Today we celebrate the birthday of the visionary labor leader and community activist, Cesar Chavez. His contribution to the fight for economic and social justice for California’s farmworkers underscores the fact that we still have much to accomplish to ensure fair and safe working conditions for these workers. As our state addresses the overwhelming task...
Witkowski: Aggressive telecommunications deregulation key to crisis response
In times of great crisis, it becomes necessary to set aside bureaucratic burdens and do what is necessary to solve problems. America, and indeed the world, has set aside their differences and declared war on SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus). As the world works to limit the spread of the pandemic and flatten the future curve of potential...
Urton: If ever there was a time to think globally and act locally, it is now
This week Apple announced it is donating 9 million protective masks to the US COVID-19 relief efforts. Facebook offered 720,000 masks and Tesla another 250,000. A March 25 headline read, “This weekend saw a flurry in Silicon Valley CEOs promising heir companies would donate masks to health care workers.” This is wonderful news; we applaud...
Roberts: When shelter in place is literally a shelter — or worse
The streets are eerily empty today when I look outside the window, except for a scattering of rain-soaked tents where people without homes live. This is Day One of America’s shelter-in-place — or you can call it self-quarantine— as we all hunker down in fear of being exposed to or infected with COVID-19. We never...
Shaw: Homeless shelter clients shouldn’t be pushed out after 120 days
I like to book a hotel room some weekends to rest up and get a quick break from life at the Sunnyvale Shelter. It’s not that the shelter is not well run or that I don’t like the people I live with — it is and I do. Anyone who’s ever lived in any kind...
Caiella and Hopson: Measure E spending plan should support homeless families
Take a moment to think back on your childhood. Did you ever have to worry about moving from place to place? Was there ever a moment when you did not have a room with a bed to sleep in every night? Could you count on breakfast, lunch and dinner at the table every day? For...
Paz-Cedillos and Shieh: A rough year for the creative sector
So far, 2020 has been a rough year for the creative sector. From the ongoing repercussions of a well-intentioned, but poorly informed policy meant to protect workers (AB 5) to the cancellations of events that support hundreds of local artists due to COVID-19, our community life is reeling. At the School of Arts & Culture...
Vargas: We need a plan to protect vulnerable communities from COVID-19
As COVID-19, colloquially known as the “coronavirus,” spreads around the world, people are starting to use words like “epidemic” and “pandemic” to describe it. While the risk to otherwise healthy people is limited, the virus presents a very real danger to those who have a compromised immune system such as seniors. In response, many countries...
Bramson: Poverty and homelessness in the time of Coronavirus
We’ve been in a crisis for a long time. One where families choose between paying rent and buying food, where kids triple and quadruple up in dingy rooms just to get by, where disabled people sleep and sometimes die on the streets. With tens of thousands of people impacted in California alone, we’re talking about...
Staedler: Boulevards or bust? All sensible housing ideas need to be implemented
More than 1,300 people packed the McEnery Convention Center earlier this month to hear from urban designers, economic historians, leading tech companies and news icon Dan Rather during Joint Venture’s 2020 State of the Valley Conference. The 2020 Index tells a story of economic good news: Silicon Valley continues a nine-year economic expansion and the...
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