Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
Child Population Dwindles in San Francisco By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer
Tue May 24, 2:16 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - Anne Bakstad and Ed Cohen are starting to feel as if their family of four is an endangered species in San Francisco.
Since the couple bought a house five years ago, more than a dozen families in their social circle have left the city for cheaper housing, better schools or both.
The goodbyes are so frequent that Carina, age 4 1/2, wants to know when she is going to move, too. Eric, 2 1/2, misses Gus, his playmate from across the street.
"When we get to know people through our kids, we think to ourselves, `Are they renters or owners? Where do they work?' You have to figure out how much time to invest in people," Bakstad said. "It makes you feel like, `Where is everyone going? Stay with us!'"
A similar lament is being heard in San Francisco's half-empty classrooms, in parks where parents are losing ground to dog owners, and in the corridors of City Hall.
San Francisco has the smallest share of small-fry of any major U.S. city. Just 14.5 percent of the city's population is 18 and under.
It is no mystery why U.S. cities are losing children. The promise of safer streets, better schools and more space has drawn young families away from cities for as long as America has had suburbs.
But kids are even more scarce in San Francisco than in expensive New York (24 percent) or in retirement havens such as Palm Beach, Fla., (19 percent), according to Census estimates.
San Francisco's large gay population estimated at 20 percent by the city Public Health Department is thought to be one factor, though gays and lesbians in the city are increasingly raising families.
Another reason San Francisco's children are disappearing: Family housing in the city is especially scarce and expensive. A two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot starter home is considered a bargain at $760,000.(what did that have to do with disappearing children?)
A recent survey by the city controller found 40 percent of parents said they were considering pulling up stakes within the next year.
Determined to change things, Mayor Gavin Newsom has put the kid crisis near the top of his agenda, appointing a 27-member policy council to develop plans for keeping families in the city.
"It goes to the heart and soul of what I think a city is about it's about generations, it's about renewal and it's about aspirations," said Newsom, 37. "To me, that's what children represent and that's what families represent and we just can't sit back idly and let it go away."
Newsom has expanded health insurance for the poor to cover more people under 25, and created a tax credit for working families. And voters have approved measures to patch up San Francisco's public schools, which have seen enrollment drop from about 62,000 to 59,000 since 2000.
One voter initiative approved up to $60 million annually to restore public school arts, physical education and other extras that state spending no longer covers. Another expanded the city's Children's Fund, guaranteeing about $30 million a year for after-school activities, child care subsidies and other programs.
"We are at a crossroads here," said N'Tanya Lee, executive director of the nonprofit Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth. "We are moving toward a place where we could have an infrastructure of children's services and no children."
Other cities are trying similar strategies. Seattle has created a children's fund, like the one in San Francisco. Leaders in Portland, Ore., are pushing developers to build affordable housing for families, a move Newsom has also tried.
For families choosing to stay in San Francisco, life remains a series of trade-offs. They can enjoy world-class museums, natural beauty and an energy they say they cannot find in the suburbs.
But most families need two or more incomes to keep their homes, and their children spend most of their days being cared for by others.
"We have so many friends who are moving out and say how much easier life has been for them," Bakstad said. "If we can make it work in the city, we would love to stay. In a way, the jury is out."
insein said:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050524/ap_on_re_us/disappearing_kids_1
Imagine that. San Francisco, Portland and Seattle are losing families. I wonder why?
Comrade said:Another A.P. report which exists to create some kind of hysteria. While there may be trend toward less breeding in the metropolitan area of San Fransico, Portland, Seattle, per se, this trend seems to exclude the outlying suburbs surrounding such cities. I can attest such breeding is rapidly occuring in my immediate area. But who knows when the gays move into Lake Oswego and put a stop to all this senseless breeding going on....
Avatar4321 said:Because no sane parents want their kids anywhere near those places. It's not hard to figure out.
I know this is going to be a very generalized point, but isn't it interesting how alot of the really good people are leaving cities all over this nation because its just too bad there? I often wonder if there is any parrellel with the Sodom and Gommorah story where Abraham asked God to spare the cities if there was one righteous man in the city. Yet the citizens drove out the last righteous man, Lot, and their cities were destroyed. I think I am going to have to ponder this a bit.
musicman said:This phenomenon speaks to the unsustainability of liberalism, don't you think? No vital, creative part of their constituency is growing; their hopes for the future are either going up the wrong chutes or leaving with the clinic's trash.
Avatar4321 said:Because no sane parents want their kids anywhere near those places. It's not hard to figure out.
I know this is going to be a very generalized point, but isn't it interesting how alot of the really good people are leaving cities all over this nation because its just too bad there? I often wonder if there is any parrellel with the Sodom and Gommorah story where Abraham asked God to spare the cities if there was one righteous man in the city. Yet the citizens drove out the last righteous man, Lot, and their cities were destroyed. I think I am going to have to ponder this a bit.
fuzzykitten99 said:if ya think about it...the pro-abortion side is killing all of their viable young before they are born, thus not getting a chance to aid in population. for all we know, one of them probably killed the next super genius who had the solution/cure for cancer to make it go away permanantly, and quickly, no matter what stage it is in...but we will never know...
Comrade said:Nah, I wouldn't worry about Liberals killing off their super genius genes, they don't have them in the first place!
Trigg said:I'm sitting here waiting for a nice big earthquake to just break California off from the reast of the US.
They can become an Island where everyone has cat/dog psychologists on call waiting and Million dollar houses that are interest only loans.
Comrade said:Another A.P. report which exists to create some kind of hysteria. While there may be trend toward less breeding in the metropolitan area of San Fransico, Portland, Seattle, per se, this trend seems to exclude the outlying suburbs surrounding such cities. I can attest such breeding is rapidly occuring in my immediate area. But who knows when the gays move into Lake Oswego and put a stop to all this senseless breeding going on....
