It’s a common story in San Francisco: young couples begin to have children and after a few years leave the City for the suburbs of Marin, the Peninsula and the East Bay. As parents of two young children, my wife and I have seen countless friends move out of San Francisco over the last few years, and anecdotally there seems to be no end in sight to this out-migration.

Recent statistics from the 2010 U.S. Census tell a very clear story: while San Francisco has 3,000 more children under the age of 5 than in 2000, we have lost more than 8,000 children older than 5. In 1960, 25 percent of San Franciscans were under the age of 18. By 1970 this figured had dropped to 22 percent, and today only 13.4 percent of San Francisco residents are under 18 – one of the lowest percentages in the entire United States.

The trend is clear, and I believe it’s a problem.

Why? San Francisco benefits in countless ways from having families within our boundaries. It adds to the diversity of our population, which we value so much in San Francisco. It builds stronger school communities and adds to the vitality of our neighborhoods. The list is practically endless.
Don’t get me wrong – there are a large number of families that are committed to stay in San Francisco, and many who never planned to raise their families in the City in the first place. Nevertheless, every year there is a large group of young families that want to stay in San Francisco but make the calculation to leave regardless.

A number of reasons are obvious: the high cost of housing and the lack of easy access to quality public schools come to mind right away. There are also more subtle issues: the trend of increased housing density, affordable housing policies that have principally focused on low-income families at the expense of middle-income families, and a laundry list of other measures and policies that have come out of City Hall in the past decade, which have driven families away.

This issue cannot be solved overnight, but especially as the school year begins once again, it’s about time we shine a spotlight on the issue. In early October, I am holding the first hearing in City Hall on family flight, with the goal of developing real, concrete measures our city government can take to address the major reasons contributing to the problem.

There are also more subtle things we can change that collectively will have a major impact. As an example, earlier this year when we were teaching our children to ride their bikes, I realized that the nearby San Francisco public school chained its large playground over the weekend. What a shame – one of my fondest memories of growing up in the Marina was playing basketball with my Dad on the weekends at our local schoolyard, and now they are shut because of budget reasons.

As a result, during Fleet Week I’m going to hold a fundraiser to raise money to open up our public schoolyards over the weekend once again – a simple step that could affect all San Franciscans, from people that want to shoot hoops at the local schoolyard to the parents that are teaching their children to ride their bikes.

If you have any similar suggestions or ideas, please let me know – as a kid who grew up in the Marina and a father of two young children, this is an issue that is very personal to me. I will continue to drive the issue at City Hall, and work to make a difference in our neighborhoods and in the lives of our young families.

Mark Farrell can be reached at 415-554-7752 or at [email protected]. Sign up for his quarterly newsletter by visiting www.sfbos.org and clicking on Supervisor Farrell and the newsletter link.