My early years were in the Bay Area and Sacramento and I shake my head at the things we did (late 80s). My girlfriend grew up in Santa Cruz and the things her and her siblings did, she never will let her daughter do. And it's less about helicopter parenting/etc and more about the addict/criminal element that has crept in to a good deal of the city. More freedom as they get older, but there are things I never had to deal with - rampant numbers of unstable individuals.