California cities are getting a look at the results of the U. S. Census Bureau's first American Community Survey of medium-sized cities; some officials grouse at the 'funny numbers'--they just don’t add up.
“The margin of error for the 114 California cities in the survey varied from 1.4% in Los Angeles to nearly 20% in Indio, depending on the number of households queried.â€
Commenting on the figures for Lakewoodâ€"100,119 or 76,387-- D. J. Waldie, the city’s public information officer said, “My jaw dropped when I saw those figures. I walked into the boss and said you can drive a very large truck through a margin of error this size. This is the fuzziest of math. It’s so clouded it’s cracked.â€
“Such a wide margin causes problems for municipal planners wrestling with housing and city infrastructure needs and could affect governmental grants and allocations that are made on the basis of population.â€
“Federal census officials, meantime, stressed that the American Community Survey is a work in progress that will become cleaner each year.â€
Thanks to D. A. Varnado, AICP
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