Posted on 03/23/2011 2:52:57 PM PDT by longtermmemmory
Despite efforts to stem the tide of family flight, the population of children in San Francisco continues to ebb.
Families that remain in The City are bucking the trend that has plagued San Francisco for years as the number of children — defined as people up to 17 years old — has dropped from 181,532 in 1960 to 107,524 today, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures. The 2000 census counted 112,802 youths.
The decrease is disappointing news for city officials, who have attempted to counter the family-flight trend by creating more affordable housing, improving schools and cutting costs, such as a college savings account for kindergarten enrollees.
“It’s definitely not a hopeful sign that we have 5,000 less kids,” said N’Tanya Lee, the executive director of San Francisco-based advocacy group Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, which lobbies City Hall on budget and housing issues.
The census has yet to release a more detailed age breakdown of The City’s youth population.
A 2009 controller’s survey found families with children were no longer more likely to leave The City than other people, with the exception of families with children under the age of 6.
“The percentage of parents with young children considering a move has increased from 36 percent in 2007 to 41 percent in 2009 — though it remains lower than the 45 percent in 2005,” the report said.
“I’m very surprised,” said Margaret Brodkin, the former head of the Department Children, Youth and Their Families. “I thought we had finally turned the corner in being a more child-friendly city and keeping families in The City.”
Brodkin suggested the count might be off because it failed to account for a number of undocumented youths.
Omar Khalif, who is a proponent of a ballot measure to advise changing the campus-assignment system to ensure kids can attend school closer to home, is a father of four daughters who lives in the Bayview district. He said he’s not surprised by the trends.
“This is no longer a blue-collar town,” Khalif said. “You don’t have families moving here.”
As for what The City could do to make it easier on families to survive in San Francisco?
“How about giving families a tax break?” said Khalif, referring to the proposal to offer a payroll tax break on new hires for companies willing to locate to the mid-Market Street area. “Here we are living paycheck to paycheck.”
Mayor Ed Lee’s spokeswoman Christine Falvey said Lee has been meeting with family services organizations as he drafts a budget for next fiscal year.
“Mayor Lee is committed to keeping families in San Francisco,” Falvey said. “He is focused on job creation and economic development, two very real factors in keeping families in San Francisco.”
jsabatini@sfexaminer.com
Efforts to keep families from splitting town - 1,942 affordable-housing units currently in planning or under construction are targeted specifically for very low- and low-income families. - Kindergarten to College: Every student who is enrolled in kindergarten receives a college savings account with an initial $50 deposit from The City. - BenefitsSF.org: The City’s new multilingual public benefits website provides eligibility screening and electronic applications for food stamps and affordable health coverage in English, Spanish and Mandarin. - After-school programs: Most have access to after-school programs, and youth participants report satisfaction with those programs.
The rampant on the street drug selling and paraphanalia selling. The out of control focus on recreational sex.
It is just not a place to raise children.
This really IS for the children! ;)
Perhaps there is something flawed with gay procreation methodology.
Hang in there, San Freakcisco, you might get a shot at those little Mexican kids.
Detroit West!
Quick, let’s move in more illegal aliens and educate them so they can be taxpayers. Oh, they want to work for the Government too? D@MN!
I wonder how many teachers got laid off?
The snotty liberals HATE children. They want to ban anything children do, say, play with, or eat.
Remember, San Fran banned Happy Meals.
This is a good thing. No child should be raised in San Francisco.
It shouldn’t be anywhere near 107,524! There should be exactly 0 children in San Francisco.
A child is better off being brutally killed than to spend one year in that horrible city.
it’s a good thing to keep children away from pedophiles... and by that i don’t mean to say all fags are pedophiles.
Not being a good place for children was my main objection to buying a house in the city.
You don't want kids anywhere near those whackjobs.
so there is no happy in sand francisco.
hmmmm escape from san francisco.
perhaps the child catcher set up shop there. (see chitty chitty bang bang)
Where have all the breeders gone?
Long time passing
Those poor Mexican kids...
Where butt-banditry is rampant, my kids will not go.....
And, the 800-pound gorilla-sized reason for this is...?
I suppose, that this either means that the remaining children get a really good education (yeah, right) or the adults don’t pay much in school taxes (yeah, sure).
Take away the kids, and a city has no future.
In the case of SF, no future might be a very good thing.
No child left behind in the evacuation from San Franfreako, otherwise your children will be taking it in the behind in more ways than one!
Note to the last family out of San Fran: Don’t look back. The last time that happened, someone turned into a pillar of salt.
Nice.
“it’s a good thing to keep children away from pedophiles... and by that i don’t mean to say all fags are pedophiles.”
If they want to act like that they should go to seminary like the rest of them.
I don’t exaggerate. That city is hell.
“This is no longer a blue-collar town,” Khalif said. “You don’t have families moving here.”
Freaky homo behavior aside, the median home price is $490,000
The real blue-collar jobs are overrun with illegal aliens.
SF conflates city functionaries with the real world.
Its not exactly family friendly
They are all in favor of giving kids flavored condoms and sex toys! The pervs.
So, queers don’t have kids? Who knew? < /sarc >
Next up: Families migrate out of Kalifornia at an alarming rate. The liberals will never figure it out - paradise dies with them.
It appears that procreation by indoctrination may not work as well as first hoped.
You mean the queers aren’t having babies?
The parents of children who have been brutally killed might disagree.
Actually, I was going to suggest that they walk out backwards so as to protect their “assets.”
Looking at school stats, if it weren’t for Asians and Hispanics, there probably wouldn’t be any public schools left in San Fran.
How to make SF a more attractive place for children? Some in the article have already made some real and concrete suggestions.
1. Let kids attend a school near their home, rather than being bused all over the city.
2. Become more pro-business, so heads of household can earn a living wage and provide for a wife and children.
3. Let people park. Taking the bus with 2, 3, 4 kids is expensive and time consuming. Add in trying to carry groceries or merchandise and it becomes impossible. If families can’t park, they can’t drive, and will eventually move to those communities where they end up driving to shop anyway.
4. Put away all the obscene public sex such as the Folsom St. Fair and Pride Parade. Take down the porn billboards.
5. Get rid of the extreme and unavoidable perversion education in the public schools.
6. Reduce taxes. Reduce sales tax.
7. Give us back our Happy Meal toys.
8. Close the abortion clinics. We lose a lot of San Francisco natives there.
The Chicken Hawks are deeply saddened...
How about making it more friendly to live there for Christian Heteros?
Taxing productive residents in order to subsidize the presence of leeching, violent, drug-dealing thugs who ruin public schools and prey on youth has failed to encourage people to raise their families in S.F.
Imagine!
There is only one thing in the world that is worse than the death of children: the death of their humanity!
I Guess they’re living dangerously either way they face!
that was my thinking ... like middle class families want their kids indoctrinated day in and day out by and about homosexuals. The parents, as singles, may have been all for the homosexual agenda, but once kids come along, they tend to change their thinking.
5000 kids 17 and under, school aged kids, around here represents two full high schools. That really is a lot of kids to lose. I’m sure, tho, that the teachers unions in SF will find a way to keep every last teacher, and administrator, fully employed.
Not to mention that SF probably has more pedophiles per square mile than any other city in the USA. SF would be a very bad choice to raise a family.
You must not have children! A child brutally killed is the worst fate possible. It would be a curse far worse than living in any city, regardless of how sinful and abhorrent that city may be. Shame on you.
A little much, wouldn’t you say?
Why not just say evacuate the children and be done with it?
Sorry, but it’s not about gay people, folks. I work in SF and live elsewhere. One problem is that the city insists on bussing kids from middle class neighborhoods to schools in the projects. Parents won’t put up with it and leave. Also, a “starter home” here runs about $800,000. Most families can’t afford that. Anyone who lives in the Bay Area can see where SF’s middle class has gone: to Alameda and Contra Costa counties, on the other side of the East Bay hills. Those areas are full of families with kids and have good schools. More evidence? SF’s population is almost 50% white, but the percentage of white school kids is only 9%. The white population is mostly older people and single adults. Those with kids leave.
Once I saw the pix of that alley festival or whatever it is, I decided I would drive through but never go there again, no matter how pretty it is.
What sane parent really wants to raise their children in San FranFreakshow?
Those areas are full of families with kids and have good schools.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I’d like to see an end to the expression, “Good Schools”.
Why?
Reason: **None** of the following is **good**!
**ALL** government schools in this nation are godless in their worldview. **ALL** government schools teach children to think and reason godlessly. The children must do this simply to cooperate in the classroom and do assignments. At best, they learn to compartmentalize their faith.
**ALL** government schools are socialist-modeled, socialist-funded, collectivist managed by the voting mob ( school boards), and are compulsory. Simply by attending children learn to be comfortable with taking money from their neighbors, government compulsion, and having their lives ( and even their thoughts) controlled by the voting mob.
**None** of the above is **good**!
You forgot:
9. Institute a school voucher program.
I think this one thing would bring back people more than the other 8.
Are SF’s abortion statistics available? Curious to compare live births to abortions in mass and by ethic groups. Can anyone show us the facts? trends?
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