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In a recent poll sponsored by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a business trade association, 82% said the cost of housing is a very serious concern. Regional housing affordability is at an all-time crisis level. With the median house price in Santa Clara County now approaching nearly $2 million, regional stakeholders must take aggressive action...
Khamis: Section 8—open for business
While there is an ever-growing need for housing to support low-income residents due to the real lack of affordable housing, there are programs that help lower income families find and rent homes. The Housing Choice Voucher Program, better known as the “Section 8” program, allows private housing providers to rent out their apartments and homes...
Sandoval: As temperatures rise, so do the dangers of living on the street
It’s going to be another hot week. Safe at home, I can turn to my cooling system as my apartment begins to swelter in the summer heat. Yet with this privilege also comes a reminder of responsibility. PG&E alerts for rolling blackouts prompt me to turn off the AC and open my windows, hoping to...
Tran: In defense of the Private Attorneys General Act
Railing against lawyers is pretty much a national pastime, and has been for decades. Why not? Lawyers make easy targets because litigation often results when there is no other option for the parties to assert their rights. However, because blanket insults against lawyers are such easy things to do, this method of communication is used...
Zimmerman: From profit to purpose—solving two crises with the American Jobs Plan
There is a false belief that effectively fighting climate change means we, as a society, have to suffer. People think of deprivation, restriction and sacrifice when solutions to the climate crisis are discussed. This is the wrong way to look at it. “What if we could create stable, middle-class jobs (that cannot be outsourced or...
Dewan: Early care and education is key to our recovery
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a troubling impact on children and their families. As workplaces and schools resume in-person operations, it is key that we keep our youngest learners and their families top of mind. Early care and education are foundational to the long-term health, education and wellbeing of children. Quality childcare, preschool, transitional kindergarten...
Vargas: The case for celebrating queer failure
“If at first you don’t succeed, failure might be your style.” —Quentin Crisp Pride has become a fierce celebration of progress and the success of the mainstream LGBTQ+ rights movement. Consider New York Pride’s 2021 theme “The Fight Continues,” and the corresponding news release that can’t help but sound a note of optimism: “We acknowledge...
EGD: San Jose police doesn’t know what it’s doing with its own tech
During a cool Thanksgiving weekend in 2019, Brian Hofer and his younger brother were driving home to Oakland along I-80 in Contra Costa County. The rental vehicle they were driving, a Kia from the rental company Getaround, was reported stolen from San Jose just the month before. Yet the report was not updated after the...
Enfantino: California’s Private Attorneys General Act must be overhauled
California’s Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) has made the Golden State even more golden for trial attorneys, while raising litigation challenges via frivolous lawsuits for employers and costing them thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition to bringing individual or class-action claims, disgruntled employees can sue under PAGA for any alleged labor...
Bramson: Empty office and retail sites could be used for housing
Vacant storefronts with “For Lease” signs fading in the windows. Abandoned strip malls with a sea of empty concrete spaces. Massive corporate offices from a bygone, pre-virtual era, sitting unoccupied, desolate, forgotten. Sadly, this is the post-pandemic narrative for many California cities, suburbs and exurbs these days. Along with an unexpected financial collapse and a...