Frustrated with a growing housing and jobs imbalance, two Menlo Park council members are proposing a citywide moratorium on all non-residential developments. If approved by a majority of council members, the moratorium could disrupt Facebook’s massive redevelopment plan, which is expected to add more than 6,000 employees to its Bayfront Expressway campus. City staff is […]
The Bay Area housing market turned noticeably sluggish during April, according to a report released Thursday that sketched a picture of flat prices and tumbling sales. The median price in the Bay Area of a previously owned home remained unchanged in April at $900,000, compared with the same month in 2018, according to a report […]
For motorists driving to Yosemite National Park from the Bay Area, Don Pedro Reservoir is a familiar sight. But the massive lake along Highway 120 just west of Groveland has taken on a new role recently: as a flashpoint in the debate over what should — and shouldn’t — count as renewable energy in California. […]
Many naive policymakers discuss homelessness in purely economic terms, perpetrating a distracting myth. Sure, people become homeless for diverse reasons. One might be a LGBT youth, kicked out by parents. Another might be a spouse fleeing an abusive relationship. Those are prime candidates for conventional outreach and solutions: Make them aware of shelters and house […]
Texting your sweetheart that you’re on your way home? California may soon charge you for that. This is no LOL matter, critics say. State regulators have been ginning up a scheme to charge a fee for text messaging on mobile phones to help support programs that make phone service accessible to the poor. The wireless […]
Nine out of every 10 Silicon Valley jobs pays less now than when Netflix first launched in 1997, despite one of the nation’s strongest economic booms and a historically low unemployment rate that outpaces the national average. While tech workers have thrived, employees in the middle of Silicon Valley’s income ladder have been hit hardest […]
In the Bay Area, the poor are moving out, the wealthy are moving in and gentrification is picking up steam. The region had the highest income disparity between newcomers and out-going families of any major metro area in the country between 2010 and 2016, according to a new study by BuildZoom and UC Berkeley. The […]
A year after Mayor Sam Liccardo outlined a new housing plan, San Jose has made slow progress in reaching its ambitious goal of adding 10,000 affordable homes by 2022. How slow? Just 64 units had been completed by the end of the 2017-18 fiscal year this June, according to a new report from the city’s […]