PICK PALMDALE: Forget Beverly Hills. If you’re...

PICK PALMDALE: Forget Beverly Hills. If you’re going to settle down in the L. A. area, Palmdale may be one of the best places. According to PHH Technology Services, a Kansas firm specializing in corporate relocation, Palmdale placed third out of 156 cities. . . . PHH ranked communities using housing, crime and tax rates. Pomona ranked first.

DANCERS: Diversity may be a dandy idea at CalArts in Valencia . . . but not when it turns into tokenism. Cristyne Lawson, dean of the dance school, says choosing dancers by their ethnic background is limiting. . . . Lawson’s group, the CalArts Dance Ensemble, will perform Thursday through Saturday as part of the institution’s 25th anniversary celebration (F1).

HIGHS AND LOWS: Many say one town in the Valley is like the next. Many are wrong. The Valley, in fact, is a very diverse place, from housing prices to crime rates. Today’s Valley Briefing (B5) lists a number of highs and lows in the Valley. . . . Household density, for instance, varies greatly, above.

PRUNED: Department of Agriculture office cuts (A33) may lead to consolidations in Lancaster. The USDA’s two offices there--the Farm Service Agency and the Natural Resources Conservation Service--could be placed in the same building, says the FSA’s Marilynn Wells. . . . But she wants growers to know that “we are still open and available to them.”

Highs and Lows

The Valley communities with the lowest and highest number of people per household: 1.9: Sherman Oaks-Studio City-Toluca Lake 4.49: Arleta-Pacoima Source: 1990 U.S. Census