WALNUT CREEK – As Cheryl Dumesnil and Tracie Vickers prepared for their wedding a decade ago, they thought about living in San Francisco, where other gay and lesbian families would surround them, or retreating to the suburbs where they grew up were.

Their choice of central Contra Costa County made them pioneers, the first two-mother family in their leafy Walnut Creek neighborhood.

“This is Tracie's suburban dream,” Dumesnil said Tuesday at their ranch house, as the couple's 6-year-old son, Brennan, quietly read a book and 4-year-old Kian marched around the kitchen, a singing troubadour playing a white guitar Guitar. Neighbors welcomed this family with cookies and open arms.

“After saying I would never move to the suburbs again, here I am,” Dumesnil said.

The family of four is among nearly 1 percent of California households – about 126,000 households – headed by same-sex couples, according to 2010 Census statistics released Thursday. If the numbers are accurate, they show that nearly a quarter of same-sex couples in California are raising children.

While San Francisco remains a gay hub – the city has more than 10,000 gay and lesbian couples, compared to fewer than 300 in Walnut Creek – the census found same-sex couples in every corner of the state, making it clear that Same-sex couples in many parts of the state, suburban and rural areas have far higher chances of having children.

“We are not just a special interest group concentrated in large urban centers,” Dumesnil said. “We’re basically everywhere, just trying to live a legally protected and fulfilling life.”

Fifteen years after the federal Defense of Marriage Act banned gay marriage and seven years after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom defiantly ordered licenses to be granted to same-sex couples, gay and lesbian families remain at odds political crosshairs, but also say that society is increasingly at risk. I'm getting used to having them – and their children – with us. In turn, whether they have been previously counted or not, more same-sex couples are aware of identifying themselves on census forms.

Demographers warn that the numbers may overcount same-sex couples because opposite-sex couples miscoded each other in a confusing way. The errors are compounded because there are far more opposite-sex couples than same-sex couples.

Gay and lesbian couples are identified in the census when the head of the household reports living with a “husband” or “unmarried partner” of the same sex. Changes in the way the Census Bureau counts same-sex couples make it difficult to accurately compare with the 2000 census, when the count found more than 92,000 same-sex couples in California.
However, it is clear that the number of open same-sex couples nationwide has increased significantly over the last decade.

“We have evidence that over time, more and more people are willing to report (same-sex unions),” said demographer Gary Gates of UCLA's Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law. “We saw that these increases were the largest outside of well-known gay neighborhoods. I expect these increases would be larger in the Central Valley than in San Francisco.”

Same-sex couples in suburban and rural areas are far more likely to be raising children than their urban counterparts. National studies show that about 19 percent of children of same-sex couples are adopted, Gates said. Many more are children from previous heterosexual relationships.

“This type of pattern is much more common in conservative areas where people come out later in life,” Gates said. “The further you get from San Francisco, the greater the proportion of same-sex couples raising children.”

For some same-sex couples, life in the outskirts of the Bay Area still seems like living on a cultural frontier.

The census counted 138 gay male couples in Antioch last year and found that 30 percent of them have children. However, partners Joe Horacek and Jonathan Lee only know one other family like them, who lives on the other side of town.

The family moved from South San Francisco to Antioch in 2004 because they wanted a larger, cheaper home to raise their three adopted children. Horacek and Lee were among about 18,000 same-sex couples who married for six months in 2008, when gay marriage was legal in the state, before voters passed Proposition 8. Life in Antioch was simpler when the children were small; Her oldest children, 14 and 13, now struggle to fit in in a community where two fathers are a rarity.

“My son encountered some negative reactions from kids on Facebook,” said Horacek, a local teacher. “We don’t want to be the ones putting the targets on their backs. All children get teased about something, but usually it has to do with themselves. We add that additional liability for customization.”

Hosts who greet the family of five at local restaurants sometimes mistake them for two separate parties. Because her 9-year-old daughter doesn't have a mother, a school principal recently asked if she could play the role for a Mother's Day tea. Usually polite conversation smooths over an adult's confusion, but the couple sometimes wonders if life would be easier for their children on the other side of the East Bay hills.

“For the most part, no one has questioned us or given us any problems, but there is more assumption here that the children have both a mother and a father,” Horacek said. “I know that, particularly in places like Berkeley and Alameda County, conversations about different types of families and same-sex relationships are part of the curriculum. That’s not necessarily the case out here.”

Three percent of households in San Francisco and just over two percent of households in Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville are headed by same-sex couples, making these Bay Area cities with the highest concentrations of gay and lesbian partners. Other East Bay cities are close behind, and most of the neighborhoods outside of San Francisco with the census-highest number of same-sex couples are along the East Oakland foothills.

Same-sex couples from the East Bay are also more likely to have children than couples from San Francisco, although the same is true for heterosexual couples as well. Just over 4 percent of gay male couples in San Francisco and 19 percent of lesbian couples have children, compared to 11 percent of gay male couples and 22 percent of lesbian couples in Oakland.

Maya Scott-Chung and her multi-ethnic family also chose the East Bay because she found it more diverse.

“It wasn't just because we could afford to buy a house here, although that was part of it,” said Scott-Chung, who lives with her transgender partner and daughter in Oakland's San Antonio neighborhood . “It is important to us to live in Oakland because it is one of the most culturally, linguistically and economically diverse places in the Bay Area and probably the world. There are a large number of lesbian and two-mother families here.”

Nationally, lesbian partners are more likely to raise children than gay men – 32 percent of lesbian households have children, compared to 17.8 percent of gay male couples. Horacek said being a minority among minorities in a place like Antioch can be exciting and a little scary.

“Obviously gays have been in relationships for centuries, but this appears to be the first generation where this is happening in large numbers, particularly through the addition of children into the family,” he said. “We sometimes feel like we are soldiers at the front. Change is happening, but it’s still not mainstream here.”

Dumesnil said she and her wife have seen perceptions in Walnut Creek slowly change as they interacted with straight families at school events and in their neighborhood.

“Someone has to be out here,” she said. “In a way, the presence of the children was the great equalizer.”

Cities in the Bay Area with
the highest percentage
of same-sex couples

Guerneville: 7.6 percent of all households are headed by same-sex couples (176 same-sex couples)
San Francisco: 3 percent (10,384)
Oakland: 2.2 percent (3,442)
Emeryville: 2.1 percent (119)
Berkeley: 2.1 percent (961)
El Cerrito: 1.9 percent (189)
Pacifica: 1.7 percent (237)
Albany: 1.7 percent (123)
Alameda: 1.5 percent (459)
San Rafael: 1.3 percent (301)
Vallejo: 1.2 percent (497)
Santa Rosa: 1.2 percent (757)
Richmond: 1.2 percent (427)
Concord: 1.2 percent (512)
Pleasant Hill: 1.1 percent (152)
San Leandro: 1.1 percent (326)

nationwide household figures

49%
Households headed by
Man-woman couples

6.2%
Households headed by unmarried partners of different genders
1 %
Households headed by
same-sex partners

43.4%
Resident does not live with us
a spouse or unmarried partner

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English

Many myths swirl around about San Francisco: Is it a haven for the tech elite or a last bastion for counterculture aesthetics? Is the pandemic driving rent and mortgage prices down, or is a cheap flat and homeownership still a pipe dream? Is everyone working from home or are commuters hopping back on MUNI again?

New numbers from the Census Bureau data might just help clarify some of these conflicting visions of San Francisco.

The Census Bureau released the 2021 data from the American Community Survey (ACS) today, which show local estimates on a wide range of topics—from racial demographics to commuter trends and student enrollment. The ACS data only covers the period from January to December 2021, but it does provide a comprehensive overview of San Francisco’s characteristics during that time.

Comparing 2021 ACS data and more recent stats from other sources, it is possible to prove—and disprove—some of the biggest “truths” and “lies” about San Francisco.

Truth #1: Lots of people moved out of San Francisco

The common pandemic-era refrain about San Francisco has been that it lost a significant portion of its population in 2020 and 2021.

ACS data already proved that point.

Earlier this year, the Census Bureau released preliminary estimates showing San Francisco’s population dropped from over 880,000 to approximately 815,000 between 2019 and 2021, sharpening a population decline that had already started before the pandemic.

New statistics reinforce the image of an empty city: the total number of households decreased by about 15,000 in this period, dropping to approximately 350,000 in 2021. And the percentage of San Franciscans in the labor force declined from about 72% in 2019 to 68% in 2021.

Truth #2: SF is an aging city

Another pre-release of ACS data showed that most of the people who moved out of SF were young adults. In fact, two-thirds of those who moved away in 2021 were between 20 and 34 years old.

The logical consequence? The older folks remain and aging the city’s population. ACS data show the share of adults aged 65 to 74 years grew from 8.5% in 2017 to 10% in 2021. All age ranges above 55 years experienced modest growth, too, indicating that even as younger populations remained more transitory, older folks stayed put in the city.

This statistic reinforces what the San Francisco Human Services Agency says: the population of older adults is the fastest growing age group in San Francisco.

Truth #3: A ton of San Franciscans now work from home

Yes, the ACS data proved San Francisco was the capital of the country’s work-from-home region in 2021.

The number of people mainly working from home tripled between 2019 and 2021 in the United States. But for San Francisco, the number of people primarily working from home increased by nearly seven times in the same time period, going from 7% in 2019 to 46% in 2021.

Compared to the rest of the Bay Area, SF also led the pack: over 200,000 people worked from home in SF, while Oakland and Berkeley reported about 73,000 and 27,000 at-home workers respectively.

But a 46% share of people working at home leaves another 54% not working from home. In more recent months, return-to-office data shows people are embracing hybrid work schedules and dusting off their desks in SF’s brick-and-mortar offices. Read more analysis of the ACS data on work-from-home here.

Truth #4: Use of public transit took a dive

The total number of people commuting to work decreased by nearly 100,000 people in San Francisco, and only 11% of San Franciscans used public transportation to commute to work in 2021, compared to 36% in 2019.

Though recent data suggests that the city’s residents are starting to trickle back onto public transport with more people riding BART, its ridership remains stuck below 40% of pre-pandemic levels.

Given the ACS data show San Franciscans have more cars per person than ever before, it might make sense that monthly traffic volume on the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge has nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels. Maybe commuters are returning to the office driving new Subarus and Teslas instead of catching BART or MUNI.

Lie #1: The pandemic caused a baby boom

nope The ACS findings show the Big 2020 Baby Bust hit SF—hard.

As stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines stretched on for months, many (cheekily) predicted a baby boom in 2021. What else were young couples supposed to do with all that free time?

But the ACS data reinforces what many economists expected would happen: that the pandemic actually prevented baby births, largely due to economic constraints and the uncertainty of the period.

The number of San Franciscans between 15 and 50 years who gave birth in 2021 dropped significantly from previous years: an estimated 8,600 individuals gave birth in 2019, compared to only 6,800 in 2021. The fertility rate per 1,000 women also declined in SF, going from 40 in 2017 to 33 in 2021, according to the ACS.

When compared to the rest of California, the Bay Area experienced a slightly larger baby bust. The Bay Area saw an 18% decline in births in early 2021, right when early pandemic babies might have been due, compared to a 15% decline in California.

A group of children play at Helen Diller Playground located in Dolores Park in San Francisco Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. | Benjamin Fanjoy for The Standard

The city’s decline in young adults aged 20-34 might just represent one of the factors driving the baby bust. And a declining birth rate impacts schools: ACS data shows nursery school and preschool enrollment dipped significantly which will worsen SF Unified School District’s enrollment decline.

Lie #2: Only the wealthy saw a change in their share of the SF population

Previous analyzes show wealthy San Franciscans did leave the city more than any other group: the percent share of people earning more than $200,000 per year dropped to 31% in 2021, down from 33% in 2019. As they left, they took $7 billion in adjusted gross income with them, according to IRS tax return data.

But the most dramatic change in population share came from the low-income grouping of San Francisco residents, which expanded during the pandemic.

ACS data released today show the number of households with incomes under $10,000 per year increased by 2 percentage points, growing from 3.8% in 2019 to 5.8% in 2021. The number of city residents relying on food stamps or SNAP benefits also ballooned during the pandemic : nearly 12% of San Franciscans had Food Stamp/SNAP benefits in 2021, compared to 5.5% just two years prior.

So see

The new data show San Francisco has earned its reputation as the “poster child” for income inequality—a statistic that has only worsened across the United States, with national income inequality rising 1.2% between 2020 and 2021.

Lie #3: SF’s middle class shrank during the pandemic

Many say that the city has a “missing middle” problem, in part due to a city housing market that excludes many middle-class families from home ownership and drives away many of the same individuals with high rent prices.

ACS economic data shows that the middle class in San Francisco was one of the few income groups that did not experience a significant increase or decrease in population share.

Lie #4: San Francisco is now a cheaper place to live

During the pandemic, the tight housing market loosened and rents even came down a touch.

Unfortunately, ACS housing data show that both high rent and expensive mortgages remain the norm in SF. In 2021, the median rent in San Francisco was higher than many other California counties, clocking in at $2,167. California, on the other hand, reported an average median rent of $1,750.

When considering rent as a share of income, many San Franciscans devote a significant chunk of their income to their apartments and homes. Of the occupied units paying rent in 2021, 34% of renters paid more than 35% of their income on rent.

Housing values ​​in San Francisco far outstrip other counties, too, with nearly three-fourths of all SF housing units worth $1 million or more. The housing cost distribution does not get much better when looking at lower-priced units: nearly 20% of homes are still worth more than $500,000 in SF.

Outside of housing, the city’s high prices and living costs secured San Francisco’s spot as the most expensive place to live in 2020—a title the city won for the sixth year in a row, as average prices for goods and services were more than 17% higher than the national average.

So if the cost of living was ever a bit less during the pandemic in San Francisco, those days are now long gone.

English

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A lot has been written about the so-called “Bay Area exodus” during the pandemic — the floods of people who fled the region’s high prices and frenzied lifestyle for places like Bozeman, Montana, and Austin, Texas, for an easier, more affordable life.

The latest data from the US Census Bureau shows that people did indeed leave the San Francisco Bay Area counties during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area saw the third-highest number of residents in the country packing up and moving between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021, with a net migration loss of 128,870 people. By comparison, New York-Newark-Jersey City recorded a net migration loss of 385,455, and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim saw 204,776 people leave.

Where did the people in the San Francisco metro area go? The census didn’t specify where people moved from a certain area, but we can assume some of those people may have gone to Texas, Arizona or Florida. The data shows that Texas had “four of the top 10 largest-gaining metro areas.” Of the metro areas, the largest net domestic migration gains were Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler (66,850), Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (54,319), and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (42,089), the US Census said in a news release.

On a more granular level, San Francisco saw the sixth-highest numeric decline among counties across the country, with its population shrinking from 873,965 in April 2020 to 815,201 in July 2021, marking a 6.7% decline. Numeric decline is “the difference between the population of an area at the beginning and end of a time period,” the US Census said, and it takes into account births and deaths and people moving into and out of an area.

Santa Clara County saw the seventh highest numeric decline with the population dropping by 50,751 residents, and Alameda County the ninth highest with a 33,797 person drop.

Many Bay Area-based companies made it easy for people to pack up and move, allowing employees to relocate and work remotely. Google said last month that more than 14,000 of its workers transferred to a new location or went fully remote during the pandemic, with 85% of applications approved. Google didn’t specify the number of Bay Area employees that left the area, but the company is based in Mountain View with offices all around the region.

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MARTINEZ (CBS SF / BCN) – With the 2020 census in the books, counties like Contra Costa are seeing their political landscape evolve.

The Board of Directors of Contra Costa on Tuesday unanimously approved a reallocation plan moving Diablo, Blackhawk and the Camino Tassajara area from District 3 of Supervisor Diane Burgis to District 2 of District Candace Andersen.

CONTINUE READING: Long lines at test sites in the Bay Area to ensure safe, COVID-free Thanksgiving gatherings

The new map expands Andersen’s reach to the east, bringing the three Tri-Valley parishes into the same borough as Danville and San Ramon – cities they are already connected to based on geography and demographics.

The new plan brings all of Quill to District 1 of Supervisor John Gioia. Pittsburg’s Tuscany Meadows is moving to District 5 from Supervisor Federal Glover, dividing Antioch on Somersville Road and Auto Center Drive, which is Railroad Avenue between Glover and Burgis.

The Morgan Territory Road area within the Mt. Diablo Unified School District is being moved to District 4. Concord would be split on the former railroad access and highways 4 and 242. District 2 would now extend through Tilden Regional Park almost to Kensington. Walnut Creek would split between Districts 4 and 2 on State Highway 24 and Interstate Highway 680. The Saranap and Castle Hill areas would be in Andersen’s District 2.

Throughout the process, some areas have been pressured to keep the cities intact, which is difficult given the demands.

“It may feel like you’re divided in some ways, but there are actually advantages,” said Burgis. “You don’t have just two overseers running a town; Supervisor Glover and I share Antioch and I don’t say, ‘Well, where is that?’ I say, ‘Oh, it’s Antioch. I will help you. And I’m sure that will happen with Supervisor Glover too. We don’t look at the lines. ”

CONTINUE READING: Nervous Christmas shoppers find barricades, more police after Walnut Creek smash and robbery

Tuesday was the last of five public hearings required before a final plan has to be in place by December 15. District lines are redrawn every 10 years and are based on US census figures.

The 2020 census showed that Contra Costa County has grown by 11.35% since 2010, from 1,049,025 in 2010 to 1,168,064 residents in 2020.

The largest increase in population came in District 3 of Burgis, with an additional 36,560 residents in the area comprising much of Antioch, Oakley, Brentwood, and unregistered East Counties.

The lowest growth was in District 4 owned by Supervisor Karen Mitchoff (population 10,442), an area that includes Concord, much of Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, and Clayton.

The goal is to create counties with as similar a population as possible while following all federal and state guidelines, such as:

Burgis said the district maps should be updated on the district website on the district website by early December.

MORE NEWS: Owners of San Francisco’s popular New Delhi restaurant hopeful despite pandemic

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American City Business Journals

Walgreens Closes 5 More SF Stores Citing “Organized Retail Crime”

Walgreens plans to close another five locations in San Francisco for “organized retail crime” by the end of next month, a spokesman for drugstore chain SFGate said Tuesday. Walgreens closings have become a focal point in the retail crime discussions in San Francisco as the retailer has closed at least 10 stores here since early 2019 and some locations are losing up to $ 1,000 a day in stolen goods. Brazen shoplifting incidents in Walgreens, which went viral this summer, prompted Governor Gavin Newsom and recently the Mayor of San Francisco London Breed to dedicate more police resources to tackling organized retail theft.

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The biennial “Point in Time Count” of the homeless, normally held in January of odd years in San Francisco, is likely to be canceled or postponed this year amid concerns about frontline censuses and other contract COVID threats -19.

The census, mandated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for all American cities, requires hundreds of volunteers and takes place over one night. This counts the total number of people not accommodated on the streets of SF as well as in emergency shelters and prisons. The last census in 2019 showed a staggering increase in the homeless population in SF and Oakland, as well as many other locations on the west coast. Experts believe that more people may be counted this year due to the effects of the pandemic.

The SF Department of Public Health has urged the city not to conduct the census project at this time as the number of COVID cases and hospitalizations has been rising for about a month and the city continues to be under a stay at home order and a 10 p.m. curfew Non-patient stands. essential activities. And as the Chronicle reports, the Local Homeless Coordinating Board, which organizes every biennial census, has requested an exemption from the HUD to cancel this year’s census.

It is unclear whether the exemption would mean counting next January, later this year, or not until the next biennial cycle in 2023.

Other cities across California, including Los Angeles and San Diego, are also requesting exemptions due to the pandemic, and Seattle has reportedly already received one.

“The census has many moving parts and requires a large number of frontline workers as well as volunteers,” Kelley Cutler, a member of the Homeless Coordinating Board, told The Chronicle. “It’s just too risky to be.” take during a wave. “

And the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) adds that while a new set of numbers would be valuable from a political point of view, it could be difficult this year to find enough volunteers yourself to do an accurate count.

Critics of the homeless census have long claimed that it is a gross undercount, as it typically does not track those who are marginally hospitalized, fall on a friend’s floor or couch, or otherwise for the sake of them Census participants are not visible. The census process is usually a visual process, and volunteers don’t often knock on doors of occupied RVs or look into tents.

However, the count is a data set from apples to apples at a specific point in time that at least identifies trends. Total homelessness is a common feature in the media and in policy-making for the two years following its completion.

The 2019 census found 8,035 homeless people living within the SF city limits, an increase of 14% from 2017. A change in the number this year, in line with other cities and counties in the region, that excluded counting people in hospitals and prisons, meant the actual number may have been closer to 9,700.

As early as November, the HSH had the intention to conduct the census and had proposed to postpone it to the early hours of the morning (between 4 and 7 a.m.) in order to better record those who were definitely unprotected than those who were only on the census were street. The then co-ordinating body for homeless people voted for the count to be carried out as usual between 8 p.m. and midnight. Changing the hours could discourage volunteers and also result in a less accurate count as more people would be sleeping and less visible.

Homeless proponents say a census can still be achieved without wandering the streets on any given night. It uses numbers based on shelters, Safe Sleeping Villages, people seeking services in the city, and people temporarily staying in hotels. And this census could provide a more accurate picture of the immediate needs of the population.

Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

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