VI NC E NT GRAY M A'r'OR

C.

July 11, 2011

US Census Burea u
Count Question Resolution Office
Decennia l Management Division
4600 Silver Hill Road
Washington, DC 20233

Re:

District of Columbia Count Question Resolution Challenge

Dear Challenge Staff: As the Mayor of the District of Columbia, I am submitting a cha llenge of the District's 2010 Census Redistricting Data (Public law (P.L. 194171). Th is letter and the enclosed documents are being submitted to the U.S . Census Bureau's Count Qu estion Resolution (CQR) progr~m for th e purpose of this challenge. Complete and accurate data from th e decen nial census count are central to our democratic system of governmen t. As required by the Constitution, Census results are used to apportion seats in the U.S. Hou se of Representatives, to redraw congressiona l and legislative districts, allocate billions of dollars in federal assistance to states and local governments, and for many other publiCand private sector purposes. While we applaud the U.S. Census Bureau on conducting a very successful 2010 Census, we afe also aw are that failure to deliver quality data could skew the eq uitable distribution of political pow er, impair public and privat e decision making, and erod e publi c confidence in Censu s data . The D.C Office of Planning's State Data Cent er co nducted a rev iew of the District's 2010 Cens us Redistricting Data and identifi ed severa l instances wh ere the District's hou sing units and populatio n appear to have been ass igned to the wro ng census blocks and/or incorrectly tabulated. As permissible under the Count Question Resolution progra m, I am requesting: 1) geocoding corrections where the Bureau placed the living quarters and their associated population in the wrong location, and 21 coverage corrections where the Burea u's enumeration of livin g quarters and their corres ponding popul ation within census blocks differs substantially from what the District believes to be the correct number. This challenge relat es to 549 ce nsus blocks with iss ues categorized as follows: The Census has reported housing units in census blocks that are clea rly medi ans, parks, or other places that do not actually have hOUSing units; The District has records of housing un its that do not appear in the Census records for some census blocks; an d Census counts of housing units in some census blocks differ from those in t he District's records by a substanti al number.

I urge the Census Bu reau to correct these errors as soon as possible so th at the residents of the District of Columbia are not on ly counted accurately but counted where they are actually located . I look forward to th e Bureau's full cooperation in this process, and refer you to the foll owing individua ls as the District's point of contacts for this challenge: Joy Phillips, Ph.D. Associate Director State Data Ce nter DC Office of Planning 1100 4'" St ., SW., Suite E6S0 Washington, DC 20024 Ph: 2024427630 Fax: 202442 7638 Email;j oy .phillips@dc.gov and/or Dan iel She res Demographic Specialist State Data Center DC Office of Pl anning 1100 4t h St., SW., Suite E650 Washington, DC 20024 Ph: 202-442 -7632 Fax: 202-44 27638 Email: daniel.she res @dc.gov

in

rely,

ncent C. Gray Mayor

~C.

City-Sty le Address List for CQR Challenge: District of Columbia DC point location for addresses in quest ion .shp DC census blocks w ith misallocated housing units. pdf DC census blocks w ith misallocated housing uOits.shp DC census blocks with undercounted housing units. pdf DC ce nsus blocks with undercounted hou sing un ts.sh p l DC 2010 Census challenge add ress certificat ion state ment

Enclosed: