I used to think that we were all obsessed with sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. I was wrong; we’re obsessed with numbers. It’s official: quantity has won out over quality. We decide on what films to see based on how they’re doing at the box-office as the media dutifully reports to us each Monday rather than how good we think they are. We check the weekly TV ratings to see if what we watch is “in” or “out.” And if I have to hear one more “Top Ten” list of things that happened this year I’ll Deep Six the whole list! When opening for holiday shopping at 9:30 a.m. the other morning, the manager of the Costco at Roscoe Boulevard. and Canoga Avenue loudly declaimed to those in line, “I only have 93 Playstation 3s.” Pity the 94th mother in line. And then, of course, there’s sports. My New York friend John Goodman lives and dies based on where his beloved Red Sox are in the baseball standings. But I have to admit it was nice to see that it was their index fingers UCLA basketball fans were displaying last week, not another digit, to designate their number one standing. But some numbers really are important (OK, being the number-one basketball team in America is important). Dec. 7 is a date that, as President Roosevelt told us, “will live in infamy.” When it comes to World War II, that is certainly true, but when it comes to the Valley’s progress, it was a very good day indeed. It was the day that the U.S. Census Bureau, for the very first time, revealed statistics related to us. That’s right, we’re now a separate statistical district. Roughly, the nation’s newest statistical district is that portion of Los Angeles north of Mulholland Drive, plus the cities of San Fernando, Burbank, Glendale, Calabasas, and even a bit of county land. And those of us who have used the line, “If the Valley was a separate city, we’d be the sixth-largest in the nation,” now have to change it to “the fifth-largest in the nation.” Because with a population of 1.74 million, the San Fernando Valley is behind only New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. Based on the Census Bureau’s first look at the Valley, it is clear that this region has morphed dramatically from being a white, middle-class suburb of Los Angeles to a particularly diverse area. More than 40 percent of us are foreign-born. Diverse area According to the statistics released this month, 61.4 percent of the Valley is made up of white residents, 41.6 are Latino, 10.9 percent are Asian, and 4.3 percent are African-American. While that adds up to 118.2 percent, the Census Bureau explains that individuals could register under more than one category meaning that a whole lot of us identify ourselves as a member of more than one of the four groupings. How much more diverse could a community be? No longer merely a bedroom community for commuters who live here but work (that dreaded phrase) “over the hill,” the Valley is a job generator, and a potent and important one at that. Perhaps most surprising is how similar we are to the rest of the city. Yes, our median household income is higher than the rest of the city’s ($51,717 vs. $42,667); 52 percent of our resident are homeowners compared to the city’s 40 percent; and only(!) 12.9 percent of us are below the poverty level, compared to a shocking 20.1 percent in the city. But in most categories, there is great similarity. Result of secession The push for a separate census designation is a direct outgrowth of the secession movement. It’s sort of a sop: “You can’t be a separate city, but we’ll give you separate numbers.” But why should we care? The real answer is, it doesn’t matter at all unless we use these numbers to benefit ourselves. Now our elected officials can fight for funding for Valley transportation, social services, affordable housing, tax-incentive empowerment zones, and other government monies, based on the Valley being a distinct entity. Now we can provide businesses considering relocating to the Valley with real numbers regarding our well-educated and experienced workforce. We can prove that we have more than 107,000 residents with graduate or professional degrees and an additional 227,000 with bachelor’s degrees. “Businesses are looking for an educated workforce,” Congressman Brad Sherman correctly points out. Beyond that, according to Professor of Economics Dan Blake, Director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at CSUN, businesses can look at the characteristics of the area and see that this is a market that has a large middle-class, lots of homeowners, and a fluid population 13 percent of us move each year. Marketers, he says, can tailor their goods and services to who is actually here. Now we can prove that the San Fernando Valley is a diverse, vibrant, economically viable, and demonstrably important region with or without the rest of Los Angeles. Hooray for us! “We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.” Dorothy, in The Wizard of Oz Martin Cooper is Chairman of Cooper Beavers, Inc., marketing and communications. He is the Immediate Past Chairman of VICA, Past President of the Public Relations Society of America-Los Angeles Chapter and of the Encino Chamber of Commerce, and is Vice President of the Los Angeles Quality and Productivity Commission. He can be reached at [email protected] .