CityLab Daily: How the 2020 Census Is Being ‘Sabotaged’
Also today: What went wrong with Athens’ ‘Great Walk,’ and why Americans prefer classical over modern architecture.
Census 2020 employees help a New Yorker fill out a census form in Harlem. A host of setbacks in this year’s census count could result in a severe undercount of hard-to-reach populations, experts warn.
Photographer: Pacific Press/LightRocketWho gets counted? The 2020 Census count is slated to wrap up today at 11:59 p.m., after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday in favor of the White House to end the count two weeks early. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, a deadline of Oct. 31 had been set to allow officials more time to reach households that had not responded. The abrupt change of plans adds to concerns of a severe undercount of the U.S. population. In a scathing Q&A with Kriston Capps, Robert Santos of the American Statistical Association says he expects this year's census to be one of the "most flawed" in history.
As Santos explains, the Trump administration's insistence to end the count early is only one of many disasters to befall the census, which will affect trillions of dollars in federal funding. Santos attributes the undercount to a "perfect storm of obstacles and challenges," from the controversy over a citizenship question to Covid-19 and the economy. Today on CityLab: The 2020 Census Is Being ‘Sabotaged,’ Says Leading U.S. Statistician