John Zipperer

Chicago

Editor and Writer at Freelance

WI-born, Chicago-based | Writer/editor | VP media & editorial @cwclub | Come for the politics, stay for the snark | Views are my own

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thevoicesf.org

Articles

It’s the thoughts that count, part 2

1 week ago | thevoicesf.org | John Zipperer

The problem with American politics (and, to a great extent, politics in many countries around the world today) can be summed up in an old line from Yeats: “… the centre cannot hold.” In California, few people are even trying to make it hold. For much of the post-World War II era, the United States bounced between center-right and center-left leaders.
It’s the thoughts that count, part 1

2 weeks ago | thevoicesf.org | John Zipperer

It would be funny if they weren’t so serious about it. The Democratic Party is spending $20 million on a two-year study to find out why young men have been abandoning the party. Well, it actually is funny, because what they’re hearing is that young men feel that the party doesn’t care about them and has other priorities.
Housing bill No. 556,323,456

1 month ago | thevoicesf.org | John Zipperer

California likes to pride itself as being home to new thinking and revolutionary ideas. But it’s also the place where discredited old ideas get fed enough oxygen to keep limping along and ensnare new followers. Such as this old chestnut: Marin Post contributor Michael Barnes specializes in trying to convince readers that California does not have a housing crisis.
Dr. Deepak Srivastava: NIH cuts threaten health, economy

1 month ago | thevoicesf.org | John Zipperer

The federal budget battle has come to San Francisco. The Trump administration has cut billions of dollars of funding to the National Institutes of Health. Critics have argued that the cuts risk not only derailing medical research that is underway but harming United States’ innovation in biomedicine for years to come as top researchers go elsewhere. Those cuts are tied up in courts, but even without an immediate resolution, they have already had a negative impact on research and researchers.
Pope on a hope - The Voice of San Francisco

1 month ago | thevoicesf.org | John Zipperer

Once I worked with a woman at a Midwest-based think tank. Her name was Mary, and she told me about the visit of Pope John Paul II to Chicago in 1979, when more than a million people gathered downtown to see him celebrate Mass. She was arriving separately from her parents, and the plan was to meet up on-site.
Housing briefs: Ersatz home materials

1 month ago | thevoicesf.org | John Zipperer

So what will be the impact on domestic housing of those tariffs the White House is so keen to impose on our biggest trading partners (and everybody else)? Prices of materials rise and fall all the time, due to availability, shipping costs, demand spikes or drops, and other reasons. So uncertainty is the name of the game.
Housing briefs: Insurance blues

2 months ago | thevoicesf.org | John Zipperer

The insurance crisis grinds on. Last June, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said that despite rising rates due to climate change, California’s home insurance rates “have been below the national average and significantly less than some other states,” citing yearly costs for a $300,000 home of $1,405 in California, $3,851 in Texas, $4,419 in Florida, and $2,601 nationally.
A modest proposal about congressional savings

2 months ago | thevoicesf.org | John Zipperer

Hello, is this the DOGE hotline? Where I can submit ideas to save big money for the government? It is? Oh, good. I’ve been following with high levels of interest your efforts to reduce the government budget by any means necessary. So much waste there, I agree. I’m not sure you’ll get much from taking over the Presidio here in San Francisco, but I have a suggestion that could save many billions of dollars for taxpayers — and no one would even miss it. I’m talking about the U.S. Congress.
Housing briefs: Wall Street carnage

Mar 18, 2025 | thevoicesf.org | John Zipperer

As the calendar turned over from 2024 to 2025, there was hope. A Cushman & Wakefield report on Bay Area multifamily housing in the final quarter of 2024 announced that the “outlook brightens,” noting a slowdown of tech layoffs, and continued healthy venture capital investments in the area.
With friends like these . . .

Mar 6, 2025 | thevoicesf.org | John Zipperer

Tuesday night, just before President Donald Trump gave his first congressional speech of his second term, Representative Lateefah Simon (D-CA) gave a “prebuttal” statement. With this highly visible moment, Simon took on the president whose agenda is so different from hers. It was likely a speech that thrilled the progressive left and even a fair amount of the party centrists. It was showmanship, of course.