At the peak of SF's hotel shelter program, more than 400 homeless people lived in the eight-story Hotel Whitcomb. Sources said the period was marked by chaos, rampage, overdoses, and property destruction. The SF Standard reports.
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It’s not just about free speech; science itself suffers when we prioritize political correctness above good research, says Heterodox Academy’s Dr. Elizabeth Weiss. Weiss (whom SJSU punished for snapping a photo with a human skull) explains local anthropology’s recent ban on pics of human remains—and how it only pushes Silicon Valley’s “non-academics” towards pseudoscience.
Read MoreThanks to the groundbreaking work of new Housing Director Erik Soliván, the SJ Council appears to be (finally) pivoting towards a Shelter First homelessness strategy. But Soliván & team will still have to overcome a lot of false narratives from councilmembers and Housing First advocates alike, as evidenced by CM Pam Foley's comments made while she rejected consideration of congregate shelters at a 2024 Rules Committee meeting. We explore the mistaken assumptions in Foley's anti-shelter statements, below in this Opp Now exclusive.
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Politico reports that a new state Inspector General report says that CA’s beyond-troubled High Speed Rail project has whiffed on meeting land purchase and construction deadlines, even as GOP admin in D.C. looks askance at the whole boondoggle.
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In the SJ Council debate about election vs appointment for D3, some CMs worried that the campaign process might be rushed. Maybe that's an advantage, notes the NYT.
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D3 candidate Irene Smith and Recovery Education Coalition’s Tom Wolf parse the discouraging data on current local/statewide homelessness approaches—and how they think we can get back on track with interim housing, CARE Court, Prop 36 enforcement, and behavioral codes. All parts consolidated, below, from this Opp Now exclusive.
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According to Pirate Wires mag, the many and widespread failures of local gov't during Los Angeles' fires point to a larger problem in CA: We're not prioritizing funding core services. But we are making it rain taxpayer dollars for excessive gov't pensions, ideologically slanted unions, and unaccountable (failing) homelessness initiatives.
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In 2020, concerned citizen David Yborra sent the following email (abbreviated) to two then-SCC Supervisors. He suggested SJ’s Fairgrounds property could be better utilized throughout the year if the County: used it instead of leasing costly buildings, recycled it into low-income housing, or sold it to the UC system. (And in case you’re wondering: one Supervisor ignored Yborra’s email, and the other promised—but failed—to schedule a meeting on it.)
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We were surprised in high school to find Frankenstein’s sewn-together Creature—equal parts eloquent and thoughtful—as more humane than his creator. Indeed, as this excerpt from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel warns us: shutting down others and their input (we're looking at you, SJ City Council and SCC Supes) only breeds an angry, unbalanced civil society. On the contrary, effective public engagement not only generates good ideas, but shows residents they’re valued as co-thinkers.
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For those who do the math, "free" transit days only serve to daylight the hundreds of dollars in subsidies that backstop every public transit ride—wouldn't the money be better spent just giving it to transit-needy in the form of vouchers? Jon Calara opines in Coloradopolitics.com.
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Many Bay Areans think political campaigns are too expensive. And efforts in Washington state to level the playing field (via $25 vouchers) have been encouraging, but uncover challenges for local mobilization: due to varying levels of gov't interest, knowledge gaps, etc. From the Journals of Experimental Political Science & Election Law.
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The influx of migrants to states like CA played a big role in rising homelessness count nationwide, reports the LA Times.
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