Where Have All the Children Gone?

The Impact of Liberalism

The recent criticism of Assembly Public Safety Committee Chairman Mark Leno caused me to think about a story from last year; a story about San Francisco and the dwindling number of children in the city by the bay.

An Exodus of Children
In March of 2005 the San Francisco Chronicle carried a story about Mayor Gavin Newsom’s efforts to stem the exodus of families with children from San Francisco. According to the 2000 census San Francisco’s child population is about 14.5% of the city’s population – that is about half of the average for cities across the state and the nation. In response to the dwindling population, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom formed a council to address the underlying issues that drive families with children away from the city.

A Digression
The liberal left has an insatiable appetite to answer every problem by forming a government council or commission to "study" the problem and then propose more government spending in an effort to implement "solutions" identified by the government council or commission. I remember when the state of California decided to form a commission on families with the original intent to address issues that were contributing to the breakdown of the nuclear family. It took the commission months to even define what constitutes a family – and the final definition was so broad that it would have included two members of the same college fraternity. Disgusted by the process, Assemblyman Tim Leslie resigned from the state commission.

Of Course Families with Children Are Fleeing
Perhaps if San Francisco wants to better understand why families with children have fled the city and why families with children refuse to move into the city, they could take a moment to meet Assemblyman Mark Leno. It has become fashionable to criticize Mr. Leno for his avid protection of perverts who possess child pornography and criminals in general. The criticism is appropriate and accurate; but my point is a little broader.

Mark Leno is not an aberration; he is typical of those who make up the political class in San Francisco. The same political class that has brought the people of San Francisco (for example) the Bay to Breakers run (pictured on the right) where hundreds (if not thousands) of people run around the city in the nude, and the San Francisco gay rights parade. It is a city where “tolerance” of anything sexual is acceptable, and “intolerance” for the norms of society is celebrated. As a father, I am hesitant to take my children to San Francisco and I can’t even imagine permenantly moving them into the city which, due to its’ extremist political class, has become a cesspool of perversion.