EDITORIAL STATISTICALLY INSIGNIFICANT NEW LAW HAS PRODUCED LIMITED VALLEY DATA.TWO years ago, when the California Legislature approved a change requiring state agencies to recognize the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. as a separate entity in statistical reports, Valley leaders celebrated. Now, it seems, those celebrations were premature. Since then, the new designation has yielded only one set of data separating the Valley from the rest of L.A. -- a breakdown of retail sales. That's it. In part, this is because the law only applies to statistical reports that break down city by city, whereas most state agencies use ZIP codes zip code System of postal-zone codes (zip stands for “zone improvement plan”) introduced in the U.S. in 1963 to improve mail delivery and exploit electronic reading and sorting capabilities. . Yet part of the problem may also stem from state agencies that have simply disregarded the law. But the news isn't all bad. Following the change in state reporting, both the U.S. Census Bureau Noun 1. Census Bureau - the bureau of the Commerce Department responsible for taking the census; provides demographic information and analyses about the population of the United States Bureau of the Census and the Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, Association of Governments agreed to start treating the Valley as a separate statistical entity. That means future reports from these agencies will provide Valley leaders with useful data for long-term planning and applying for state and federal grants. As for the state agencies that may not be complying, local leaders should determine what the extent of the problem is, then lean on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (German pronunciation (IPA): [ˈaɐ̯nɔlt ˈaloɪ̯s ˈʃvaɐ̯ʦənˌʔɛɡɐ] to bring the bureaucracy into line. Perhaps Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio (Tony) Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872. , the state's former Assembly speaker, can wield some of his clout in Sacramento to see to it that the Valley gets the proper treatment that the law requires. Statistics might not be the sort of sexy issue that attracts politicians' attention, but numbers matter, especially for the Valley's future. |
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