 questions over and over for months, without answer. The day after (8.16), General Manager Powers, finally, sent Allen the answers. From YouTube.
Read MoreProp 5 lowers the votes needed for most local bonds from two-thirds to 55%, but you wouldn’t know it if you read the ballot label. In part 2 of this Opp Now exclusive Q&A, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn’s Susan Shelley discusses how her organization sued the State for more transparency but lost on appeal. Voters might even think Prop 5 raises the threshold for expensive borrowing. Instead, Prop 5 could soon nudge CA cities into bankruptcy.
Read MoreIf your homeowners' association wrote you saying, “Please pay 20% more next month. We spent all our money, so now we can't repair the elevator”—would you feel inclined to give? In CPC, John Moorlach remarks that local school districts do this every election: beg voters for help in funding essential services (now SJUSD needs $1.15 billion for Measure R's “facility repairs”?), instead of spending more judiciously.
Read MoreProp 5 will help local leaders hand out bigger checks to government employees under the guise of public works, warns Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Ass’n spokesperson Susan Shelley in this Opp Now exclusive Q&A. With major ambiguity and little accountability, the measure will ease through almost any kind of local bond that fits the new, open-ended "infrastructure" definition—while existing budgets are siphoned up for salaries. What’s more, "housing" under Prop 5 now includes down payment handouts.
Read MoreLB City officials roll out a plan with legal enforcement alternatives to clear out encampments that pose a public threat or block access to libraries, parks, and beaches, as well as addressing homeless camps where people have repeatedly declined to accept service or shelter. LA Times reports.
Read MoreSilicon Valley—perhaps the only place where interviewing an AI bot is as normal as walking—is a longtime exemplar of innovation. Below, pausing on local politics, our managing editor Lauren Oliver and Lyra Rufino-Maceda (executive director of Menlo Park's Chesterton Academy of St. James) discuss how the classical framework can enrich and enlighten our busy, tech-filled lives. An Opp Now exclusive.
Read MoreLast month, SF Mayor Breed tightened requirements for nonprofits' spending documentation—and local CEO Min Chang urges Bay Area school districts to follow suit. In a Substack article, entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale thoughtfully defends using more merit-based accountability processes in local gov't, for this (using his words) “Makes Bureaucracy Less Dumb.”
Read MoreHomelessness increased again in California this year. But experts are raising questions about the data. CalMatters reports.
Read MoreOn first listen, SJ Unified's Measure R feels like it might be a fresh new way to advance our schools. But resident Christopher Webb, writing in a Merc op-ed, notes that the deeper we get into R, the more dissonant it gets. Webb has championed many school bonds over the years, only to be disappointed time and again by SJUSD's "toxic" mgmt and lack of governance accountability (and he's not alone).
Read MoreLocal officeholders' knowledge on politics is far less extensive than we realize, says philosophy–econ prof Scott Scheall. Instead of these figureheads controlling the Bay's fiscal restrictions/incentives (cough: SCC's ongoing basic income program, anyone?), our economy should be led by the market's “invisible hand”—which is spontaneously assembled from self-interested individuals' interactions. From Substack.
Read MoreAs SF Chronicle reports, San Francisco recently announced they’ll be doing controlled demolition of deserted houses with illegal squatter residents. This project will provide (via redevelopment) 800 new affordable homes and 800 new market-rate units, with the eventual goal of building 5,300 new apartments.
Read MoreCouncil candidate and law enforcement veteran Joe Lopez shares his perspective that Prop 36's mandated drug treatment for certain offenders would protect the most vulnerable in our neighborhoods and help clean up city streets, while reducing City spending. An Opp Now exclusive. D2 candidate Pamela Campos has not responded to our requests for comment.
Read More
