KINDER TO CHILDREN L.A.-AREA GRADES ARE HIGHER IN NATIONAL QUALITY-OF-LIFE STUDY.Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer Despite smog, gangs and high dropout (1) On magnetic media, a bit that has lost its strength due to a surface defect or recording malfunction. If the bit is in an audio or video file, it might be detected by the error correction circuitry and either corrected or not, but if not, it is often not noticed by the human rates, greater Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. has become more ``kid-friendly'' thanks to declining teen pregnancy rates, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a national study released today. The report by the grass-roots organization Population Connection gave Los Angeles a B, up from a C in 2001, and Glendale earned an A, up from a B-minus. Cities were graded based on teen pregnancy, violent crime, high school graduation rates, access to family planning family planning Use of measures designed to regulate the number and spacing of children within a family, largely to curb population growth and ensure each family’s access to limited resources. and more. The report, which ranked 100 large U.S. cities, found the quality of life for children nationwide has generally improved over the past three years, largely because of falling teen pregnancies - which affect a host of other indicators. ``We generally find that in cities where there is a lot of births to teens, or lack of family planning, you begin to see a lot of other problems - bad air, toxics, inadequate parks - because all of those are problems based on the health of a city,'' said Peter H. Kostmayer Peter Houston Kostmayer (Born September 27, 1946) was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Peter H. Kostmayer was born in New York City, graduated from West Nottingham Academy in Colora, Maryland, in 1965, and received a B.A. , president of the Washington D.C.-based group. ``When teens have kids, quality of life goes down.'' Recent studies have shown that teen births have declined by about 40 percent over the past several years due to increased prevention, including birth control. The study, ``Kid-Friendly Cities Report Card 2004,'' ranked Los Angeles at No. 10 out of 20 major U.S. cities. In 2001, the city ranked 19 out of 25. Glendale ranked No. 6 out of 80 large cities in the report. In 2001, the city ranked 51 out of 74. Sigrunn Allen, 47, who is raising six kids in Glendale, gave the city a thumbs up. ``There's plenty of parks, they have a lot of family-oriented events, such as snow day, the Halloween Parade ... and cruise night.'' Population Connection bills itself as America's largest grass-roots group working to stabilize the population and educate people on the effects of rapid population growth. Its researchers used 16 indicators - from population density to curbside curb·side n. 1. The side of a pavement or street that is bordered by a curb. 2. A sidewalk. adj. Located, operating, or occurring at or along the sidewalk or curb: recycling - to rank cities based on government data. They generally found that America is becoming more kid-friendly, with safer streets, lower rates of teen pregnancy and better access to health care. At the top of the class of major cities were Seattle (A), Boston (A), San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. (A-), San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden (A-) and Minneapolis (A-). At the bottom were Miami (C+), and Phoenix, Detroit, and Cleveland, which all got Cs. But the report gave out no Ds or Fs. And while Los Angeles got B grades in population, health, education and community, the city has an 11 percent teenage birth rate, the national average. Also one third of adults lack a high school diploma A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED. and 28 percent of kids live in poverty, the report said. Glendale got As in all categories except education, which received a B. Despite the improvement in Los Angeles, Kostmayer said the city could do much better. ``In L.A., where two-thirds of the women don't have access to family planning, something's wrong,'' said the former congressman from Pennsylvania and a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and . Angelenos said that, despite the gangs and other urban problems, Los Angeles is great for children. ``L.A. is kid-friendly,'' said Marco Quezada, 41, standing with his wife and two daughters outside the Los Angeles Zoo The Los Angeles Zoo founded in 1966, is a large zoo located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Zoo, located in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, is home to 1,200 animals from around the world. . ``Everywhere you go, everyone's friendly toward kids. ``L.A. has plenty of places you can go where kids can spend time without spending much money.'' Dana Bartholomew, (818) 713-3730 dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos, box Photo: (1) Sousek Aziz pushes her daughter Maral, 4, on the swing at Verdugo Park in Glendale, rated a top kid-friendly city. (2) Agnes Sarkessian helps her son Derek onto playground equipment Tuesday at Verdugo Park in Glendale. Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer Box: HOW KID-FRIENDLY IS YOUR CITY? SOURCE: Population connection |
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