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.
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!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.