Talk about being taken for granted! This week our area experienced two examples of
being overlooked. The first, with potentially longer-term impact, is what may be a
significant undercount for Census 2000 in Georgetown and parts of Ward 3. The contractor
and Census official involved apologized for not focussing more effort - it appears they
had focussed on less affluent parts of the city until the last minute. Much of the problem
is access into private gated communities or multi-story buildings with a locked entrance.
In Foxhall alone, just as one example, we have 875 homes where a census taker can walk up
and knock on the door, but on a relatively short stretch of MacArthur are over 400 units
where you cannot even get to the mailbox to leave a note or deliver the
"Current".
The problem is not directly in missing out on social programs, but in potential
reduction in the number of our ANC commissioners (hey, maybe that's not a bad idea!). More
seriously for Ward 2/Ward 3 boundaries, this could result in wrong-size re-drawn Wards,
after Census 2000 data is available for DC Council review in April 2001.
Another insult was having our community again encircled by a charity road race,
"Lawyers Have Heart" Thanks to dedicated locals like Alma Gates from Palisades,
Scott Polk from Foxhall, and others, this race was at least moved to an earlier time. But
where (apart from a map by the Washington Post the day of the race), was the publicity to
advise locals of this event? These events employ dozens of police to manage the entire
route - how about spending some money on a local newspaper ad before the event, plus
putting a route map on their website so we can provide neighbors with detailed advice?
