[url]http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125811666[/url]
[release]This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. If you haven't returned your U.S. census form yet - you know who you are - youve got company. About a third of the households in the country haven't yet returned that envelope and in big cities, including New York, the response rate is even worse.
Only half of the households in New York have bothered. Now, traditionally, poor and immigrant neighborhoods have been the hardest ones to count. But NPR's Robert Smith reports that New York's worse census neighborhood is an unlikely one.
ROBERT SMITH: The biggest census procrastinators in New York City happen to live in the most self-consciously hip neighborhood: Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Williamsburg is a magnet for kids just out of college, home of indie bands and ironic mustaches, wacky bikes and skinny jeans, and honest to goodness record stores like this one, Academy Annex.
(Soundbite of music)
SMITH: Two 20-somethings, Nate and Mike, are working behind the counter. They share an apartment and should be sharing a census form, but...
MIKE: Did we get the forms?
Mr. NATE STARK: Yeah.
MIKE: We did. I didnt see any yet.
Mr. STARK: We still get mail from the past 30 people that have lived there. So it's like who knows if people are getting these.
SMITH: Well, actually the census knows. These few blocks around Wythe Avenue and 6th Street have about a 36 percent return rate.
Nate Stark has an explanation.
Mr. STARK: I guess it's laziness and like, what's the point? When it comes down to it, nobody wants to fill out like another form that's just like getting sent to your house that really relatively has nothing to do with your life.
SMITH: He thinks the young people just haven't been given a good enough reason to fill out the census.
Mr. STARK: I mean people would do if they got like five bucks.
SMITH: Five bucks?
Mr. STARK: Yeah. Or if there was like more than just like a piece of paper that's like you have to do this or you could get in trouble, which no one will get in trouble; that's why they dont do it.
SMITH: The Census Bureau is spending $133 million on advertising in dozens of languages telling people that the census is their civic duty, that it helps get federal funding in their communities, but the message isn't sinking in here in Williamsburg.
Just outside the record store, I meet Jamie Lilly. She knows the ads. She got the form but she thinks that returning it is just supporting a government that she doesnt believe in.
Ms. JAMIE LILLY: You know, on a personal note, maybe some people, they figure what's the point to be counted if you dont count for much anyway? If we dont count, why be counted?
SMITHZ; Now, this isn't the case for the whole neighborhood. If you walk toward the new glass condo buildings, you'll find that participation in the census takes off. In the other direction, return rates plunge. And you can't blame it all on the cool kids. This is the Hasidic part of Williamsburg, where the Satmar Orthodox Jews live. Only one quarter of households here so far have participated. Not only are they reluctant to fill out the census, they dont even want to talk about it.
SMITH: Excuse me, sir. I'm a news reporter asking people about the census. Did you fill out the census?
Unidentified Man: I do not know about that.
SMITH: The man, dressed head to toe in black, tells me that they dont listen to the radio and they certainly dont do radio interviews. As for the census, he waves his hand. Too busy, he says.
Stephen Levin, the city councilmember for Williamsburg, says they're working to get the word out to the Hasidim through grassroots community groups, although census ads mean little if you dont actually watch TV.
Councilmember STEPHEN LEVIN (Williamsburg, New York): Because the word gets around through word of mouth and not through the mass media in that community, it just takes a little bit longer for those things to come about.
SMITH: And maybe that's what these two parts of procrastinating Williamsburg have in common: susceptibility to peer pressure. If you see your neighbors doing it, if it actually becomes cool to fill out the census, then maybe Williamsburg will be counted.
Robert Smith, NPR News, Brooklyn.
[/release]
Fucking hipsters.
I marked 50 people live in my house.
Fucking census.
i lol'd
fucking hipsters
[QUOTE=CubeManv2;21298881]I marked 50 people live in my house.[/QUOTE]
This is why we can't have nice things.
For race I put down that I was a Homosapien.
[QUOTE=CubeManv2;21298881]I marked 50 people live in my house.[/QUOTE]
:downs:
I don't see all the hate with the Census. It's defined in the US Constitution, and has been done for as long as our country has existed. It's also an important factor when it comes to actually running this place properly.
Seriously be more mature and do this properly. Besides I bet it was your parents who filled it out anyway.
i read starbucks in that article and now i can't fucking find it :smith:
I think we get our census in 2011
Maybe I'll be on my own by then :ohdear:
stupid fucking hipsters
holy shit reading that interview makes me want to punch things
I actually don't mind filling out questionaires.
Unless they're these stupid ones we get at school sometimes, for example;
Q. What is your attendance so far this year?
A. 98.6%
Q. How could you improve your attendance?
What the fuck are you meant to put? "Come to school"?
If they're anonymous surveys, you can have a bit of a laugh coming up with stupid answers, anyway.
What's so hard about filling out a form? The guy gives no clear, rational reason as to why he won't do it.
I mailed my census weeks ago.
[QUOTE=Edthefirst;21298990]:downs:
I don't see all the hate with the Census. It's defined in the US Constitution, and has been done for as long as our country has existed. It's also an important factor when it comes to actually running this place properly.
Seriously be more mature and do this properly. Besides I bet it was your parents who filled it out anyway.[/QUOTE]
I guess the government has a right to know how many toilets I have.
No, sorry, I'm not going to give answers to ridiculous questions. What if some of those...[I]answers[/I]...were to be abused in the future? Don't ask me how or why, because that's not important; all the government has business knowing is how many live in my house, and I'm [I]very[/I] suspicious of why I should even have to be asked much else.
[QUOTE=Wakka;21299296]I mailed my census weeks ago.[/QUOTE]
That's how Wakka rolls.
What a motherfucker.
[QUOTE=CubeManv2;21298881]I marked 50 people live in my house.[/QUOTE]
At least you're making up for all the hipsters
I got it and filled it out and sent it back all within an hour. I don't see why people make a big deal about what, 10 questions?
But there's no clear reason why not to fill it out other than if you're lazy.
[editline]09:41PM[/editline]
Also that girl they interviewed is dumb. She says she doesn't believe in the government but if you ask her if she's actually doing anything to try to change it she'll say no.
[editline]09:42PM[/editline]
It still comes down to laziness
[QUOTE=Jenkem;21299342]I guess the government has a right to know how many toilets I have.
No, sorry, I'm not going to give answers to ridiculous questions. What if some of those...[I]answers[/I]...were to be abused in the future? Don't ask me how or why, because that's not important; all the government has business knowing is how many live in my house, and I'm [I]very[/I] suspicious of why I should even have to be asked much else.[/QUOTE]
It's not ridiculous at all. They do this for demographic study purposes that can only help you.
Take off your fucking :tinfoil: hat.
I wish they would make the census out of softer paper so it wouldn't hurt so much wiping my ass with it.
[QUOTE=Jenkem;21299342]I guess the government has a right to know how many toilets I have.
No, sorry, I'm not going to give answers to ridiculous questions. What if some of those...[I]answers[/I]...were to be abused in the future? Don't ask me how or why, because that's not important; all the government has business knowing is how many live in my house, and I'm [I]very[/I] suspicious of why I should even have to be asked much else.[/QUOTE]
They do. I don't understand why people are so fearful of the government, especially in the United States. The government is using this information to help us. It was ten fucking questions. All they ask is how many people, race, and age of the person responding. This has been happening for 200+ years, stop being paranoid and answer the damn questions. Your doctors ask more questions than this census.
Besides if the government really wants to know anything about you they can just check information in the school system. Unless you operate under a false name for fear of the school system using that info against you.
[QUOTE=Jenkem;21299342]I guess the government has a right to know how many toilets I have.
No, sorry, I'm not going to give answers to ridiculous questions. What if some of those...[I]answers[/I]...were to be abused in the future? Don't ask me how or why, because that's not important; all the government has business knowing is how many live in my house, and I'm [I]very[/I] suspicious of why I should even have to be asked much else.[/QUOTE]
Shutup
[QUOTE=gamefreek76;21299449]I wish they would make the census out of softer paper so it wouldn't hurt so much wiping my ass with it.[/QUOTE]
If you're wiping your ass with it, chances are you were butthurt to begin with.
This shit's retarded. Fucking hipsters. How the fuck are you supposed to run a country if you don't even know basic information about who lives in it?
Then again hipsters aren't people so they wouldn't be counted anyways.
All it's going to do is hurt them in the long run, the census is suppose to help people and improve the quality of their neighborhoods.
[QUOTE=MR-X;21300006]All it's going to do is hurt them in the long run, the census is suppose to help people and improve the quality of their neighborhoods.[/QUOTE]
The only way to improve the quality of Williamsburg would be aerial bombardment.
[QUOTE=Edthefirst;21298990]:downs:
I don't see all the hate with the Census. It's defined in the US Constitution, and has been done for as long as our country has existed. It's also an important factor when it comes to actually running this place properly.
Seriously be more mature and do this properly. Besides I bet it was your parents who filled it out anyway.[/QUOTE]
Yes, it's in there. But it doesn't say people have to fill it out correctly, or even at all. :smug:
[editline]09:42PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=Edthefirst;21299571]They do. I don't understand why people are so fearful of the government, especially in the United States.[/QUOTE]
And I don't understand how anyone outside the US can trust their government.
The whole Constitution was set up so that the government would fear the people.
That was actually a quote from Jefferson.
[quote=Thomas Jefferson]When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. [/quote]
[QUOTE=Jenkem;21299342]I guess the government has a right to know how many toilets I have.
No, sorry, I'm not going to give answers to ridiculous questions. What if some of those...[I]answers[/I]...were to be abused in the future? Don't ask me how or why, because that's not important; all the government has business knowing is how many live in my house, and I'm [I]very[/I] suspicious of why I should even have to be asked much else.[/QUOTE]
You should be banned for being an idiot.
[editline]07:55PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;21300107]Yes, it's in there. But it doesn't say people have to fill it out correctly, or even at all. :smug:
[editline]09:42PM[/editline]
And I don't understand how anyone outside the US can trust their government.
The whole Constitution was set up so that the government would fear the people.
That was actually a quote from Jefferson.[/QUOTE]
Why wouldn't you fill it out? And you sort of have to, you get fined if you don't.
[QUOTE=Gummylamb;21300338]You should be banned for being an idiot.
[editline]07:55PM[/editline]
Why wouldn't you fill it out? And you sort of have to, you get fined if you don't.[/QUOTE]
I don't know why everyone is raging about this post, but he is right. IIRC the only question you have to answer is how many people live in your house.
The other stuff is optional.
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