Despite San Francisco officials' efforts to keep families in the city, the percentage of children among the city's total population continues to decline, causing concern among family advocates and others.
Just 13.4 percent of the city's 805,235 residents are younger than 18, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures.
That's down from 1970, when 22 percent of the city's population was younger than 18. In 1960, children made up 25 percent of the city's population, according to the bureau.
Hans Johnson, a senior policy fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California, told the San Francisco Chronicle that a declining number of children in the city indicates that middle-class families are being squeezed out of the City.
"It's not like there aren't any children in San Francisco," he said. "It's not some sort of Orwellian or 'Blade Runner' future that we're talking about, but it certainly is different than other big cities in the country."
Cities with a higher percentage of children usually have more land with suburban-style communities outside the downtown area, Johnson said.
Margaret Brodkin, the former head of the city's Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, called the census figures "beyond depressing."
"A city is better off when it has families," she told The Chronicle.
"I worry because one of the things that happens is that the family population becomes increasingly polarized. We have very poor families and better-off families, and that isn't good for any community."
Even Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco, is moving his family out of San Francisco, though he says it's only temporary.
He and his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, had their second child last week. They're selling their home in the city and moving to Marin County.
"I'm not moving out of the city," Newsom said. "It's just a new mother who wants to be close to her family a few miles away. We're temporarily relocating."
Newsom said the high cost of housing and the lack of easy access to high-quality public schools remain the most worrisome aspects of San Francisco living.
"It's not that we don't have outstanding schools, we do; it's just that we don't have enough of them," he said.
