This Week in Noe Valley: More Housing, Green Streets and What to Do About Old People and Their Valuable Homes

The latest news from, about and for Noe Valley from around the interwebs:

• Giant ficus falls on a home on Dolores at Clipper and only the railing is hurt [SF Examiner]
• Noe Valley Garden Tour starts June 3, tickets on sale now [Friends of Noe Valley]
• The rare rotting rodent blooms of spring [@KristinHenry]
• Greening the neighborhood, one nook at a time [@Tint]
• Spotted: Star Wars street art [@adamephoto]
• Think parking protectionists are the worst? There’s a petition for that [@NeverSassyLaura]
• Noe Valley. Presented without comment. [@nickshearer]
• David Talbot: Old people of SF, your time is up [SF Chronicle]

[Photo: Alley via cmason4]

Stroller Files: Noe Strolls Disappears

From a reader:

Do you happen to know if the Noe Strolls group was recently disbanded? Their web site is inactive and the e-mail addresses I had on file for the group are bouncing back. My wife and I recently moved to the neighborhood and are due next week, and we were hoping to join. Just curious what the story was.

Anyone know? Have the organizers already moved to the 'burbs?

Overheard: 24th St Survival Guide

"Next time I come to Noe Valley I'm bringing a paddle ball. Maybe then the stroller b******* will move over."

The Noe Valley Stroller Menace (Oh Noes!)

The Chronicle cashed in on the (often) entitled Noe Valley stroller set today and the opinions are flying:

...the only reason why Noe gets a bad rap is that unlike most of SF, it actually has kids. I'll agree with other posters that the bigger problem in Noe is dog poop--and the lack of parking spaces at Whole Foods!

...I may not get run over by a stroller, but I swear spending time in Noe is like being somewhere similar to Fresno.

...I don't get the aggressive stroller thing. I am nothing but polite to these folks and am tired of the cell phone yapping meaness of stroller. So, do we look forward to yet another generation of clueness when sharing sharing sharing public space?

...Bad: attempting to drive through the intersection of Noe St & 24th St., baby strollers which nowadays are the size of small SUVs, & hearing the automated-recorded lady-voice on the 24 Divisadero bus pronounce any stop along Noe Street as "no"...

...Noe Valley snobs are nothing compared to the likes of the entitlted brats in the Marina...

...Noe Valley is sort of the Palo Alto of SF neighborhoods. It's cool days are long long behind, now appropriated by unimaginative yups who all paint their houses a tasteful beige.

While this bit from the Chron's post probably sums it up, there's truth in stereotypes:

Some people in love with Noe's centrality, its Victorian splendor, its low crime rate, its warmer micro-climate, its shopping and food, and overall family orientation might take comfort from these data. But it does seem like such people would still have to be doing better than the majority of San Franciscans, a city whose median income doesn't push $80K. Others of us then, forever shut out, will continue to complain (a little enviously-- let's be honest) about stroller accidents with bourgeois soccer moms.

And?

...While all of you hater posters have been ranting on Noe, my property value just shot up another 3%.

[SFGate: Noe Valley: only for strollers made of gold?]

Duh: Noe Valley Is Full Of Babies

It’s not your imagination: San Francisco (and especially Noe Valley) is in the midst of a baby boom, says an article today in the The San Jose Merc:

Births in the 94114 Zip code, which includes Noe Valley and the Castro, the historical center for San Francisco gay life, were about 50 percent higher in 2007 than in the mid-1990s.

Urban enclaves like Noe Valley and the Castro may sound like unlikely places for a baby boom. But they are at the vanguard of a national urban trend that, according to U.S. Census estimates, has given San Francisco its biggest brood of young children since the early 1970s.

Credit goes to creative types...:

The city has seen an influx of highly educated professionals, a "creative class," Adams said. "Like Seattle and San Francisco and the Bay Area, they care a lot about the sustainability and quality of life. That has attracted a lot of the younger, creative types who now are of childbearing age."

...and the Google bus(!):

With private commuter buses from Google and other Silicon Valley companies cruising Noe Valley to pick up tech workers each morning, Yenne says the tradition of working in a city and raising kids in the suburbs has flipped for some.

[SJM: San Francisco Sees Baby Boom]

Stroller Files: Stuff Parents Like

SFGates's The Mommy Files blog checked out Stuff White People Like and "it sparked an unoriginal idea to develop my own list poking fun at myself and the idealistic, inspired parents who I hang with in my urban Noe Valley neighborhood."

Some highlights:

• Pushing around overpriced strollers "If grandma hadn't given us the money for the Bugaboo, we never would have paid for it!"
• Dressing their babies in political onesies "My mama's for Obama!"
• Feeding their kids hummus "Trader Joe's organic is the best. Wyatt loves to dip jicama in it."
• Birthing at home "We're at least considering it."
• Choosing pediatricians who support alternative vaccination schedules "I know the MMR doesn't contain thimerosal but..."
• Teaching their children a second language "I speak Spanish to her and her dad speaks English and she goes to school in Mandarin. We might put her in French camp this summer because she said that she wants to learn French."
• Adopting a dog--and then having a kid "Our dog Spot really needed a friend and so we started trying."
  
• Giving birth later in life "I didn't think that I wanted kids...I'm just so glad the infertility treatments worked...and now we have twins!"

Readers? Got anything to add? In the comments, please.

[SFGate: The Mommy Files]

Stroller Parking: Noe Valley Farmer's Market

Yikes!