The painful evidence of our current housing crisis is in full view in our neighborhoods, on city streets and along creeks as homeless camps continue to grow out of a desperation caused by the lack of affordable housing and temporary shelter. At government meetings and community gatherings, we often hear, “Why isn’t somebody doing something...

As school districts throughout California return for the second half of the school year, every single school district will be forced to continue dealing with a local crisis created by Sacramento, the issue of full funding for California’s schools. As Sacramento continues utilizing its local control funding formula, the truth of the matter is that...

In Sept. 2019, the San Jose City Council unanimously declared a climate emergency in the face of worsening weather conditions and growing concerns about climate change’s effects on the city. Before this declaration, the city instituted Climate Smart San Jose, a climate plan that made San Jose one of the first U.S. cities to align...

Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility strongly encourages San Jose voters to reject San Jose Measure E, the real property transfer tax measure, projected to raise about $50 million annually, purportedly toward addressing our affordable housing and homelessness problems. Our opposition is based on several concerns. For starters, providing affordable housing is not one of San Jose’s...

In his January newsletter to his San Jose District 10 constituents, Councilmember Johnny Khamis warned that “special interests” were vocal in their effort to divert highway funding in favor of Measure B’s “other transit priorities.” Who are these special interests? What are these other priorities? Our councilmember is referring to high school and college students...

We have an important vote coming up at City Council on Jan. 28 when we will decide whether to discuss a memo I authored, along with my colleagues, Vice Mayor Chappie Jones and Councilmembers Dev Davis and Pam Foley. We are calling on VTA to keep its commitment to the voters who approved 2016’s Measure...

Laura’s Law is a statewide law that started as AB 1421 and was enacted in 2002 as a result of Laura Wilcox, a 19 year old volunteer at a mental health clinic in Northern California, who was shot and killed by a mentally ill man who refused treatment. It allows counties the ability to force...

This week, as thousands of people marched in youth-led climate strikes, a movement is well underway. With our state hit by natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, it’s increasingly untenable to deny its impact on our daily lives. Yet current projections have us getting nowhere near the action needed to keep warming below two degrees...

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump has more animus for California than perhaps any other state. Trump has gone out of his way to deny California an exemption for automobile pollution settings higher than national requirements, threatened to cease federal funds for San Francisco because its streets are cluttered with homeless people and tried...

South Bay YIMBY’s vision for the development of the Diridon Station Area is of a vibrant, diverse, affordable and sustainable new neighborhood in the heart of San Jose. Making the most of this opportunity will require bold and proactive leadership from the city of San Jose to address key challenges with the current land use...