Saturday, April 29, 2000
Census workers hit streets today
Cities have lowest rates of return
By Cindy Schroeder
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Northern Kentuckians who haven't mailed back their census forms may find visitors on their doorsteps today.
For the next eight weeks, 1,000 census workers will be knocking on doors in the 16 Kentucky counties served by the Covington census office. Each enumerator will carry identification and will help residents who have trouble filling out their census forms.
Inaccurate census counts can mean the loss of millions of federal dollars for everything from playgrounds to senior centers, as well as the loss of political representation. And yet, Northern Kentucky's urban communities have the lowest return rates.
The highest return rate is in the suburban Kenton County city of Edgewood, which had 85 percent of its census forms completed.
“We're glad we're down to the last 15 percent, but we'd like to get those in, too,” Edgewood Administrator Roger Rolfes said.
Mr. Rolfes attributed his
city's high response to a conscientious citizenry and an aggressive public-awareness campaign that included putting census reminder signs all over town and having the mayor remind residents about the importance of the census count at each council meeting.
By contrast, 59 percent of Cov ington households returned their census forms and 63 percent of Newport's households returned theirs.
Officials of the two cities said they provided detailed maps to the Census Bureau to ensure their boundaries were accurately reflected in the census count, and they also publicized the census through signs, posters and ban ners.
In Covington, Assistant City Manager Tom Steidel said part of the problem may have been pervasive mistrust of government, especially in the city's four public housing projects.
“I think the Complete Count Committees are fighting against people's general mistrust of government,” said Marc Bergman, local census office manager in Covington. “All we can keep doing is explain why the census is important, and emphasize that the information is confidential. We're not going to give it to the (Internal Revenue Service) or any other government agency.”
Census mistakes are also playing a factor, particularly in big cities.
Newport Police Chief Tom Fromme, who oversaw his city's public-awareness campaign, said some apartment buildings there received only one census form for the entire building, even though several families lived there.
“You're going to see a higher vacancy rate in the inner cities than in the suburban communities because you have more apart ments,” Mr. Bergman said.
Another problem is vacant homes and apartments, which are more prevalent in cities than suburbs, he added.
“Until they're declared officially vacant, that's considered a non-response.”
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