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To: buwaya
RE: "Most people we know socially have kids and families."

Increasingly rare in the Bay Area in general. Increasingly unheard of in the City. I'd say that in my experience the only folks having kids these days in the City are Asians in the Sunset and Richmond, latinos and some whites in the Mission, blacks in the Bayview / Hunter's Point / Western Addition and a very thin scattering of various others elsewhere. Most of our friends there (including many who are considering having kids but refuse to even think about it until they get out of the City) are DINKs, typically with pets. At the time we left the Sunset a few years ago that was one of the few areas where you'd seeing normal families. When we first moved down the Peninsula all of the sudden it seemed like there were families all around us, it was a profound change; and mind you I am comparing with a very residential part of the Sunset with few multiunit structures (excepting in laws). Sadly, even where we have moved to, slowly but surely families are leaving and being replaced by other arrangements. As I see it, the remaining portions of the Bay Area that even come close to being as "family friendly" as other parts of the US (be they metros or rural) are parts of the South Bay, much of the East Bay and most of the North Bay. The City and the Peninsula are definitely not moving in a family friendly direction and it would take substantial changes in economics, demographics and local politics (including much loosening of Green wacko growth restrictions) to change the trend.

267 posted on 05/12/2003 5:46:44 PM PDT by GOP_1900AD (Un-PC even to "Conservatives!" - Right makes right)
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To: belmont_mark
By my estimates, based on public and private school enrollment, there must be at least about 150,000 kids up to 18 in SF out of 750,000 residents.

This is about 2/3 of what you would expect given the normal US demographic distributions, so you are right up to a point. But still, the family deficit is nowhere near as total as you perceive. And these enrollment numbers have only declined marginally since the early eighties.

The big crash was in the period 1969-75. I have an excellent chart of school enrollment that shows that its was almost certainly the various busing schemes that were most to blame.

The family neighborhoods in SF are very large, occupying most of the land area of the city as far as I can see.

I don't disagree with you about all the silly policies of local politicians, but the situation is not as dire as all that.
268 posted on 05/12/2003 6:34:34 PM PDT by buwaya
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