Let’s see. You are required to pick up the poop from your dog in San Fran but……..

With the most required responsibility of a citizen being to clean up after their dog perhaps these citizens have been short sighted in abandoning children in preference of dogs. Maybe.

Maybe the streets being the shitty mess they are it was getting hard to potty train kids…..Kids copy people….even the homeless.

All I can say is that San Francisco is impossibly progressive.

When the plagues move in and the great die-off happens, then (after suitable remediation of the city by time, scavengers and hazmat teams) property values will fall, and families can afford to move in to SanFran.

Because that’s the real reason dogs outnumber kids. Dogs are cheap. Children aren’t. And those that live in the city can’t afford children after paying outrageous prices for dwellings, for cars, for food, for fuel.

Traditionally, the arrival of human sprouts signified the great upscaling of dwellings, thus assuring a steady supply of starter places, be they apartments or small homes. But now when a small apartment costs as much as a mcmansion in the freeUSA, there is little to no chance of moving into larger digs. Thus, no room for family. Thus… dogs, cats, fish, exotics.

Whatever version of Children and Family Services that exists in California and in SanFran would poop gold bricks if a family of 3 or 4 was found out to be living in a single room. Well, outside of whatever projects and ghettos, that is.

Economics. It always comes down to economics.

Drop the price of housing, and you’ll see more children. Increase the price of housing, you’ll see more pets.

Sure, the researchers will find 50 thousand ‘reasons’ to explain this phenomenon, but it all comes down to the price of housing/price of structures. It’s the reason so many don’t live in NYC but can afford a reasonable place outside the city and afford to commute in and out.

So simple no ‘experts’ see the answer, or are willing to say the answer.

Seriously, even with the homeless undead pooping and needling all over the place, if housing was affordable and available for moving up or down as needed, there would be more children.

Lack of affordable space (which leads to lack of space overall) also means that businesses can’t expand and stay in the area. To grow is to move out. Expanding businesses tend to hire the type of people that have children. Again, simple economics.

Without growth, either family or business, a place will die. Just like all the small towns killed by environmental regulations, or lack of resources (mining towns especially,) cities where it is too expensive to live, thus too expensive to have families in, will die.