|
Married with children?
Richard Presicci, right, and his son Chris share a laugh at the baseball field. The Presiccis - white, two parents, middle class, three kids - represent a dwindling portion of the Rogue Valley's population, census data reveal. In the Rogue Valley, Ashland, home to the Presiccis, has seen the largest decline in married households with children under 17. The number of traditional two-parent families with kids has fallen across Oregon By JONEL ALECCIA White, middle-class and married, Elizabeth and Richard Presicci aren't used to thinking of themselves as minorities. But new local data from the U.S. Census suggest the parents of three should think again, especially because they're from Ashland. In that city, more than any other in Jackson County, the traditional family of married parents and their minor children has declined sharply during the last decade. The reasons may range from the aging of baby boomers to an acceptance of diversity to sky-high housing costs, but Elizabeth Presicci says the figures confirm what she already knew. "Sometimes we look at the school directory and the sports rosters and look at the lists of parents with two separate (phone) numbers," says Presicci, 45, a financial planner and mother of kids ages 15, 13 and 8. "There are so many couples who are no longer together." What the figures show is this: Between 1990 and 2000, the percentage of married couples and married couples with children under age 17 declined everywhere. In Oregon and in most parts of Jackson County, the drop was slight, with married couples continuing to make up more than half the population, and married couples with children under 17 amounting to just over 20 percent. But in Ashland, the percentage of married couples fell from nearly 43 percent in 1990 to less than 38 percent in 2000. At the same time, the percentage of married couples with kids under 17 fell from just over 18 percent to less than 15 percent in a decade. By contrast, that was twice the decline reported in Medford. For Elizabeth Presicci, who has been married 19 years to Richard, 50, a marketing consultant, the explanation lies more in the easy availability of divorce and less in the devaluation of marriage. "I think it is valued, but people might not understand that when they run into a glitch, they have to stick it out," she says. "When you're younger, it looks easy to have a good marriage and when you're in the midst of it, you realize you have to work things out." For sociologist Echo Fields, Ashland's family arrangements simply mirror social trends not found in Jackson County. "It's not so much the decline of the family, which is what some people would say," Fields observes. "We're just seeing older people moving in whose children have left, we're seeing people whose children have grown up and left home and we're probably seeing the blip of people who don't marry and live alone." Indeed, census data show Ashland has higher percentages than many surrounding cities of unmarried partners who live together, people living with nonrelatives and people living alone. At the same time, the population of baby boomers between the ages of 45 and 54 jumped to nearly 17 percent in 2000, up from 9.5 percent a decade earlier. But city observers say Ashland family living arrangements reflect shifts in data that census workers have not yet released: income and housing prices. Those figures are due out this summer. "I think it comes down to affordable housing," says Ashland Mayor Alan DeBoer. An extended stint on the city's school board warned him early of a decline in the number of families with school-age children, many of whom have moved to Talent or Phoenix, where prices are lower. "The expansion in Ashland has been the retirement communities," DeBoer said. "The cost of living has affected young families." Economics aside, no one's discounting the effect of inclusion on the latest census figures. In a city where it seems every third car urges bumper-watchers to "Honor Diversity," it rings true that traditional families might be a minority. "It makes more sense to compare Ashland to Eugene or Carmel or Santa Monica or Boulder," Fields says. "Ashland is not like any other community in many ways, including demographically." Still, Elizabeth Presicci believes that freedom is behind the multiple phone numbers on her kids' class lists. "Ashland is a very open, accepting place as far as alternative lifestyles and religions," she says. "Sometimes, if everything is so widely accepted, it's easy to use as an escape." Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail jaleccia@mailtribune.com |
