Concerned families, teachers, and community members packed the house at the San Jose Unified School District’s community meeting Tuesday evening after receiving news last week that up to a third of its elementary schools may be shuttered due to a 20 percent drop in enrollment.

As Bay Area News Group reports, the San Jose Unified School District created a “Schools of Tomorrow” committee last fall consisting of parents, district staff, school employees, and educators to come up with a plan to address the loss of almost 6,000 enrolled elementary school students since 2017. As KTVU reports, the committee will be considering school sizes, programming, and staffing when weighing its decision, which could include the closure of up to nine schools, consolidations, or boundary changes.

Per Bay Area News Group, more than 250 attendees showed up in person at the San Jose Unified School District office Tuesday evening, filling the meeting and overflow rooms to capacity with some gathering outside the building, along with 1,000 additional people attending the virtual livestream. Parents were reportedly given three options to consider Tuesday, which consisted of differing choices regarding which schools would be closed or consolidated.

Parents said they were reeling at the news of the potential closures, which they just received last week. “Our parents are shocked,” Williams Elementary parent Heather Kangarloo said, speaking to NBC Bay Area. “We found out about this almost one week ago.”

Teachers were reportedly notified at the same time as parents. “We only heard of it just a week ago, even the teachers,” said parent and teacher Sharilyn Smyth, per KTVU. “We heard at the same time as the parents did.”

Bay Area News Group reports that many of the attendees at Tuesday’s meeting were parents and teachers from Simonds Elementary School, Williams Elementary School, and Los Alamitos Elementary School, which are the three locations most affected by the new plan. Parents expressed concern over longer school commutes, poorer academic performance, and childcare challenges.

"We don’t want to have more displacement in our neighborhoods," one parent told the committee, per KTVU. "We are already facing a very difficult time. We’re struggling with different things, fear, and it’s something that our kids don’t need anymore."

Per Bay Area News Group, another parent from Williams Elementary School said that about 200 families from Williams have said they’ll likely transfer to another district if the school is closed.

“Our analysis shows that options two and three would displace more than 1,000 students … and move more students into lower performing schools than into higher performing schools,” Ghandikota said, per Bay Area News Group. “That’s not just disruptive. It’s directionally wrong.”

Another parent said the district is likely planning to rent out empty school sites to charter schools. "Closing schools should not be our first priority," said Reed Elementary School parent Angel Zimmer, speaking to NBC Bay Area. "We need to improve them. Once they combine schools, they're saying they’ll likely rent out those empty buildings to charter programs, which are then going to have new enrollment issues."

The committee ultimately voted Tuesday to consider a combination of two options while eliminating the third in order to prioritize special education programs and student transportation. The committee also voted to create a new option that would establish a single new school for students from all the closing schools instead of distributing them across the district.

The school district said in a statement that the committee will hold several public meetings over the next few weeks and “may discard options, modify options, and/or consider new options before developing its recommendation to the Board of Education.”

The next committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 24, and the board of education is expected to vote no later than March 12.

“I recognize that seeing a school’s name included in discussion about consolidation, attendance boundary changes, or relocation is deeply emotional,” said San Jose Unified Superintendent Nancy Albarrán, per KTVU. “We know families love their current schools. At the same time, we know that thoughtful school portfolio changes can help ensure strong, sustainable programs for both current and future students throughout the district, continuing our long-standing legacy of tackling challenges with a focus on what is best for our students.”

Image: Williams Elementary School/Facebook

San Francisco expanded an existing program this week launched by former mayor London Breed that now provides free or deeply discounted child care for two-thirds of SF families with children five and under, but due to lack of public awareness, most eligible families still don’t know it exists.

As SFist reported earlier this week, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced the city is expanding existing child care subsidies to include free child care for families with children five and under who are below 150% of the area median income (or $230,000 per year for a family of four), and families between 151% and 200% (less than $310,000 per year for a family of four) will qualify for a 50% reimbursement. Per an SFGov announcement, families can choose from a list of over 500 local child care programs, saving them tens of thousands of dollars a year.

“Families are being forced to make impossible choices — delaying having children, sacrificing savings, or leaving the communities they call home,” said Lurie, per KQED. “I will not let that be the future of San Francisco.”

“And we’re not going to take four years to roll this out,” Lurie added, per Mission Local. “We’re going to be the first major city in the nation to actually get this done.”

Per Mission Local, Lurie’s statements appeared to be directed toward New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who recently announced that NYC is providing universal child care to all NYC 2-year-olds with plans to expand to offering free child care for all children under five.

Lurie’s jab about a four-year roll-out is also notable, considering the current expansion has been on the books for seven to eight years when the program was first spearheaded by former SF Mayor London Breed through a 2018 commercial real estate tax measure, or “Baby Prop C.” As the SF Examiner reported in November, the original intention of the child care subsidy program was to eventually provide free child care to all San Francisco children under five regardless of income.

Per Mission Local, the program was first delayed by a lawsuit until officially launching in 2021, initially providing families below 85% of the area median income with free child care and households between 86% and 110% a 50% reimbursement. In 2024, Breed expanded eligibility during her final year in office, providing free child care to families under 110% of the area median income and a 50% reimbursement to households between 111% and 150%.

Despite Lurie taking credit for the latest expansion, the Examiner reported in its November article that reserve funds already earmarked for the current expansion had been sitting in the bank since the measure passed in 2018, amounting to nearly $500 million after accrued interest. Per the Examiner, local and state officials had been urging the city throughout 2025 to release the funds and expedite the expansion.

“Families earning 151-200% AMI receive no tuition credit whatsoever, despite being the explicit focus of the original 2018 ballot measure,” Yensing Sihapanya, chair of the San Francisco Child Care Planning and Advisory Council, told the Examiner in November. “There are families currently enrolled and paying full price in the 151-200% AMI range who could receive immediate financial relief through tuition-credit expansion.”

Norman Yee, former Board of Supervisors president and author of the Baby Prop C measure, had the same sentiment. “It’s bewildering to me why we are not serving 200% AMI,” Yee told the Examiner. “At this point there’s no excuse. We have to move quickly.”

Additionally, as KQED reports, the city has done little to raise awareness about the program since its launch in 2021. In 2024, only 200 families out of 29,000 eligible households enrolled, based on data from Wu Yee Children’s Services, the agency in charge of enrollment.

“That’s a comically low number,” SF Supervisor Stephen Sherill, who helped push for the current expansion, told KQED. “Does every pediatrician’s office know about this, and are they telling their patients? Does everyone who leaves the maternity ward in San Francisco get information about this?”

“When a family signs up online for a [child care] slot, are they informed of this subsidy?” Sherill continued, per KQED. “If not enough people take advantage, then what is the point of this program?”

Here’s an idea — the city could utilize some of the accrued interest from the $500 million in reserved funds for a full-fledged community awareness campaign.

Readers, now’s your chance to provide young parents with some unsolicited advice that they might actually appreciate.

Image: Daniel Lurie/X

Related: Yes, London Breed Is a Little Bitter That Lurie Is Getting Credit For Things She Started

Daniel Lurie Gives His First State of the City Address, Says 'People Are Proud to Live Here Again'

• A teenager was shot multiple times in the lower leg while playing basketball in Santa Rosa Friday evening by a group of teens who asked if he was in a gang. Three teens were arrested, and police are searching for additional suspects who fled in a 2022 Buick SUV registered in Santa Rosa. [KRON4]
• San Ramon experienced two more earthquakes Saturday, the first was a 2.9 magnitude at around 8:10 pm, and the second struck around 8:20 pm with a 2.8 magnitude. [NBC Bay Area]
• The family of Juanetta Jones, who’s in critical condition after her neck was broken in a hit-and-run collision at 85th Avenue and International Boulevard in Oakland on December 30, is demanding that police catch the perpetrator of the crash, and they’re raising funds for her recovery. [KTVU]

• Over 500 tons of Christmas trees were picked up during the first two weeks of January from San Francisco sidewalks by a dedicated team of Recology workers. [NBC Bay Area]

• An adopted shelter pup named Foggy will be representing San Francisco SPCA in this year’s Puppy Bowl, which airs at 11 am February 8, on Super Bowl Sunday, on Animal Planet. [KRON4]
• Check out some great aerial footage of Saturday’s ICE protest outside the Tesla showroom at Van Ness and O'Farrell. [Thurber Shots/Facebook]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

A mass gang-related shooting occurred at a child’s birthday party in the Central Valley just north of Stockton Saturday evening, killing four people — including 3 children — and injuring 11 others. There are reportedly multiple suspects.

Update: Per Sacramento's Fox40, a total of 15 victims were shot, and the four who died were ages 8, 9, 14, and 21. Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi confirmed the shooting was gang-related.

Update 2: Per the Chronicle, the gathering consisted of 100 to 150 people. Multiple suspects reportedly began shooting inside the banquet hall and continued shooting as they made their way outside. At least one of the surviving victims is in critical condition.

As KTVU reports, the shooting happened just before 6 pm Saturday at a banquet hall on the 1900 block of Lucile Avenue in San Joaquin County, north of Stockton, in a suspected targeted incident, per KGO. In an announcement, Stockton Vice Mayor Jason Lee initially referred to the incident as taking place at an ice cream shop, but authorities later clarified it happened near a Dairy Queen and other businesses, per Bay Area News Group.

“A birthday party should never be a place where families fear for their lives,” Vice Mayor Lee said, per Bay Area News Group. “Violence touched my life as a young person, and seeing our own children, parents and neighbors go through this shakes me deeply. Stockton is my home. These are our families. This is our community.”

Heather Brent, a spokesperson for the San Joaquin County sheriff’s office, confirmed that both children and adults had been shot.

“This is a very active and ongoing investigation, and information remains limited,” San Joaquin County Sheriff’s officials said on social media Saturday night. “Early indications suggest this may be a targeted incident, and investigators are exploring all possibilities. Detectives are actively working to determine the circumstances leading up to this tragedy.”

Per Sacramento’s KCRA, the suspect remains at large. The Stockton Police Department, Manteca Police Department, and the FBI are also investigating.

Image: gorodenkoff/Getty Images

An outdoor enthusiast from Colorado recently reached the top of Yosemite’s El Capitan with his eight-year-old son, and he did the same with his oldest son two years earlier. This time, he brought a documentary film crew, and some worry he’s endangering his kids’ lives for recognition.

As the Chronicle reports, eight-year-old Sylvan Lightyear Evermore made it to the top of El Capitan at Yosemite National Park with his father Joe Evermore late Friday night. The ascent took place over a weeklong trip — via rope ascent using special hand clamps as opposed to traditional rock climbing. This likely makes Sylvan one of only a handful of kids under the age of 12 to accomplish such a feat, along with his older brother Sam two years prior.

In 2023, Sam also successfully finished the same ascent, with Evermore (who changed his name from Baker, and clearly likes colorful names) touting him as a “world-class climber” in interviews with news outlets such as CNN, ABC, and NBC, per the Chronicle. This led CNN to title its article, “8-year-old boy becomes youngest person to climb California’s El Capitan,” but as the Chronicle notes, there is no official record-keeping of this sort.

Critics said this claim was misleading because no real climbing takes place with a rope ascent, which entails fixed ropes and ascender clamps, or “jugs,” which are laid out by actual climbers and anchored in place beforehand in order to safely guide the person along and keep them secure, per the Chronicle.

Regardless of the nomenclature, many in the community also worry about the wellbeing of Evermore’s children, as he also has two younger sons. Tom Evans, who documents climbers’ progress on the mountain three months out of the year, called the 2023 ascent “a publicity hoax” and even confronted Evermore prior to the trip.

“He said, ‘What’s the problem?’ And I said, ‘The whole media presentation needs to stop. I know there’s no way your son suggested getting this record. This is about you,’” Evans told the Chronicle at the time. “He said, ‘It’s not about the record, it’s about spending time with my son.’ I said, ‘Why all the publicity then?’”

Regarding Evermore’s recent trip with Sylvan, Evans reportedly said on Facebook, “This scam is just for publicity and making $$$ for the family.”

Ken Yager, founder and president of the nonprofit Yosemite Climbing Association, found the scenario potentially dangerous. “I can say personally that this obsession with records is kind of dangerous. That’s the wrong reason to climb,” he told the Chronicle. “Also, it takes away from the integrity of the sport, in a way. When it becomes a big media thing, I’m not a fan of it.”

Tommy Caldwell, a free climber, told the paper he found it “cringeworthy.” “Theoretically I could have put (my son) in a haul bag when he was 1 year old and gotten him up there.”

The second time around, per the Chronicle, Evermore strictly referred to the expedition as a rope ascent rather than a “climb.” He also brought along a documentary film crew with the aim of promoting his parenting philosophy, which focuses on how to help boys “develop into men through hardship and affliction.” Per the Chronicle, Evermore has raised over $450,000 online to finance the feature-length documentary film.

“In our culture, our system, we have dads who sit back on the couch and watch football and aren’t really engaged,” Evermore told the Chronicle. “I want to wake those guys up and get them doing something rad with their kids.””

Contrary to what the rest of the climbing community thinks of Evermore, Hans Florine, who tracks speed-climbing records on El Capitan, thinks Evermore’s stunts are harmless. “It’s a natural progression for our sport. You can’t get upset about this stuff,” he told the Chronicle.

“I’ve jugged the whole thing many times — it’s crazy-hard for an adult,” he continued. “If they are being honest about what they’re doing, I think it’s great.”

Nevertheless, the senior Evermore's steadfast pursuit of recognition brings to mind the tragic story of Jessica Dubroff, the 7-year-old child pilot from Pescadero who died in a 1996 plane crash, along with her father and flight instructor. Dubroff was attempting to become the youngest person to fly across the United States — a journey heavily promoted by her parents and the media, as reported by SFGate.

Image: Little Mountain 5/Wikimedia

Chris Hansen’s upcoming documentary Predators will investigate Roblox, the popular game-making tool accused of enabling the exploitation of underage users. The company is also being sued by the state of Louisiana.

On the heels of a report exposing Meta’s policy that allowed its chatbots to pursue children “romantically or sensually,” leading to an investigative probe by Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, as reported by SFist, San Mateo-based Roblox is facing both a lawsuit by the attorney general of Louisiana and a documentary investigation.

As FandomWire reports, former To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen announced he'll be pursuing the Roblox investigation through his online streaming network TruBlu after YouTuber Michael Schlep posted viral “predator-catching” videos, which led to six confirmed arrests and shed light on egregious negligence by the company.

As AV Club reports, Roblox has since begun retaliating against Schlep and other so-called vigilante users, banning and sending them cease and desist letters. The company also updated its Terms of Service to target vigilante groups. FandomWire notes that Schlep’s motivation for pursuing the case stems from his own experience as an underage victim of a prominent Roblox developer.

As the Washington Post reports, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced Thursday that she filed a lawsuit against the company, saying its lack of safety protocols make it “the perfect place for pedophiles.”

According to the Washington Post, the lawsuit states that sexually explicit content, such as “Escape to Epstein Island,” “Diddy Party,” and “Public Bathroom Simulator Vibe,” is hosted alongside the many age-appropriate activities on the platform.

“Due to Roblox’s lack of safety protocols, it endangers the safety of the children of Louisiana. Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritizes user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety,” Murrill said in a statement. “Every parent should be aware of the clear and present danger posed to their children by Roblox so they can prevent the unthinkable from ever happening in their own home.”

Murrill’s statement says that a recent report exposed 3,334 members who “openly traded child pornography and solicited sexual acts from minors.” The statement also highlights a recent arrest in Livingston Parish, Louisiana involving a suspect who used voice-altering technology to make his voice sound like a young girl, allegedly to lure users off the platform.

The Washington Post adds that in May, a 28-year-old Maryland man pleaded guilty to producing child pornography after prosecutors say he coerced more than 100 underage girls on Roblox and other popular platforms into sending him sexually explicit content of themselves.

The Post writes that there have also been several other lawsuits filed against Roblox in recent months. A California father whose 10-year-old daughter was allegedly kidnapped by a 27-year-old man on the platform filed a suit last week, and the law firm Dolman Law Group has filed lawsuits on behalf of families in Texas, Michigan, Georgia, and California, alleging their children were sexually exploited while playing Roblox.

“It’s basically open season for sex predators on this app,” Attorney General Murrill said at a news conference on Thursday, as reported by outlet WBRZ. “At the end of the day, I think Roblox should be shut down.”

Additionally, Representative Ro Khanna (D-California) launched a petition pressuring Roblox to increase its safety protocols. “Roblox is at a crossroads,” the petition states. “We’re not going to stand by while kids are exploited online, and powerful tech companies can do more to stop it.”

Image: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Samsung

Previously: Meta’s Policy Allowing Bots to Engage in ‘Romantic or Sensual’ Talk With Kids Prompts Senate Investigation

Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) announced Friday that he’s investigating Meta after it was discovered that the company’s policies allowed its AI chatbots to interact with children in a “romantic or sensual” manner.

As reported by Reuters on Thursday, an internal document describing Meta’s policies — verified by Meta as being authentic, allowed for its chatbots to “‘engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,’ generate false medical information and help users argue that Black people are ‘dumber than white people.’”

As Reuters notes, the document goes on to creepily describe just how “romantic or sensual” the chatbots can get. “It is acceptable to describe a child in terms that evidence their attractiveness” the document states, including telling an eight-year-old, “every inch of you is a masterpiece — a treasure I cherish deeply.”

The policy then goes on to limit “sexy talk.” “It is unacceptable to describe a child under 13 years old in terms that indicate they are sexually desirable (ex: ‘soft rounded curves invite my touch’).” Reuters says Meta updated the above portions of the policy earlier this month after the publication questioned them.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company is currently revising the document and the passages should’ve never been allowed.

“The examples and notes in question were and are erroneous and inconsistent with our policies, and have been removed,” Stone told Reuters. “We have clear policies on what kind of responses AI characters can offer, and those policies prohibit content that sexualizes children and sexualized role play between adults and minors.” Stone then went on to acknowledge that the company’s enforcement of the policy was inconsistent.

As CNBC reports, Senator Hawley, who's chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, ordered Meta to hand over internal and external records on its AI content policies, safety risks, related products, staff decision-making, and communications about child safety by September 19.

“Is there anything - ANYTHING - Big Tech won’t do for a quick buck?” Hawley said on X.

“We intend to learn who approved these policies, how long they were in effect, and what Meta has done to stop this conduct going forward,” Hawley wrote.

As Bay Area News Group reports, Representative Kevin Mullin of the 15th Congressional district, which includes Meta’s headquarters, said the findings are “disturbing and totally unacceptable,” and “yet another concerning example of the lack of transparency” in the tech industry.

As Reuters reports, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) said that generative AI chatbots should not be protected under Section 230, a law that prevents internet companies from being held liable for users’ content. "Meta and Zuckerberg should be held fully responsible for any harm these bots cause,” he said.

Reuters also notes that in July, the Senate voted 99-1 to eliminate a provision in the “big beautiful” bill that would’ve prevented states from passing AI regulations — a move widely seen as a win for safeguards. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont), said Reuters’s report "shows how critical safeguards are for AI — especially when the health and safety of kids is at risk."

Image: selimaksan/Getty Images

There's tempest in a pint glass brewing over pint-sized patrons being brought to breweries and taprooms, as a social media flare-up reignites the debate over parents who bring their kids into drinking establishments where minors are legally allowed.

It is not uncommon to see Skee-ball, Jenga, and other games at San Francisco bars, which can largely be attributed to how San Francisco is full of Peter Pan types who never grow up. But some taprooms and breweries use these games to actively woo the parent-and-kids patron class. And there is nothing illegal about this — a California Type 47 ot Type 75 liquor license classifies an establishment as an “Eating Place” or a "Brewpub-Restaurant," and you are absolutely allowed to bring kids there, just as you can bring children into an Applebee’s that serves Dollaritas.

Though this has become a point of contention in the craft beer community, as many beer snobs and/or drunks just don’t want kids around during their drinking experience. The tweet below has brought this discourse back into the conversation, and the Chronicle reports on the reignited debate over whether kids should be brought to breweries, with some arguing that the taprooms are becoming too kid-friendly.  

“STOP BRINGING YOUR KIDS TO BREWERIES IM TRYING TO RELAX,” says the post from @tapptastical (which is not a particularly beer-focused Twitter account), and it’s racked up 3.5 million views as of press time. The 1,100 quote-tweets are a pretty fair mix of pro-kids and no-kids responses. But toddlers in bars and restaurants have been a contentious issue in SF for years, likely because the adult population here skews so strongly toward people without children.

And really, taprooms are uniquely well-suited for bringing the kiddos. They’re large, spread-out spaces, often with many outdoor tables, and menus full of kid-friendly items like cheeseburgers and pizza. Many taprooms have even chosen to install games and features that can occupy children while their parents drink. As Bernal Heights’ Barebottle Brewing Company co-owner Lester Koga quipped to the Chronicle, “When we opened, people would call us Babybottle.”

And Koga defends how parents pack the joint with their wee ones. “That’s what at its core makes brewery taprooms great — they’re meeting places,” he added. “You’re not going there to get plastered and find somebody to hook up with. It’s an environment that feels safe for your kids.”

Not to mention, brewery taprooms tend to be open during the daytime — which is nice when everybody needs to be home and tucked in by 7 pm.

There is also the simple economics of how a four-top party with two kids is probably just going to spend more money than some individual beer nerd, or two of them on a date. And in these “people don’t go out anymore” days, families may be a more financially reliable demographic than the childless.

We see this in the Mission District’s Monk’s Kettle announcing their move to Rockridge. The craft beer crowd is aging, becoming more likely to have kids and live in the suburbs, while the younger generation seems to prefer White Claws and other seltzer drinks, and not procreating.

And to those who can’t stand kids being around, there's no shortage of options to drink at bars that do not serve food, or allow minors inside.

Related: Zazie Owner Vents Frustration About Small Children In Restaurants [SFist]

Image: Xinyu L. via Yelp

San Francisco’s “More dogs than kids” stereotype just bought a few more years of relevance, as Census numbers confirm a still-declining family population, and only Bayview, Presidio, and Sea Cliff have more than 20% of their populations under 18.

SFist and the broader national media have never shied away from discussing how San Francisco has the lowest percentage of families with kids under 18 of any major U.S. city, which is to say, we are America's most childless city. The Chronicle took stock of this again with the first batch of 2020 Census numbers last August, finding we were still at a national low of 13% of the population 18 and under in 2020, down from 13.4% in 2010, and a high of 16% in the 1990s.

The Chronicle has updated those numbers with the latest Census revisions. We’re still at just 13%, but their new analysis breaks down the population density of kids by neighborhood with some surprising findings (as seen below, darker blue means more kids, lighter blue means fewer).    

As observed above, the Tenderloin does not have the highest concentration of kids in the city, as has often been believed. (The Castro actually has a higher percentage of kids under 18!)  By raw numbers or by percentages, the Tenderloin is not in the top ten for the population of children.

The highest percentage of kids can be found in Sea Cliff, but that’s a tiny-population anomaly (just over 500 kids and teens in total). Bayview (21.1% under 18) has nearly 10,000 kids and comes in second. The Presidio is third, but again, very small, sample size, and Visitacion Valley is a real kids' neighborhood with about 19.5% under 18, followed by Glean Park at 18.2%.

The lowest percentage of kids can be found in Lincoln Park (again, negligible population size), but just mid-single digit percentages of kids are found in other relatively childless neighborhoods of McLaren Park (4% under 18), Nob Hill (5.2%), and Japantown (6.6%).

We can argue whether this is about housing affordability, percentage of LGBTQ population, or the prohibitive cost of having kids these days (it’s likely all three). But the downward trend in the SF children’s population is certainly going to continue. Per the Chronicle, “it’s likely that the youth populations of these neighborhoods will drop even more in the coming decade.”

Related: San Francisco Only Got More Childless In the Last Decade [SFist]

Image: @usa4 via Twitter

Zuckerdad is a daddy again and all I can say is "wow!" On his carefully managed Facebook page — a crafty mix of self-adulation, general PR, and business thoughts maintained by 12 employees — the Facebook CEO announced that his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan is expecting the couple's second child. Their first, a girl named Max, was born in 2015.

"Priscilla and I are happy to share we're expecting another baby girl!" Zuckerberg wrote this morning, while also alluding to several miscarriages Chan had experienced before having Max, about which she spoke publicly in an effort to address the stigma that too frequently surrounds them.

"After our difficult experience having Max, we weren't sure what to expect or whether we'd be able to have another child. When Priscilla and I first found out she was pregnant again, our first hope was that the child would be healthy. My next hope was that it would be a girl. I cannot think of a greater gift than having a sister and I'm so happy Max and our new child will have each other."

Indeed, Zuckerberg leads us to believe that he and Chan are having a girl on purpose to celebrate women. Extremely generous!

I grew up with three sisters and they taught me to learn from smart, strong women. They weren't just my sisters but some of my best friends. They've gone on to write books, excel at performance, music, sports, cooking and their careers. They showed me how to compete and still laugh together afterwards.

Priscilla grew up with two sisters and they taught her the importance of family, caring for others and hard work. They supported each other as first generation college students and in their careers in medicine and business. They have so many inside jokes -- the kind only siblings can understand.

We are all better people because of the strong women in our lives -- sisters, mothers and friends. We can't wait to welcome our new little one and do our best to raise another strong woman.

Mark is 100 percent right. Women are so cool, in fact, that you can't even have a male child without one.

I do have one worry: When baby Max was born, Zuck wrote her a long letter about her bright future and announced he and Chan would donate 99 percent of their Facebook stock, the equivalent of $45 billion at the time, to charity. That eventually went to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is technically an LLC with a charitable focus. My question is, will Max's younger sister get equal treatment, or suffer the sad fate of most second children? I mean, what's Zuck gonna do for a grand gesture here — give away the remaining one percent of their stock?

Related: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Throws Money At Bay Area Housing Crisis

For most of the last two decades, San Francisco has been among the country's least age-diverse places, boasting one of the lowest concentration of families with children under 18 of any major US city. That figure, which hovered around 15 percent in the 2000s, is now estimated to be 13 percent, and the New York Times again takes up the topic, which some view as a kind of crisis about what the city's future looks like if we continue to have fewer and fewer kids among us.

There's also the argument for how we keep diverse types of housing, especially affordable housing, in San Francisco if so many people are co-habitating in roommate situations, effectively driving up market-rate rents for larger apartments because they are all wage earners in the prime of their lives paying separate rents — as opposed to families with children trying to survive on a maximum of two incomes, or just one. A new Planning Department report released just week found that just 30 percent of three-bedroom homes in the city are currently occupied by families, but it cautions that the trend of families leaving the city to move to the east and elsewhere as soon as they have school-age kids may reverse as Millennials who value urban amenities opt to stay put and raise kids here — even if that seems utterly unaffordable to many now.

The NYT notes that a recent figure on California as a whole shows the lowest birthrate, statewide, since the Great Depression, but cities without kids aren't necessarily cities we all want to live in. The paper talks to young couple Daisy Yeung, a high school teacher, and Slin Lee, who live in a studio apartment near the Castro with their small dog, and while they intend to have kids, they don't think they'll want to do it in the city.

Add to the unaffordability of housing the uneven quality of SF's public schools — itself arguably a product of there being so few middle class families — and the lack of backyards and places for kids to run free and safe, and the trend toward suburbia for SF families is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

As of the 2010 census, the trend showed a slight uptick in the number of children under 5 living in SF, probably just concurrent with population growth, but an outward migration of kids 5 to 18 over the previous decade.

The Planning report notes that the city has an opportunity in the coming decade to address the issue, but it will come with the acceptance that neighborhoods have to become more dense. "An astonishing 72% of the city’s privately owned parcels are zoned for single-family housing (RH-1) and two-unit housing (RH-2)," says the report. "This puts the burden of population growth on the remaining 28% of parcels, which already houses all of our businesses, institutions, and mixed-use housing." And thus you have a huge segment of the city's single population in their 20s and 30s who stick to a relatively small number of neighborhoods: the Mission, Castro, SoMa, Hayes Valley, Tenderloin, NoPa, and the Marina.

Note that in 1970, San Francisco was much closer to the national average in terms of children, with about 22 percent of the population under 18. These days, with us at 13 percent, New York City is the second lowest with 21 percent, and Chicago right at the national average of 23 percent.

At a current population of 865,000, we have 120,000 kids, and roughly the same number of dogs — i.e. half of our "childless" families do, indeed, have kids they have to walk on leashes.

Related: Residents Rejoice as Families Flee San Francisco

Police are seeking an Oakland mother after they allege that she used her child to help her shoplift from a Daly City Target, then left the child behind when she was caught.

Daly City police say that 34-year-old Oakland resident Rosalina Medina and her 11-year-old daughter were shopping at the Target store at the Serramonte Shopping Center (which is far superior to the one across the freeway in Colma, IMO) at around 10 a.m. on November 24. That's when, according to Target's security guards, they spotted the mother and child "concealing items in a shopping bag."

When store security collared Medina outside the store, she "told the officers they couldn’t arrest her daughter because she was only 11 years old," KRON4 reports, and told her daughter to "fight the officers and run."

Bay City News reports that "The girl bit one of the guards on the shoulder, and Medina left the store with her infant daughter and left the 11-year-old behind."

Since then, the 11-year-old had been in the custody of Daly City Child Protective services, as Medina remains at large as of Friday morning.

According to the Chron, not only will Medina face shoplifting accusations when she is found, she'll also be hit with charges for endangering the welfare of a minor.

If you have any information on the case, Daly City police ask that you contact them at (650) 991-8119 or the department’s anonymous tip line at (650) 873-AIMS, and refer to case Number 15010175.

San Francisco's long-had a reputation as a tough place to raise a kid — a five-second googling got me this anecdotal SF Gate report from 2004, a Bay Citizen piece on the issue from 2011, and a mixed bag of Facebook responses to NBC Bay Area in 2012 — with one of the chief complaints being the crushing expense of caring for a city kid. A recent survey from a caregiver information site does nothing to dispel that reputation, as it claims that there's no pricier place to hire a babysitter than San Francisco.

Care.com, a website that "provides information and tools to help care seekers and care providers connect and make informed decisions," reports that a survey of over 1,000 members as well as data from their own internal numbers put SF babysittters on top of the pay rankings, with a hourly average rate of $16.65.

San Jose is #2, at $15.63 an hour, they report. The national average is $13.50 an hour, the highest ever after a 28% increase over the last five years.

I don't have any kids for whom I must pay for care, but I have to say that I'm surprised that San Francisco's rate is that low! When I moved here in 1997, I worked for a loose babysitting consortium that eventually became Wondersitter. At the time, my hourly rate — admittedly, for clients based in many of San Francisco's tonier neighborhoods, (though as someone who'd just come here from the land of ginormious tract mansions, I thought most of their homes were pretty small and therefore the residents must be barely scraping by, ha ha shows what I knew) — was $15. Fast forward 18 years to 2015, and that same company's rate appears to include a $15 booking fee, plus rates between $20-$35 an hour. Those fees seem more in line with what caregivers I eavesdrop on in the park say they are making, and I'm not talking about Gavin Rossdale/Ben Affleck type nannies here.

But, like I said, I don't have a lot of current experience in the babysitting rates area. So I turn to you, dear commenters — I'm willing to believe that SF's child carers cost more than those anywhere else, but does a rate of $16.65 sound inaccurately high, too low, or just right? Enlighten us all, please!

The South of Market parking lot of the Hypnodrome is splattered with multiple pools of blood at 1 p.m. on a Monday. “You can see we did blood bags this morning,” says Russell Blackwood, camp director of Creepshow Camp, a two-week day camp program now in its tenth year of teaching horror and sci-fi performance skills to Bay Area youngsters. The Hypnodrome’s Creepshow Camp is where adorable tweens learn horror-show things like creepy monster make-up, sleight-of-hand, and stage combat from local theatrical notables like Leigh Crow.

Creepshow Camp is not an overnight camp, because that would just be tempting fate, piranhas, and Jason Voorhees a little too brazenly. Instead, it’s a day camp where the tykes are coached in the dark arts of horror performance and learn public speaking skills like memorizing scripts, enunciation, body language and improvisation. Camp is currently in session, but there are two more Creepshow Camp sessions with slots still available in late July and early August. The camp is the winner of SF Weekly’s Best of San Francisco Award as the Best Camp to Send Your Little Monsters (whose web page is accompanied with some not-so-well-targeted sidebar advertising).

The above-referenced “blood bags“ are one stage trick the kids learn, utilizing sandwich bags packed with fake blood and tied up tight so the blood “splurts” properly when broken. “I prefer to use real blood instead of blood bags, because authenticity,” says 14-year-old Creepshow Camp attendee Winston Louton. He is kidding, but he has learned to deliver that line like someone who’s been cast in a ‘teenage Hannibal Lecter’ prequel.

The kids get to learn proper horror make-up, costuming and how to fire up a fog machine. They also learn the theatrical techniques to create the illusions of gouging eyeballs with screwdrivers and smashing skulls with hammers. The finished product of these kids’ creepy camping will be Science, a whimsical musical tale of a homicide spree that plays this Friday at 2 p.m. at the Hypnodrome. “We don’t pull punches. It’ll be the goriest kids play you’ll ever see,” says the show’s (grown-up) writer and director Andy Wenger.

I hate to be that monster who posts spoilers online, but the finale of the show is the “Swamp Thing” musical number seen in the video below. “We made up new lyrics to it based on the story that the kids came up with,” said Leigh Crow, who’s just taught the kids how to block the number. “That was a fun first couple-day project, now we’ve moved into actually visualizing it.”

Creepshow Camp concludes its current session with a 2 p.m. public performance Friday afternoon at the Hypnodrome. Registration is still available for the next 2-week sessions, July 20-31 and August 3-14, also at the Hypnodrome.