Guest View, Johnny Khamis: Can we fix CEQA?
                    
If Bay Area housing stakeholders are to ever address factors that have led to construction delays and the rise in costs for constructing desperately needed housing, we must delve deeper into how a well-intentioned law has inadvertently led to difficulty in producing sufficient housing....                
                
            Rabbi Mendel Liberow: How to prevent the next pandemic
                    
Three years ago, the possibility of a global pandemic took up about as much headspace for most people as the possibility of a global conflict: technically possible, but not really a “thing” in this millennium. But as it turns out, history repeats itself. And...                
                
            Guest View, Marie Blankley: Considering the future of the transit center
                    
With my support, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority held two community meetings in Gilroy to introduce the possibility of and receive feedback on an affordable housing project at the Gilroy Transit Center. However, the project described in their request for approval to authorize...                
                
            Rabbi Mendel Liberow: How to create a violence-free world
                    
In Uvalde, one person changed the world. 
A single individual—whose motives remain unknown—chose to commit a heinous act, and young lives full of promise ended abruptly. Twenty-one people whose journeys were cut short. Seventeen more wounded. Families plunged into grief. All because of one evil...                
                
            Guest View: Law is bad for business and worse for workers
                    
Every year I notice some legislators seeking community engagement by requesting ideas for new laws. This year I hope a bold lawmaker produces a program called, “There Ought to be a Law…Repealed!” 
The 2018 law, known as the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, signed into law...                
                
            Guest View: They aren’t invisible, we are just blind
                    
Reading the back and forth over the discourse surrounding the Time Capsule is a worthwhile discussion. As a resident of Gilroy for a little more than a year (most of it inside) the first bit of exposure I had to the project was the...                
                
            Guest View: State keeps expanding school curricula while key subjects need improvement
                    
Recently, the attorney general’s office completed paperwork for an initiative that, if qualified for the 2024 ballot and approved by voters, would require California’s nearly 6 million public school students to take a course in personal finance.
The proposal, by an organization called Californians for...                
                
            From My Perspective: He is risen!
                    
A fundamental foundation for Christian believers is commemorated on Easter Sunday (John 11:24-26). Jesus Christ’s resurrection follows 40 days of reflection, atonement, sacrifices and fasting that began on Ash Wednesday. 
As I mentioned in the first “From My Perspective” column, I was raised Jewish, so...                
                
            Guest View: California will continue to struggle with existential issues in 2024
                    
California enters the new year with its existential issues still unresolved, and a new one—an immense budget deficit—threatens to make dealing with them even more difficult.
California has made very little progress, if any, on narrowing its shortage of housing, its levels of homelessness and...                
                
            Zach Hilton: Project makes it easier to leave the car at home
                    
I’d like to start off with a message to those that use active transportation and transit to commute: Thank you. We see you and support you. We are providing year-round education and encouragement through Measure B funds. We have programs and policies that promote...                
                
            

















