We're expanding our coverage of aging in the Bay Area
It's not an issue that you've seen scrawled across headlines and social media, like crime, homelessness, immigration or artificial intelligence (though it intersects with some of those).
The 'doom loop'?
No. Well, not the one you're likely thinking of, anyway.
America is getting older fast, and experts say the rapid-aging trend is about to shift into overdrive. The ramifications of older demographics will rip through every part of society, placing unprecedented demands on housing, health care, education and social services.
As explained in the story we published today, this trend could be particularly pronounced in the Bay Area. 'Fueled by a pandemic-spurred exodus of young people and laws that motivate homeowners to stay, the region has aged faster over the past half-decade than any other major metro area,' write data editor Dan Kopf and reporter Roland Li.
The series was born when conversations in our newsroom about how the Bay Area was changing couldn't escape the gravity of this region's aging data. When Kopf and Transformation Editor Robert Morast would meet to forecast the future of San Francisco and the region, they kept returning to this massive demographic shift. It's been happening slowly, over decades, almost unnoticed, then accelerated during the pandemic, as many younger workers and families migrated out of the region. Seen as a whole, it pointed to undeniable effects on the region's economy, housing and cultural systems. And those changes aren't just happening here. The Bay Area may be the first crest of a massive wave that's about to wash over the entire nation.
In one neighborhood where the median age is 55, homeowners distilled their outlook on their homes to the same six words: 'Carry me out in a coffin.' But some report the once-vibrant area is now sleepy, less diverse, a shadow of its former self. And it faces hard questions about the local economy and what comes next. (To read our story about this neighborhood as soon as it publishes, check out our Morning Fix newsletter on Tuesday.)
We'll be publishing a new story every day this week on the aging of the Bay Area.
Today, we're jumping into the data that shows what areas in the region have aged the most and how San Francisco stacks up against other major cities. There's lots more to come.
And our coverage won't stop there: Two reporters in our newsroom, Erin Allday and Catherine Ho, have already begun covering not only the impacts of this demographic shift, but also issues that we hope will be especially relevant for an aging population.
Allday and Ho are both longtime reporters on the health beat at the Chronicle, writing about everything from research at the Bay Area's cutting-edge medical institutions and biotech companies to government policy to medical industry news to practical health and wellness tips. They plan to leverage their experience and sourcing to provide comprehensive coverage on aging in our region. We hope you'll keep following this important topic with us, and let us know what you'd like to see. You can track all of our coverage here.
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San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
This is San Francisco's widest sidewalk — by a lot
In a far corner of the sleepy Outer Richmond neighborhood in San Francisco, just blocks away from Lands End, a city oddity emerges — a 37-foot wide sidewalk. The stretch of pavement on Point Lobos Avenue is the widest in the city, nearly three times the size of the average residential sidewalk, according to a Chronicle analysis of sidewalk data from the city. That data has some limitations: Entire neighborhoods like Mission Bay and the Presidio weren't counted, and many street segments in the eastern half of the city are missing. Still, the Point Lobos Avenue sidewalk stands out even in a neighborhood with relatively wide sidewalks overall — it's large enough to easily walk five people abreast and still have room for passersby walking the other way. The residential buildings along the blocks, many of them built in the 1920s, offer plenty of room for cars to park in their driveways and still not come even close to encroaching on pedestrian space. It's almost large enough to park a standard size Muni bus. So how did that extraordinarily wide sidewalk come to be? It wasn't a masterplanned design choice or an experiment to increase pedestrian space. Instead, said Woody LaBounty, the president and CEO of SF Heritage, it was simply 'a quirk of maps.' In the early 1860s, long before the Richmond District as we know it came to be, Point Lobos Avenue, which began at what is now the intersection of Geary Boulevard and Presidio Avenue and ran towards the beach, was a privately owned toll road. It was a thoroughfare for people living in the then-developed eastern parts of the city to get to the beach, where they'd visit the Cliff House, said LaBounty, who is also the co-founder of history nonprofit the Western Neighborhoods Project. The road largely tracked in a straight line on what is now Geary, before veering northward at the tail end in order to avoid a hill, he said. When it was completed, Point Lobos Avenue was 110 feet wide, designed for horse-drawn carriages and omnibuses, according to the National Park Service, and a favorite racing road for horse drivers. But it was after that that the city was granted all the land on the west side of the Peninsula as part of the Outside Lands Agreement in 1866. With that, the city planned the grid system of streets over the sand dunes of the west side and got to developing. But the existing Point Lobos Avenue complicated that plan: Because the road ticked northward at the end, it didn't fit neatly into the grid, instead slicing through the neat rectangular lots, LaBounty explained. When property owners started developing those lots, they could only build up to their property lines, which were set far back due to the width of what was once the diagonal portion of the toll road. So, instead of leaving a 110 foot wide thoroughfare in the middle of a city block, the city just filled in the difference with sidewalks, LaBounty explained. Today, as people amble down Point Lobos Ave towards the beach, it's not hard to imagine a time when horse-drawn carriages ruled the road in the somewhat haphazard patchwork of shapes that make up the almost absurdly wide walkway. Though it's the widest residential sidewalk, Point Lobos Ave is not the only place in the city to take a very expansive stroll. Several other sidewalks throughout the city are 30 feet wide, and even more are at least 25 feet. On the other end of the spectrum, some residential sidewalks are as narrow as 3 or 4 feet wide, according to city data.
San Francisco Chronicle
14-07-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
We're expanding our coverage of aging in the Bay Area
The Chronicle launched a series today about what may become the most important force to shape life in the U.S. in the years ahead. It's not an issue that you've seen scrawled across headlines and social media, like crime, homelessness, immigration or artificial intelligence (though it intersects with some of those). The 'doom loop'? No. Well, not the one you're likely thinking of, anyway. America is getting older fast, and experts say the rapid-aging trend is about to shift into overdrive. The ramifications of older demographics will rip through every part of society, placing unprecedented demands on housing, health care, education and social services. As explained in the story we published today, this trend could be particularly pronounced in the Bay Area. 'Fueled by a pandemic-spurred exodus of young people and laws that motivate homeowners to stay, the region has aged faster over the past half-decade than any other major metro area,' write data editor Dan Kopf and reporter Roland Li. The series was born when conversations in our newsroom about how the Bay Area was changing couldn't escape the gravity of this region's aging data. When Kopf and Transformation Editor Robert Morast would meet to forecast the future of San Francisco and the region, they kept returning to this massive demographic shift. It's been happening slowly, over decades, almost unnoticed, then accelerated during the pandemic, as many younger workers and families migrated out of the region. Seen as a whole, it pointed to undeniable effects on the region's economy, housing and cultural systems. And those changes aren't just happening here. The Bay Area may be the first crest of a massive wave that's about to wash over the entire nation. In one neighborhood where the median age is 55, homeowners distilled their outlook on their homes to the same six words: 'Carry me out in a coffin.' But some report the once-vibrant area is now sleepy, less diverse, a shadow of its former self. And it faces hard questions about the local economy and what comes next. (To read our story about this neighborhood as soon as it publishes, check out our Morning Fix newsletter on Tuesday.) We'll be publishing a new story every day this week on the aging of the Bay Area. Today, we're jumping into the data that shows what areas in the region have aged the most and how San Francisco stacks up against other major cities. There's lots more to come. And our coverage won't stop there: Two reporters in our newsroom, Erin Allday and Catherine Ho, have already begun covering not only the impacts of this demographic shift, but also issues that we hope will be especially relevant for an aging population. Allday and Ho are both longtime reporters on the health beat at the Chronicle, writing about everything from research at the Bay Area's cutting-edge medical institutions and biotech companies to government policy to medical industry news to practical health and wellness tips. They plan to leverage their experience and sourcing to provide comprehensive coverage on aging in our region. We hope you'll keep following this important topic with us, and let us know what you'd like to see. You can track all of our coverage here.
San Francisco Chronicle
03-07-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
California, four other Western states launch probe into underinsurance following Chronicle investigation
A coalition of five states is investigating underinsurance among wildfire survivors after years of costly megablazes across the West, most recently in Los Angeles, and in the wake of a San Francisco Chronicle investigation that laid bare the depth of the issue. The states' goals are to share data and explore the possibility of either a national law or state-based regulatory reforms to address underinsurance, Lara told the state Assembly Insurance Committee at a Wednesday hearing. The group includes representatives from New Mexico, Colorado, Oregon and Washington state. It will also explore what types of information regulators could collect from insurance companies to determine how many people might be underinsured. 'We are gathering data and building our understanding of insurance gaps and how to reduce the prevalence of policyholders being underinsured after severe fire, something that all these states and their consumers have experienced after their fires,' Lara said. Underinsurance refers to the phenomenon where a policyholder's coverage limit — the maximum amount their policy will pay out — falls short of the total cost of rebuilding their home. While some people may choose to underinsure their home, studies show most policyholders believe they are fully insured and want to be adequately covered in the event of a disaster that destroys their dwelling. The Chronicle's investigation found that, for decades, insurance companies have relied on faulty algorithms to estimate how much their customers' homes would cost to rebuild from the ground up, then used those flawed figures to set policy limits for their customers. The most common tool, 360Value, is used by insurers representing at least 40% of California policyholders as well as across the country. Millions of homeowners across California are likely underinsured due in large part to the widespread adoption of these tools, which insurance agents often over-rely on and do not fill out carefully, the Chronicle investigation found. The Chronicle also found that nearly every state in the coalition had identified widespread underinsurance following at least one wildfire. In Colorado, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder estimated that three-quarters of Marshall Fire survivors were underinsured; more than a third of those had policies that were short by 25% or more. It is the fifth time Lara has appeared before the committee since his Sustainable Insurance Strategy, a package of reforms aimed at making insurance more available, was announced more than a year ago. Assembly Member Dawn Addis, citing the Chronicle's reporting, asked Lara how he would make certain that insurance was both available and sufficient to protect policyholders against disaster. 'My big concern around underinsurance is right now we're having the very important conversation around can people get insurance or not. My big fear, and what I've heard from folks on the Central Coast is, I can get insurance but it's simply not enough insurance,' Addis told Lara. "That's part of our investigation,' Lara replied. He encouraged any consumers who have found out they're underinsured to submit a complaint to the California Department of Insurance to be used in the investigation. In response to the Chronicle's findings, California also began collaborating with researchers with the RAND Corporation and Ken Klein, a professor of law at California Western School of Law, to explore what data could be used to study underinsurance. After the hearing, Addis told the Chronicle she is encouraged to hear multiple states are looking into the issue but also concerned at how widespread underinsurance is across the West. 'To me it's a compelling reason to bring statewide legislation forward, the sooner the better. We know we're going to have more disasters. It's a piece we absolutely need to have our arms wrapped around as we try to stabilize the market,' Addis said. The coalition's formation is the latest in a series of actions taken in response to the Chronicle's reporting on underinsurance. In May, the California Board of Equalization — the state's agency tasked with property tax oversight — held an informational hearing into underinsurance inspired by the Chronicle's investigation. It then issued a slate of recommendations for potential regulatory or legislative action, including requiring insurance companies to provide stronger warnings to customers that their recommended coverage limits may not fully cover the cost of rebuilding. Plaintiffs attorneys have also filed major lawsuits against at least four insurance companies on behalf of underinsured policyholders in Altadena and Pacific Palisades. Many of the plaintiffs in these lawsuits had homeowners' policies that underestimated their rebuilding costs by $1 million or more. Lara said members of the nascent coalition had been meeting for several months prior to the announcement.
