By Eric Jay Toll | Phoenix Business Journal
Glendale has been dropped from the Phoenix metro name.
The former Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale metropolitan statistical area is now the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale MSA. Even though the MSA name changed quietly a year or so ago, Glendale’s disappearance just popped up on the radar screen while writing stories about population growth in the Valley.
On top of that, those of us in the media using “Valley of the Sun” as a synonym for the Phoenix metro have been wrong. Pinal County joins Maricopa County to form the MSA. This means that statistically, the cities of Maricopa, Casa Grande, Eloy, Coolidge and Florence are officially Phoenix suburbs.