SF Valencia St’s center-corridor bike lane took out parking places and made cyclists feel unsafe. To restore business to local merchants, SFMTA finally agreed to return the bike lane back to the sides of the road. But this won’t be cheap. The design, which might include dangerous “floating parklets,” will slash 79 more parking spots. Want left turns back? That’ll cost $1 million per intersection. The Voice of SF’s Gerald Chinn reports.
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In 2022, then-SJ State professor Dr. Elizabeth Weiss drew attention to the university's rule (now rescinded) against “menstruating personnel” handling anthropological remains. Last week, Weiss wrote in the Martin Center that SJSU's alleged silencing of volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose indicates a larger issue of “failing to protect and respect women.”
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CA gov'ts and their nonprofit partners have been creating housing very slowly and at an absurdly high cost, says Marc Joffe of the Cato Institute. A better alternative, he says, is for gov't to get out of the way and allow private entities to build low-cost housing quickly and cheaply. He examines the obscene gov't-inspired price hikes at the Oak Funds fiasco in SF by way of illustration.
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In this exclusive roundup series (consolidated below), 19 Opp Now contributors analyzed their most important post-election takeaways and what to expect going forward. (And, yep, despite some bummers, we believe—as always—there's far more reasons to be hopeful. ;-))
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Disillusionment might have reached a nadir when Mayor Breed’s Dream Keeper Initiative—with its big promises for uplift—face-planted in scandal. Then there’s the economic flight from Union Square and FiDi. Restless SF voters chose Daniel Lurie, with no prior government experience, to replace Breed. City Journal’s Erica Sandberg welcomes the shake-up, but wonders if Mayor Lurie can deliver.
Read MoreProperty taxes are uniquely burdensome because they tax homeowners repeatedly for something they already own, says HJTA’s Susan Shelley, who asks why the revenue can’t be limited to property-related services. But as Prop 13 protections are eroded by parcel taxes/bonds, local gov'ts—flush with extra dollars—often spend outside their scope. In this Opp Now exclusive Q&A, Shelley forecasts the next major move to defend Prop 13.
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Joe Rodriguez at the inestimable SF Standard says that London Breed got booted from the SF Mayor job because she didn't—or wouldn't—hold together the city's "moderate coalition."
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County residents may have been united on some things this election, but we can't vote away ideological diversity. So how can we productively discuss our differences (and, um, still have friends)? Here, Radix mag recalls philosopher Martin Buber's conceptualization of dialogue—which artfully balances “holding your ground” with “staying open to the other.”
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Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek believed gov't shouldn't “shape” the economy through mandates, but instead “cultivate a growth by providing the appropriate environment” (as with gardening). Below, Law & Liberty elegantly expands on this pillar of free marketism—that “grown” economics fulfills our needs far better than “invented” top-down principles.
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In Social Epistemology, political scientist Tim Hayward says authoritative institutions may defend their “official story” on an issue—regardless of the actual facts—by smearing other viewpoints as “conspiracy theories.” Hmm, doesn't that sound too familiar for Stanford prof Dr.Bhattacharya, canceled during Covid for stating the obvious (now widely backed) truth: lockdowns didn't work.
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The Upland loophole lets local governments hike taxes with only 50% approval. But HJTA’s Susan Shelley argues this contravenes the CA Constitution, which requires two-thirds. She says voters were denied a chance to close the loophole because Sac blocked the Taxpayer Protection Act. This let extreme sales and parcel taxes sail through down in LA. An Opp Now exclusive Q&A.
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Across the Golden State, voters flagged their discomfort with pols and policies that accelerated social unrest. Prop 36 won because it reforms Prop 47, the starting gun for theft and disorder that collided with Californians’ sense of public safety. Soft-on-crime DAs have now been recalled in SF, Alameda, and LA—and some crime-friendly Bay Area mayors lost their campaigns. Rafael Mangual of City Journal wonders if local Dems will take the hint, and embrace more moderate policies.
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