Interviews with CMs, economists, tax experts. Perspectives from 19 Opp Now contributors. It's mid-December, and we're just wrapping up Election '24 coverage (though trad media moved on—pretty fast?). Below, Harvard Biz Review analyzes our cultural addiction to “acceleration”—and, contrarily, what's to gain from lingering, savoring, and “musing.”
Read MoreLAist highlights recent calls by Southland auditors for data re: where the city of Los Angeles is spending millions of dollars that were supposed to go to the building of over 13,000 new shelter beds. This comes after lawsuits forced the city of LA into being more accountable and transparent re: homeless spending.
Read MoreFinding a parking spot in SF was never easy, but van life hasn’t helped. Since 2022, the number of homeless people living in their vehicles has jumped 37%. Residents are fed up with litter and dangerous behavior. Now, if perma-parkers don’t accept the City’s compassionate offer to house or support them, Mayor Breed says they'll tow their RVs. LA Times’s Corinne Purtill reports.
Read MoreHis critique of COVID-era lockdowns have been vindicated. And the university censors that tried to silence him have been defeated. The irrepressible (and Opp Now contributor) Dr. Jay Bhattacharya now considers linking academic freedom performance at universities and medical schools with potential NIH grants. Liz Essley Whyte reports for the WSJ.
Read MoreIn a strange mea culpa, liberal SF senator Scott Wiener admits that progressive governance has failed local cities in many respects. But his apologia suggests he doesn't really mean it. From an SF Standard editorial.
Read MoreSF 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.
Read MoreIn 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 Elizabeth Weiss drew attention to the university's rule (now rescinded) against “menstruating personnel” handling anthropological remains.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.”
Read MoreCA 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.
Read MoreIn 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. ;-))
Read MoreDisillusionment 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.
Read MoreJoe 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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