The author fundamentally misunderstands some of the economic drivers of family life in NYC. In Manhattan only 20% of households have children. This is not driv

The author fundamentally misunderstands some of the economic drivers of family life in NYC. In Manhattan only 20% of households have children. This is not driven by dreams of the suburbs or a love of mega-commutes but dollars. Even good New York public schools are highly competitive. Assuming you can afford an apartment in a neighborhood with a good public school, your child still needs to be able to test into the gifted and talented program to get a good education. The alternative is to spend 50K to send your child to private schools which are insanely competitive. Additionally, you have to have space for those children and adding a bedroom to your real estate holdings is at least a six if not seven figure proposition. Virtually all the people I know who have left the city have done so for at least one of these reasons. No one says, "Hey cool I get to move to Jersey and look forward to riding a bus into Port Authority". I have lived in Manhattan for 26 years and know that of which I speak. Can't say anything about the Bay area.