Census--Wilson

Like Elizabeth, I went straight to the Seattle sources and lurked for the days leading up the census, which proved to be a wise thing as on Census Day there wasn't so much as a letter to the editor in the Editorial section of the Seattle Times about the census (and Seattlelites are usually very voracious writers of letters to the editor! Must be something about this Census that didn't drum up the liberal crazies!).

I especially liked an article from my local paper, the Issaquah Press. It is listed below. It basically brought up the question of management of the Census--who administers it and who ensures that all are counted, and accruately? The residents of Sammamish, a city that borders Issaquah, received forms that identified them as residents of either Issaquah or nearby Redmond. Though the article doesn't mention this, Sammamish was only incorporated as a city in 1999, while both Issaquah and Redmond are literally one hundred years older than Sammamish. Working out how to acknowledge residents of Sammamish at a national level is still being worked out--the article credits the problem to the US Postal Service. The article author writes that a census official had explained that "there is no way to double check that an individual house was included in the right place." Who decides "the right place" for a house? The residents who decide to incorporate as a city? Or the Office of Budget and Management at the federal level? Lots of implications for regulatory federalism...

Also, I was intrigued by a simple statement by a local census official, who explained that in response to the incorrect city, "residents [could] correct the form by simply scratching out the wrong city and writing in Sammamish." It brings to mind the method of collecting data--we sometimes forget that all of these famous surveys and ethnographies were done by real people and things could have been "scratched out," altered at some basic level that is indicative of a not-so-rigorous data collection process. Just made me smile a bit, the statement!

http://www.issaquahpress.com/2010/03/30/census-forms-sent-to-sammamish-have-wrong-cities/

Also, did anyone know that there's an English version of Good Housekeeping? Me neither. I didn't end up buying it as there wasn't much in it of interest, but food for thought. I look forward to sharing the joys of the Ladies' Home Journal on Tuesday!

(If there are any sparkers, sorry about the late reply!)