San Francisco is always losing its culture and smells like pee. This very strange article pitches neighboring Marin county as an affordable suburban retreat to new parents in their early 30s.
I have lived in Marin, and it is a very nice place but the article feels pretty odd.
The Marin Independent Journal:
The Doves are in their 30s, and have been married four years. They both grew up in big cities. She's from New York, and he's from the Bay Area. The city felt like home to them. Until it didn't.
"We saw an influx of petty crime, and a loss of the culture that made the city so great," she says. "Homeless encampments were growing because of the downturn in business. I no longer felt safe or welcome. All the things that kept us here ― the restaurants, nightlife, art scene, music ― were gone. The city became a ghost town."
That change, the need for space and the fact that she no longer had to commute to work led the Doves to do what many families who are able to work remotely ― those upended by the pandemic, and re-evaluating their lives ― across America have done: They left the city for suburbia.
In December, the Doves moved 18 miles north to a five-bedroom, 4,800-square-foot two-story house on a near-acre in Kentfield.
San Francisco is always 'losing its culture' when people turn 30. It is amazing!
Most 30 year-olds, however, don't have north of $5,000,000 on hand to buy a mansion when they start to notice The City's signature stench of urine. These two are big city experts tho.
My friends moved to Alameda, or Downtown LA.
The Dove family real estate agent shares recently closed properties that certainly suggest that 4,800 sqft is pretty expensive.
Unsurprisingly, people who lived in a condo are enjoying more outdoor space, however.
"Before we had no outdoor space at all. Now we have a pool. We're barbecuing, and love just being in the yard," she says. "My heart has really changed. I no longer have the stress of walking outside and worrying about who is around the corner."
McLaughlin, a top Bay Area Realtor and author of "Real Estate Rescue: How America Leaves Billions Behind in Residential Real Estate and How to Maximize Your Home's Value" (Mango Media, April 2020), says the Doves have plenty of company.
"Because of COVID, many adults had an opportunity to live somewhere else and work," McLaughlin says.
Many formerly office-based workers who temporarily moved out of cities during the pandemic found they liked where they went better than where they were, so they made the decision to pivot.
Pivot. It is the bay area.
Many companies are accommodating the change long-term. Once the pandemic lifts, for instance, Twitter is letting workers choose whether they want to work in the office, from home or a combination. Kristina Dove says she'll likely opt for the hybrid plan.
"Because we can take our laptops anywhere, that lets us work and live in places we never dreamed of," McLaughlin says. "If people can still earn what they did in the city, and enjoy some breathing room, they are not going back."
Before they do, she says, "cities will have to be clean and safe and beautiful for people to want to return, or they will remain blighted."
Cities have to be safe and clean or they will remain blighted is some wisdom alright.
My best guess as to what happened with this article is that the author has regurgitated advertorial for a wide spectrum of local papers. They interviewed a local realtor and got a story — but have no idea they describe $5,000,000 home transactions as something a wide range of young parents should be considering because San Francisco has lost its culture.
