Across the nation, about 300 million people are marking this time of year a special occasion. Unlike Easter or Passover, this holiday is celebrated only once every ten years, and in its spirit everyone’s participation is more than welcomed.
It’s an ongoing feast, but the climax of the census high season 2010 was April 1st.
Since 1790, (unofficially since 1600), the Census Holiday is not only a tradition – it’s mandatory.
There are no Hallmark cards, no distinct spiritual ritual, and no special sales, but there’s no way you could have missed it. It’s a multi-million-dollar Federal budget holiday, led by special government offices, politicians, bureaucrats, a cross-media campaign, colorful fliers in dozens of languages and fancy interactive maps. Try to escape the festivities and they will come knocking on your door.
On Passover’s eve, around the “Seder” table we ask four questions, today we answer ten.
We, the people – young, old, legal or illegal as one, of all races and sex – are equally targeted on census day.
For others, however, it’s a period of lent. Those who invested money and energy, anxiously wait for successful results. Those like the 12th district Rep. Nydia Velazquez, responsible for one of the most heretic constituencies in the United States.
Only half of households in New York returned their census forms, but the record for the lowest rate of return (around 30 percent), belongs to Congresswoman Velazquez’s district.
Not the traditionally hardest to count poor immigrant neighborhoods, but the Indie music and skinny jeans Mecca – the hipster enclave of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
“These young, recent graduates with ironic mustaches and plaid shirts are apparently too busy tweeting to fill out a simple census form,” NPR reported today.
The government promotes the population tally holiday in an effort to translate the head count into counting cash. The money will help provide much needed services, schools and hospitals but Williamsburg residents think the government doesn’t count them.
Four out of 20 hard-to–count areas are Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and New York City. In the last census Kings County earned the 14th worst undercount rating nation-wide.
But according to NPR, the trust-fund kids are not the alone. If you skateboard only a few blocks from the hipsterland, you’ll find the Hassidic Satmar Orthodox community of Williamsburg, where only one in four households have participated in the census. They don’t watch television so they probably missed Velazquez’s campaign efforts to get more accurate results this time in her agnostic district.
The 12th district, which includes Queens, Brooklyn and parts of the lower east side and Chinatown in Manhattan has one of the highest immigrant communities in New York – with more than 67 percent speaking a language other than English at home. Among those 59 spoken languages that challenge the census bureau are: Polish, Russian, Romanian, Yiddish, Spanish, Italian, Spanish and Chinese. Still, it seems like it’s the native, legal citizens who are making Velazquez’s life more difficult.
The government spent over $130 million on advertisements, explaining the risk-free and crucial importance of the form, but the two polarized and hard-to count communities of Williamsburg have something in common this time: Disinterest in civic duty, or disbelief.
As the Census Holiday comes to an end on April 15th, the next national festival kicks in. A popular, historical and widely commemorated day – that recently is evoking religious feelings: Tax day!