Guest View

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....

If you’re a homeowner, you’re about to pay your second installment of property taxes on your home. These taxes need to be paid by April 10. This assessment continues to grow longer, costlier and more confusing every year. This year my assessment has 18...

By John Varela Early next month, Valley Water will take a significant step toward fixing Anderson Dam so it can safely withstand a large earthquake.  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered Valley Water to begin lowering water levels in Anderson Reservoir starting Oct. 1. This effort...

On Aug. 2, joined by my daughter, I spoke at the Santa Clara County LAFCO public hearing in support of LAFCO's staff recommendation to deny an application to expand the city limits in order to build more single-family homes.  What has Gilroy been doing over...

To my council colleagues, city staff and the public, I am very excited to be a part of the many changes coming to Gilroy this year. I will continue to bring the views of my constituents to these meetings, as well as my own....

There was an opinion piece in the March 19 Dispatch that led the reader to believe that the Gilroy City Council is ignoring a plan that could end homelessness. That is a misleading statement. What the opinion leaves out is that the Gilroy City Council...

They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s eat. Jewish festivals often conjure up something along these lines. Purim, the Jewish festival that takes place on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Adar—this year March 16-17—is no exception. In 357 BCE, Persia’s King Ahasuerus...

Late last month, the Federal Reserve announced the latest incremental raise in its key interest rate, pushing it to the highest level in 22 years, as it continues to battle what it calls persistent inflation. The increase, a quarter of 1%, renewed the debate among...

Public safety and providing opportunities for individuals leaving jail or prison can be perceived as opposing objectives. But the County of Santa Clara is building relationships between law enforcement and reentry services to create environments where residents involved with the justice system can heal...

This has been a year of labor unrest in California, a state in which unions represent a relatively small faction of the state’s workforce but wield great political power. The most obvious example is the protracted strikes of actors and writers in Southern California’s iconic...