The American Lung Association has recently ranked the most air polluted regions in the country, and the results were less than stellar for California's Central Valley.

The worst metropolitan area in the United States was listed to be the Bakersfield area, supplanting the Los Angeles basin for nation's worst air. The American Lung Association's website lists "Los Angeles, Calif.; Bakersfield, Calif.; Fresno, Calif.; Hanford, Calif.; Visalia, Calif." as among the worst polluted cities in the western U.S.

Sacramento and upper valley cities were also sited for having unhealthy air, but a problem with the ALA's rankings become evident upon closer inspection. Worse air quality is seen in the Gold Country foothills than the Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto area. Smog and air pollutants are susceptible to weather patterns. The delta region allows the flow of coastal air into the Sacramento and upper San Joaquin valleys. That wind pushes Bay Area pollutants into the Valley. Not only that, but Sacramento's industrial companies and heavy traffic contribute to the mix. However, the Sacramento region is somewhat spared as the air is pushed further into the foothills.

This flow does not bode well for the foothills, as the most populated towns in the region are most often built in valleys themselves. Thus, small to moderately populated foothill towns like Grass Valley and Auburn suffer from high levels of air pollution.

The causes of the air pollution are also not greatly taken into account in Bakersfield's case. For pollution to be lessened in Bakersfield, changes must also continue in the Los Angeles megalopolis. While pollution lessens in Los Angeles, it has not been enough to help the problem in Bakersfield.

Make no mistake--the Valley contributes much to it's own air pollution problems. Cited in the Sacramento Bee, the ubiquitous presence of agriculture in the Valley causes a huge problem in terms of air pollution. Cattle rumination (chewing the cud) is called by some the major cause of air pollution in the Valley. Steps are being taken to reduce this source of pollution by changing the diets of dairy cows. Agriculture also affects the air by adding pollen and plant parts to the air pollution mix. Crop dusters, insecticide, and fertilizer are also causes of air pollution in the Valley. Industrial sources and traffic, both of which have increased greatly in the Valley over the last decade, continue to be causes that must also be monitored, controlled, and minimized for the Valley to make needed improvements to the region's air quality.

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Sources:
Sacramento Bee 4/28/06
www.lungusa.org

This column regularly posts on the topic of sports in the Valley. Sports is a unifying cultural aspect of residents here, and the future of sports in the Valley will affect how the region develops in a variety of ways.

In the past few weeks, a number of interesting developments occurred on the sports front. To start, the Sacramento Kings, the Valley's highest profile sports franchise, having turned around their dismal season, made the playoffs and will face the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. The Kings fortunes have changed since trading sharp-shooter Peja Stojakovic to Indiana for much maligned Ron Artest. The gamble seems to have worked, as the Kings again became a winning team and returned to the playoffs.

While the continued post-season presence of the Valley's only major sports team was important for basketball fans, something else happened which could affect the long-term health of the franchise. In the league meetings, NBA commissioner David Stern briefed the owners on the league's troubled franchises. While Sacramento was discussed as having arena issues (with the antiquated Arco Arena), the commissioner apparently thought the Kings were moving closer to resolving the problem. ValleyVue, while excited that some behind the scenes work may indeed produce a viable arena plan, is puzzled by Stern's statements. Hopefully, there is some substance to Mr. Stern's claim.

In other news, Stockton continues to establish itself as a center for sports in the Valley. The Stockton Thunder (hockey) and California Cougars (soccer) have both wrapped up their seasons. The Thunder led the ECHL in attendance for the year. The Stockton Lightning (football) have started their season, and will have their home opener versus Bakersfield on April 29. Besides Bakersfield and Stockton, the AF2 includes a third Valley team with the Central Valley Coyotes, playing their home games near Lemore. Stockton also saw the opening of a new sports facility on Tuesday with the first baseball game at the Klein Family Field on the campus of the University of the Pacific.

Recently, Sacramento State University announced a benchmark of donations had been accepted allowing the school to move ahead on plans to build new facilities. Included in these plans were a student center, and apparently added was a new fieldhouse for the football program. Unfortunately, Sacramento State has decided that plans for a new event center/arena will stay on hold until a greater amount of support can be reached.

So there you are. Up and down the Valley, sports is picking up speed as the sun begins to return after the long, wet winter. The strength of area sports says a lot about the strong spirit of our people. The grass is green; the sky is blue; the umpire yells, "Play Ball". The Valley is primed for winning.

OK, sure. No regular reader of this blog would expect anything other than comments on the state of California's Central Valley. The headline above would seem to be out of step with the theme of the blog. However, it is often educational to compare.

Recently, the nation of Japan has begun to see changes in the personal economics of its citizens. The number of Japanese earning poverty-level wages have increased to the double digits. This in an economy that has become a world financial power after rebuilding from World War II. The experience for the Japanese over the post-war years is to have had very low levels of poverty and a very high standard of living.

Tokyo, a city that rivals Mexico City as the most populous in the world, is also one of the most expensive to live in. It is disturbing to many Japanese economists that people may not be able to support themselves in this city. Economists cite a number of reasons why this change is being experienced in Japan.

First, economists say the average Japanese worker's mindset has changed from what it once was. Whereas employees in the past have been devoted to one company, desirous only of helping the company to achieve profits, modern day employees are more interested in how they can be rewarded for their hard work. Japanese workers are a lot less likely to stay with the same company for the entirety of their careers.

The disloyalty of employees cannot only be blamed on Japanese workers. A new reality has also set in for Japanese employers. Japanese companies are doing less to encourage employees to stick around. One major concern of economists is the movement towards the part-time careers. Employers like to offer part-time positions as a way of cutting benefits and to have the flexibility to hire and fire employees more quickly. This flexibility is also enjoyed by more and more workers, who like being able to have more time for recreation or families.

The end result has been to see more Japanese without jobs or with part-time employment that cannot pay for the expensive Tokyo lifestyle. There is an obvious dichotomy between these have-nots and the frivolous spending of the rich. While Japan continues to produce affluence, it is not shared by as a broad a population as it once was.

California is about the same size as Japan. Like Japan, California occasionally experiences earthquakes, and most of the residents live in the coastal areas. Yes, comparisons can also be made between the two economies.

California produces much wealth, with state officials often touting the California economy as being the world's 7th largest. Like Japan, California also suffers from a growing rift between rich and poor. The working poor of California live throughout the state, from the urban neighborhoods of its largest cities to the farming communities in the state's agrarian belts. The story in California has long been the same--some work hard and see nothing in return, and some strike it rich. There is opportunity for great wealth in this state. From Hollywood to Silicon Valley, Californians have some opportunity to earn extraordinary amounts of money. However, for many residents, those opportunities and dreams get dashed.

As there are many millionaires in the state that can afford high prices, the working poor often struggle to get by here. The wealth of California is by no means evenly distributed, a function of the free market society. Californians have long seen a need for social and legal rebalancing of incomes, though, to allow for all resident the opportunity to grow. The tax system takes more from the rich than the poor, in part to fund a variety of social welfare programs. The state's educational systems have long tried to make college affordable for all (although even this most cherished of Californian principles seems now to be questioned).

The problems of California are very similar to the growing problem in Japan. The affluent continue to live an extravagant lifestyle, while more no-benefit, part-time jobs are created and a growing number of working people are unable to afford the cost of living. Companies are looking to boost profits by cutting the costs of labor, while employees on both sides of the Pacific are less likely to stay long-term with a company. Politicians and business leaders must carefully consider the consequences of continuing current economic practices.

The Valley continues to get pounded by rain.

Sacramento and Stockton both received more rainy days in March than ever before, although they did not record all-time amounts of rain. Still, California should be set for water supplies, with much of the state already receiving more than the normal for the season, which ends June 30.

Developers continue to build throughout the Valley, although much slowed due to the weather. That may be a good thing as the problems of an antiquated levee system continues to threaten homes in Valley cities near the delta system. Feinstein, Boxer, Matsui, Scwarzenegger, and others continue to provide rhetoric to address the system. So far, the speeches and press conferences have not yet repaired the weak spots. However, state officials in pick up trucks continue to make the rounds to check if the levees are holding--or not.

While this may seem a bit mean-spirited, especially for this blog, the fear of a levee break is real for thousands of Valley residents. The longer until levees are fortified, the more endangered our communities become.

Editor's note: You may be wondering what happened to the insightful collumns found on ValleyVue during the month of March. Maybe it was the dismal rain that put the writer into the doldrums, or it could be a touch of March Madness. (Congratulations to the Pacific Tigers Men's Basketball team for making the Division I NCAA Tournament and the Chico State Wildcats Women's Basketball team for making the Division II Final Four. The Fresno State Bulldog's Women's Basketball team made the second round of the WNIT. The CSU Bakersfield Road Runners Men's and Women's Basketball teams made it to the Division II second round.) Regardless of the reasons, ValleyVue hereby makes a "new month's resolution"--to stay committed to updating this public discussion of Central Valley issues.