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Why I Choose to Raise My Kids in San Francisco: Joan Meyer

Updated: May 23, 2023


When I moved to Potrero Hill in 2006, I was single and didn’t know that much about the

neighborhood other than Bottom of the Hill music venue and I certainly had no idea I would still be here 17 years later living happily with my husband Matt and two children Collin aged 10 and Audrey aged 8. Matt and I were both raised on the Peninsula where our parents still reside but we knew that we wanted to raise our kids in the City. We wanted them to grow up in a diverse, exciting place with exposure to the arts, food, culture, community and also expose them to real world issues to enable them to have empathy, compassion, understanding and life skills you just don’t get in the suburbs.


What we didn’t know was how lucky we were to be in Potrero Hill when we had children. We

were afforded all of those benefits of living in a large City with the comfort of living in a small town community. Hanging out at McKinley & Jackson Parks, attending Friends of Potrero

Preschool and the Spanish Immersion Program at Daniel Webster Elementary and utilizing the

incredible programs of SF Rec & Park have introduced us to so many other families in the

neighborhood and have given our kids the foundation and perspectives we wanted.


Events like the Bring Your Own Bigwheel Race, Potrero Hill Festival, Halloween and Piano on

the Hill are amazing opportunities for the kids to hang out with their friends and for parents to

connect with their neighbors. Even just walking down 18th or 20th Street on a typical day usually

ends up with us running into someone and stopping for a chat. Supporting local businesses is a

family affair. The kids love walking into Chiotras Grocery and being greeted by name as they

pick out an after school treat and we have had so many great experiences with neighborhood

restaurants treating our kids with patience when they were younger and now respecting them

as burgeoning foodies as they learn to order for themselves.


We have enjoyed becoming involved with our neighborhood. Matt has served on the Board of

the Starr King Open Space for the last five years working to maintain a neighborhood treasure.

Two of my favorite aspects of my career in real estate is that it affords me the ability to show off

our City to recent transplants and the ability to advise families on the many programs available

to help them buy homes to enable them to stay in the City and build equity. We try to show by example that San Francisco can be a wonderful place to raise kids and look forward to our family’s next phases of tweens and teens learning to make their own way in our City that truly has something for everyone.



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