Posts Tagged ‘san francisco chronicle’

If you have a kid in the city, you’d better be rich, or just get used to renting. According to a fascinating article in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled “Exodus of S.F.’s Middle Class,” the median price for all houses in the city is a sickening $790,000. A source estimates the yearly income needed to buy a house in San Francisco to be in the neighborhood of $200K.

Do you know who can make $200K and afford a $790,000 house? Two people making excellent full-time incomes. You know who can’t? Parents that cut their working hours to take care of the kid(s). The Chronicle story agrees:

The social consequences for a city where moderate- and low-income families can’t get by are manifold. Many believe it’s the primary reason San Francisco has the fewest children per capita of any major metropolitan area in the United States. In 2006, a group of Potrero Hill parents concerned about declining public school ranks surveyed families that had left San Francisco to find out why they had done so. Fifty-three percent cited the schools; 70 percent blamed housing costs.

For most of the decade, San Francisco Unified School District has lost an average of 800 students per year, which has meant losing an additional $4 million in state and federal funds each time.

“So we offer less for kids in terms of programs and classes,” said Mark Sanchez, president of the San Francisco Board of Education. “It definitely hits us hard.”

So you shell out an insane amount of money monthly to live here, and if you want your kid to get a great education, you have to shell out even more to pay for private schooling. No wonder people split for Redwood City and Pacifica.

Got a community project that needs an infusion of cash, or just a grand plan you can’t bankroll? The San Francisco Chronicle has a line on a local agency that distributes hundreds of thousands of dollars in “Parent Action Grants.” The money comes from a pool of $564 million raised by Proposition 10, which increased taxes on cigarettes by 50 cents a pack. SF gets about $9 million to spend, about $200,000 of which is handed out to average Joes and Janes by First 5 San Francisco, an agency charged with improving the lives of kids aged five and under.

And apparently, says the Chron, which takes a rather chiding tone, First 5 isn’t uptight about the grant programs having some widespread impact. Examples of some of the projects funded by First 5 San Francisco: “‘Multi-Family First Time Camping Experience’ included a camping lesson and overnight trip to Big Sur for six families” and “‘Couples Travel and Learn Together’ included an overnight stay at the Four Points Sheraton in Pleasanton, where couples from Chinatown took marriage workshops. It also included $250 in Target gift cards.”

Nice! The grants aren’t based on income, like many social programs, so just about anyone can get them — a relief for parents like me, who in most other cities would be well-off, but in San Fran are just scraping by. There’s a reason why families have fled our city in droves, and it’s not that we don’t like foggy afternoons and Victorians. As the Chronicle article notes, “Children younger than 18 made up 22 percent of the city’s population in 1970, compared with just under 15 percent in 2006.”

Find out more about First 5 San Francisco funding opportunities at its website, first5sf.org. Hey — maybe this is the way I can get my dreamed-of organic garden started in the blighted patch of city-owned land in my neighborhood!