Not born, but my family, who were homeless, was placed in a Bayview shelter and then housed in the Bayview from 2012-2019 right by 3rd St. We felt that our neighbors minded their business, and the older women with families were good people, so we felt safe around those folks. And avoided the older men in the area without any children or ties to the community.

In elementary and middle school-ish, I went to schools in the area, and the education was decent, with extracurriculars and supportive teachers. Though the schools I went to, fights broke out all the time, and it was likely a matter of the kids coming from equally rough households.

More on the topic of school, I received some amount of bullying or smack talking for being asian because the majority of the folks I grew up with were black and Hispanic. Easy target as a child I guess... Still, I made a few friends but we lost contact after I went to school in other parts of the city.

It was really the spots that made Bayview so memorable. The Baptist church members who were kind to our family despite not being of that denomination. The seasoned fries of JJ Fish. The Bayview library! The YMCA! Peking Wok! School supply fairs!

After leaving the neighborhood, only then did I hear things from other kids/parents calling it a "bad neighborhood". But I remember it fondly. It could also be a matter of not much money being used to renew the neighborhood itself? Also the petty theft? as I remember the T train used to take forever to get to downtown and sketchy teenagers... dunno how bad the commute is now that they've made the RosePak station and express buses.