Dog poop, deliquency and other reasons to raise your children in The City
Quick run to the subburbs! Run away, run away from the big bad scary city! Those horrible parents who raise their kids in this modern day Sodom and Gomorrah will hold down the fort sacrificing the moral development and physical well-being of their offspring along the way!
Snarky much, Bruce? Why yes I am. It's the only way I know how to respond when I hear the following reasons that people leave the city. Now I am not foolish enough to think we live in Pleasantville with bigger buildings, but I do think to myself, "Really? Seriously?" Forgive me for pulling out my broad brush to make some strokes, but it goes a little something like this.
- San Francisco schools are HORRIBLE and will make your kid STOOPID;
- San Francisco is so DIRTY and there is DOG POOP everywhere;
- San Francisco is so UNSAFE, dodge the BULLETS;
- San Francisco is filled with HOMELESS people and TRUST FUND babies who only taint the city with their laziness;
Again, really? While surely there are elements of all these things, do folks really believe this is the defining reality of San Francisco or any other city? That would be like me saying things like . . .
- All burbs are just White upper class elitist enclaves;
- All burbs are culturally challenged and devoid of anything the expands one's understanding of the world outside of said burbs;
- All burbs are just sheltered playgrounds that do nothing to help people develop healthy ways of dealing with the realities of the world;
- Burbs = Boredom
Now of course I know that these things are NOT true. I really don't have anything against those who choose to move to the burbs. Some of my best best friends are suburbanites ;-) I do realize that not everyone can can overlook some of the crud of urban living. That's cool. We have just made different choices.
So . . . let me tell you why, despite the cost of living and a little of that aforementioned dog poop and delinquency, Robin and I have decided to raise our three precious daughters in The City. Not much commentary, but these are some of the reason we think San Francisco, and most any other urban center, is a great place to raise kids.
- My oldest daughter's two favorite foods are Ethiopian and Indian, THEN McD's
- Our school: 25% White, 25% Asian, 25% Latino, 9% African American and 16% other. 33% qualify for free lunch and there does not seem to be a normative family structure. Diverse much?
- Our kids will see what drugs, violence and bad choices can do to your life. No foolish, over-the-top experimentation needed.
- Street Smarts
- Progressive Politics
- Public Transportation
- Urban Creative and Energy
- Multiple Starbuck's Alternatives
- Diversity: spirituality, food, neighborhoods, politics, culture, lifestyles, family structures, histories, tattoos, piercings, and so on and so on and so on.
So there you have it, pending some dramatic and misplaced pressure from God, that is why we are here to stay.
