Census to Malibu: You’re No. 2!

Malibu, you’re off the hook—sort of. You’re only the worst census responder on mainland L.A. County.

Embarrassed county officials on Monday said another beachfront town actually had a worse record in returning its U.S. Census Bureau questionnaires—the tiny City of Avalon on Catalina Island. There, the response rate was a mere 43%, compared to Malibu’s runner-up figure of 57%.

The county’s Chief Executive Office said it mistakenly singled out Malibu after reviewing an interactive map on the bureau’s website, which provides census participation rates when visitors mouse-over individual cities. The problem, according to CEO Manager Frank Cheng, was that he did not expand the map’s view to include Catalina.

“The City of Avalon just wasn’t in sight,” Cheng said.

Still, he suggested that Malibu ought not to be holding any parades just yet, considering it fell far below L.A. County’s average census participation rate of 70%.

Malibu should keep encouraging residents to participate in the census, Cheng said, “even though we now realize the city is not officially ranked at the very bottom in L.A. County.”

Cheng will get no argument from Malibu Mayor Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner, who said he finds little comfort or vindication in the CEO’s mistaken map quest. “We’re not the worst, but we’re second worst,” Wagner said. “I’d rather be second or third from the top, especially in light of all the educated people who live in Malibu.”

Last week, in a story on Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s website, Jefferson said his city’s poor census showing was partly the result of vacation homes, whose owners are not required to return forms. But he also chided some of Malibu’s wealthier residents for not sufficiently caring about the importance of the census in determining how $400 billion in federal funds is distributed among communities throughout the nation. He said these folks have a case of “IGM—I Got Mine.”

Malibu and Avalon, despite their shared views of the Pacific, are demographically unique, illustrating the challenges census officials have faced in getting the region’s diverse communities on board with the count. According to the 2000 census, for example, the median income in Malibu was $102,000. In Avalon, it was $39,300, with 10% of the population falling below the poverty line. Avalon also has a large Latino population, the labor force for Catalina’s many hotels and restaurants. “We’re a 100% visitor-based economy,” said Avalon Mayor Bob Kennedy.

Census officials, concerned from the beginning that this group might be too fearful to mail back the 10-question forms, conducted an extensive outreach campaign in Avalon, assuring the Latino population that census information would not be shared with other government agencies.

Kennedy said that although he cannot be certain, he suspects that some Latino residents may still have been too afraid to return the forms. Kennedy said that the city’s poor response rate might also have been a reflection of the large number of rental units and second homes on the island.

The census has now moved to its next stage, with census workers starting to knock on the doors of homes for which no questionnaires were returned. “We’re hopeful,” Kennedy said, “that now we’ll get a true representation of our population.”

Read earlier story on Malibu and the census here.

Posted 5/3/10