We're Number 3! We're Number 3!

There's a new list out featuring the 10 American cities with the most-polluted air and -- surprise surprise -- Fresno/Madera is on it. We're No. 3, in fact, surpassed in this unfortunate category only by Los Angeles and Bakersfield. Also on the list are Visalia/Porterville and Merced.

The list comes as part of an interesting story on forbes.com, which includes this passage: "'The emissions from cars and trucks have been a big problem for the past 40 years,' says Janice Nolen, ALA director of national policy. Some communities, according to Nolen, have thought that building more roads to reduce congestion would be a prime way to solve the problem, but in fact that hasn't solved anything. Some experts are now looking at alternatives to how communities themselves are built so that commutes and distances traveled by vehicles are shorter, making roads less congested."

That's worth remembering in the context of Measure C renewal.

Here's the Top (Bottom?) 10 list (rated only for ozone):
1. Los Angeles/Long Beach/Riverside
2. Bakersfield
3. Fresno/Madera
4. Visalia/Porterville
5. Merced
6. Houston
7. Sacramento
8. Dallas/Forth Worth
9. New York
10. Philadelphia
Source: American Lung Association (for 2005)