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.
Its definitely not a hopeful sign that we have 5,000 less kids, said NTanya 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 Citys youth population.
A 2009 controllers 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.
Im 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 hes not surprised by the trends.
This is no longer a blue-collar town, Khalif said. You dont 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 Lees 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 Citys 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.
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?
Mrs. Prince of Space
But I’ll bet the school budget hasn’t been revised downward to reflect reality.
Sodom & Gomorah had nothing on the anus of CA and the US that pollutes one of the prettiest places on God's good Earth!!!
I think it can be summarized as simply saying that San Francisco has a “toxic culture”, that is “unwholesome” to children.
Importantly, with this suggestion most people would think of crime, pollution, poverty, squalor, and things of that sort. And those can be problematic, in some places. But people can overcome and adapt to many such things, with their own initiative and internal fortitude.
San Francisco generally doesn’t suffer too much from those things, but its problems are deeper and more insidious. And they are far more difficult to overcome.
‘Tis education forms the common mind,
Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.
— Alexander Pope, 1734
Compare a child raised in San Francisco with a normal, healthy child raised elsewhere. Can the San Francisco child claim normality? Is their version of the world truthful, or is it filled with the distorted and even bizarre zeitgeist of strange and perversely idealistic people?
Are they educated to be educated, or as witnesses to the soapbox agendas of people filled to the brim with the compulsion to preach their whims?
A child could be raised in a zoo, to have neighbors better than those found in San Francisco.
It sounds like the Darwin theory was right after all!
You mean they're not having children? Who would have guessed that? And normal people don't want to raise their children in the SF atmosphere? Again, I'm surprised.
Gay Frisco will never give a (bleep) about unaborted children and the "breeders" they dispise... and that they snear at with disdain!!! Sodom & Gomorah had nothing on the anus of CA and the US that pollutes one of the prettiest places on God's good Earth!!!
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