Census in Williamsburg: You Can't Count on Me

The Census backlash has begun, with Erica Sackin at FreeWilliamsburg lambasting the NPR story for blaming Williamsburg hipsters for not filling out the Census. Brooklyn 11211 chimes in too, as did Conor Friedersdorf at Metablog, along with the Village Voice blog.
This isn't the end of it, but one thing to keep in mind is that all these numbers are moot until next Monday, when the Census should be able to report accurate numbers from forms filled out by April 1st. That means the numbers will certainly improve.

For a closer look inside the Census numbers throughout, check out CityLimits' Jarret Murphy. I interviewed him about the Census last week, so look for that article soon too.

One more thing. The reason why the Hasidic numbers are so low? The census forms were mailed... on Passover! I spoke with UJO's executive director and he thinks that many in the community ignored the Census forms or "threw them out with the chometz." A decent excuse, and the Rabbi promises a much larger Census campaign this month to improve the response.