Saturday, March 18, 2006
Where Did All the Children Go?
Where Did All the Children Go?
In San Francisco and Other Big Cities, Costs Drive Out Middle-Class Families
By John Pomfret
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 19, 2006; A03
SAN FRANCISCO -- Monica Burton did not want to leave San Francisco. Born and raised in the city and a train driver for the Muni transit system for the past 16 years, she loves her home town, volunteers in its women's jail and prays weekly at her church in the Hunter's Point section along the San Francisco Bay.
But as the main breadwinner for her family, which includes a 22-year-old daughter and two granddaughters, she faced some hard choices. Stay in San Francisco and abandon the dream of owning her own home because of skyrocketing housing prices, or leave. In 2004, Burton left with her grandchildren, buying a three-bedroom house in what she calls a "Leave It to Beaver" neighborhood in Sacramento, a 158-mile round-trip commute from her job in the city of her birth.
Hmm, I seem to recall that San Francisco was pretty high on the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey list of Unaffordable Housing Markets. By golly, Wendell Cox has put San Francisco at number 5 on this list. Might there be some connection here?
In San Francisco and Other Big Cities, Costs Drive Out Middle-Class Families
By John Pomfret
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 19, 2006; A03
SAN FRANCISCO -- Monica Burton did not want to leave San Francisco. Born and raised in the city and a train driver for the Muni transit system for the past 16 years, she loves her home town, volunteers in its women's jail and prays weekly at her church in the Hunter's Point section along the San Francisco Bay.
But as the main breadwinner for her family, which includes a 22-year-old daughter and two granddaughters, she faced some hard choices. Stay in San Francisco and abandon the dream of owning her own home because of skyrocketing housing prices, or leave. In 2004, Burton left with her grandchildren, buying a three-bedroom house in what she calls a "Leave It to Beaver" neighborhood in Sacramento, a 158-mile round-trip commute from her job in the city of her birth.
Hmm, I seem to recall that San Francisco was pretty high on the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey list of Unaffordable Housing Markets. By golly, Wendell Cox has put San Francisco at number 5 on this list. Might there be some connection here?
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