Bright lights, big city ... and few kids

America's cities grew up as enclaves that harbored working families. In recent decades, some became neglected wastelands. Now they are again recasting themselves, this time as adult theme parks brimming with bistros, boutiques, and corner cafes. But while they're attracting a new urban elite, all the upper-class amenities are starting to crowd out families.

The urban evolution is most obvious, perhaps, in San Francisco: Restaurants here claim international renown, even as most public schools are seen as barely adequate. Then there's Seattle - home of the modern American coffee bar and a place where, more than any other US city, residents live alone.

The trend is most pronounced in these silicon capitals, yet its seeds spread much wider, observers say. At its heart is a tectonic sociological shift, as an unprecedented number of young, affluent people delay - or forgo - having children. That leaves more young people, with more disposable income, looking to live in a neighborhood with theaters showing Sartre and in houses gleaming with hardwood. In these emerging adult playgrounds, families have the means to stay, leaving cities effectively childless - and split between areas of extreme poverty and the expanding domain of the urbane and upwardly mobile.

"Cities will evolve differently because they will become more and more specialized as boutiques," says Joel Kotkin, author of "The New Geography." "The city will be a place people live for lifestyle reasons."

For the most part, that is already true in San Francisco, where 14.5 percent of residents are under 18 - the lowest figure of any major US city. Little about this city is practical or convenient for families. But its vistas, its theater and opera, and its array of every cuisine from Afghan palaw to Vietnamese pho make it a real-world Epcot Center, save the garish silver globe.

"It's a resort," says Kevin Starr, California's state librarian, who was born and raised in the city. "If I told you that Monte Carlo was losing children, would you be surprised?"

San Francisco has always been more single than the rest of the nation, and its relatively large homosexual population most likely plays some part in the low number of children. Most experts, though, are inclined to look at factors they see as more fundamental.

In recent decades, a town of bohemians tempered by stevedores, welders, sailors, and their families has become a town of bohemians amplified by the young and adventurous. The dotcom boom has only accelerated the situation. What's more, many of these newcomers are simply not interested in starting families. "I don't think there's ever been a case with so many people choosing to not have kids in times of prosperity," says Mr. Kotkin.

This is a worldwide phenomenon, he and others say, fueled by kids from divorced families afraid of commitment, women putting motherhood on hold for their careers, and couples simply not willing to make the financial sacrifice for a child, among other things.

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