Child Population Dwindles in San Francisco

[MORTARDUDE]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050524/...ds_1&printer=1

Child Population Dwindles in San Francisco By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer
30 minutes ago



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.

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."

___

On the Net:

Children's Fund: http://www.dcyf.org/204_8_childrenfund.htm

[Constant]

If you can't say it out loud for fear of not being PC, or having the ACLU all over you, then at least you can still move away.

[Packo]

Also,

Men with men and women with women can't produce children. Guess I'll be lighting up a turd in hell for that one......at least with the PC crowd.

Pack

[Jerry D]

Then there is the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that doesn't help too much with a diverse environment of the non-PC types i.e. One Nation under God in the Pledge of Allegiance being taken out of the California Schools because the ACLU says so!

[SuperScout]

Due to an extra thick cranial structure, Mayor Gavin Newsome missed the irony of his decision to grant "marriage licenses" to same-sex, er.... can we say homosexual couples, and as the Chief Sage of the South, my beloved buddy Packo stated earlier, hein' and hein' or shein' and shein' don't make babies. Asking normal people to live in that cesspool is the same as asking a Grunt to an ambush without his weapon.

[Seascamp]

Newsome and crew need not go off and re invent the wheel, divine the innards of a frog, read tarot cards, tea leaves or cast stones and bones to figure out what is happening. Plummeting child population is the norm in most European cities so all they need do is go ask what all those costly Euro studies have revealed.
As ever, ya get the society ya build, it?s an unbreakable rule and as intellectually elite as San Francisco may claim themselves to be, da rules is still da rules. The San Francisco Ma?s and Pa?s may be enthusiastic about concepts like ?Moral Relativity? while they are childless but when a little one comes along some protective chems kick in and all that stuff doesn?t seem so way cool anymore.
They get real selfish attitudes like ?my kiddo isn?t a social lab rat for tinkering with? and things like that. Who in their right mind would want their child to be schooled by all those inventive minds buzzing about in that city?
Aarrgg, tiz the kiss of factory installed mental insatabiliy we're talking about.

Scamp

[b3196]

Paco
Trueisms dont warrent smoking a turd in hell.....Just remember If you have to smoke a turd, make sure its a Cuban turd
Bob K