San Francisco is the most dynamic, captivating city in the world. And I’ve been around. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve met some cities with which I’d love to spend a long weekend – or even have a full-on summer tryst – but I’ll always come back to my true love, San Francisco. So even as I approach 40, young at heart and old at liver, I’m raising my three-year-old son, Jack, in a city many people flee from once they start a family.
As the founder of Inner Circle Labs, I love exposing Jack to the smart, forward-thinking founders and chief executive officers that come through our doors. With this point of view, he’ll be the one experiencing new innovations before the world decides which technology is worthwhile enough to go mainstream. He’ll be in the center of the magic and the mess; doesn’t that make life more fun?
Does it mean he’ll hear more f-bombs as we walk the streets than he would in the ‘burbs? Sure. But it also means he’ll be exposed to a diverse set of socially-minded, creative people who are pushing to make the world a better – or at least more interesting – place.
Beyond all of that, which is a huge part of my choice to raise Jack on Arkansas Street, let’s not forget the most important people in creating a happy, well-rounded child: their parents. My partner, Jon, and I are better, more generous, savvier, more culturally aware and ultimately much happier ourselves for continuing to live in this beautiful city. I can’t even imagine how it’d damage his perspective if he got the feeling that we’d left our dream environment and moved to the ‘burbs just because we had a kid. Perhaps children of these tract-home-buying, boxed-wine-drinking automatons have no idea that the soul-sucking that happened to their once young and alive parents was at their hands. But maybe they do… and that’s just not a risk I’m willing to take.
“Why I Choose to Raise My Family in San Francisco” is the brainchild of the Potrero Residents Education Fund, a nonprofit committed to helping create a stronger, more vibrant San Francisco by ensuring that families from a diversity of income levels raise their children in the City. Submit your reasons to editor@potreroview.net.
