[Sca-cooks] OT OOP "Official Language" was Seville orangesubstitutions

[Huette von Ahrens]

--- Terry Decker <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
wrote:
> I've got some suspicions about this one.
> 
> To my knowledge Arabic numerals are in common
> use in most countries.  The
> signs might be in Chinese, but I would expect
> the street numbers to be
> understandable.

Well the police and fire depts. had pictures
to prove their point.
> 
> To deliver mail, the Post Office requires a
> readable occupant name and
> address on the mailbox.  While this may be
> honored in the breach, I've
> actually had the USPS put such a label on my
> mailbox.

But these are businesses, not private residences.
Perhaps the businesses had PO Boxes?
> 
> Street signs are posted by the municipality. 
> While they may be
> multi-lingual, at least one of the languages
> will be English.  Police and
> fire departments can roughly locate themselves
> by the cross streets.

Yes. At the time the street signs were English.
They are now English and Chinese.


> Was the legislation just created to correct the
> problem or were there
> reports and hearings to outline the scope of
> the problem and the suggested
> corrective measures.  

I believe that this was done as a ballot issue.
So the people who voted decided.  Here is the
racial breakdown of Monterey Park from their
current website:

Race                        Number      Percent

White                       14,207	23.7
Black or African American   405		0.7
American Indian and Alaska Native
                            623		1.0
Asian	                    38,205	63.6
Native Hawaiian and Other Pac. Isldr.
                            155	        0.3
Some other race/Mixed race  8,585	14.3

Here is the list of elected officials:

    * Mayor Sharon Martinez
    * Vice Mayor Mike Eng
    * Council Member Benjamin "Frank" Venti
    * Council Member Betty Tom Chu
    * Council Member David T. Lau
    * Treasurer Mitchell Ing
    * City Clerk David Barron 


Being a retired
> bureaucrat, if the latter aren't
> present, then I believe there may be
> politicians with ulterior motives
> involved.

With four of the seven elected officials being
Chinese, I really doubt ulterior motives, as lest
from the City Council.  However, the PD and the
FD are contracted out from Los Angeles County.
Whether they had ulterior motives, I don't know.

Huette


=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.


		
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