If you’re like me (and I’m certain you are), you hate it when newspapers, blogs, or jerks on the street talk or write in the present tense about data that concerns the previous year.

Like this AJC article, “City of Atlanta Continues Rapid Growth“.  From the title you might think, “Wow, even in a recession, Atlanta’s hanging in there!” and then you go about your day, spewing untruths because you were too lazy to read the in-depth 5-sentence blurb.  And that’s too bad because people were finally beginning to respect you.

What’s the problem?

The problem is that the title is referencing census data comparing 2008 to 2007, not 2009 to 2008, and as we all know Lehman Brothers didn’t fail until mid-September 2008, so 2008 isn’t all that clean if you’re looking for a post-recession gauge.  So, it looks like we’ll just have to make do knowing that the city of Atlanta grew 3.4% from ’07 to ’08 and wait ’til next year for any kind of 2009 data.