Monday, July 27, 2009

New Orleans Mayor's comments about Census Day residence create stir

Ray is wrong.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D) is encouraging former residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina to identify themselves as residents of the city in the 2010 census, even if they have not yet returned to their pre-storm homes. The mayor's spokesman told the City's Times-Picayune newspaper that, "A low population count would mean the loss of millions of dollars needed to provide critical services" (July 14, 2009, Editorial). Communications Office representative James Ross clarified in a July 20 Wall Street Journal article, "What we're really talking about is people who are really close to coming back." Census Dallas Regional Director Gabriel Sanchez responded to Mayor Nagin's proposal by saying, "We need to count people where they live, not where they plan to live or where they want to live" (July 13, 2009 Times-Picayune).

Census residence rules provide that people are counted at their "usual residence," which the Census Bureau defines as "the place where the person lives and sleeps most of the time. This place is not necessarily the same as the person's voting residence or legal residence."

1 comment:

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