Atlanta MSA Census data (Sandy Springs, Roswell: apartment complex, gated communities, taxes)

[chiatldal]

Originally Posted by TSQQST

Well, well, well. Looks like our dear friend Mr. Hubris decided to pay Atlanta a visit. What are the ATL Superfriends going to do???
It just HAS to be a conspiracy. LOL LOL LOL!!!!!

Oh nothing ATL legion of doom adviser, most people believe it's simply a miss count.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by DTL3000

The mysterious missing 100,000 of Atlanta are probably right next door in the city of Sandy Springs.

Hee!

Seriously, as one who has lived here for the past decade and is not a population fanatic, it's almost impossible to believe the city hasn't grown by a whole lot more than 3,500 people.

There's been MAJOR infill everywhere you look. And I know this town pretty well and explore its nooks and crannies on a regular basis. Have we just had a massive number of people moving out from areas I don't know about?

[kidphilly]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Hee!

Seriously, as one who has lived here for the past decade and is not a population fanatic, it's almost impossible to believe the city hasn't grown by a whole lot more than 3,500 people.

There's been MAJOR infill everywhere you look. And I know this town pretty well and explore its nooks and crannies on a regular basis. Have we just had a massive number of people moving out from areas I don't know about?

The Piedmont Triangle

Sorry I am mostly just passing through, was surprised by the city proper and just curious on census here. The MSA makes sense by 4K does make oy wonder on the city, Hell my city had 5,800 growth - not sure it totally passes the sniff test

[mike7586]

Well why aren't people filling out their census forms and turning them in? Is this a Republican thing?

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by mike7586

Well why aren't people filling out their census forms and turning them in? Is this a Republican thing?

well it looks as if the people in the more republican leaning counties were returning them. If there was an undercount there it was slight.... nothing like Atlanta proper

[MPC]

Numbers are lower than I expected but not surprising. ATL is a suburb city, makes sense 420k are in the city, because of the suburbs but 420k does seem a lil low

[Newsboy]

I worked for the Census and can tell you ... it was @+#$&. There is NO place in America that had better than a 60-70 percent return rate, and the task of going door-to-door to count the missing is so gargantuan and wrought with flaws, it was impossible to do any accurate count. But it's not the fault of the burueau, it's the absolute refusal of Americans to particpate -- ALL Americans, not just Democrats or Republicans. You had a massive "conspiracy theory" anti-Census campaign perpetuated by morons like Glenn Beck on the right, and a "fear of government" at play to people on the left. I had doors slammed in my face in nice neighborhoods and in public housing projects. We did the best we could here in Savannah (I spent three whole days trying to straighten out a mess made of patients living in a huge senior assisted living facility, for example). But at the end of the two-month bltiz, when time was running out and we still had hundreds of unanswered addresses to account for, all we could do was throw in the towel. I think there's still going to be a HUGE period of protests / challenges / adjustments coming. There's simply NO way the Census can maintain any credibility in the future with its estimates program so far off the mark from the official door-to-door count.

[blkgiraffe]

Originally Posted by mike7586

Well why aren't people filling out their census forms and turning them in? Is this a Republican thing?

The blame can go in many directions; I know a few people who were counted twice for two different cities, some never got slips, lots of people working with the census stated they never received the papers and more. The whole process and method is BS to me. Btw, I don't live in Atlanta, but I'm sure this was an issue within your area as well.

People take the census count for granted and don't realize how much of an impact it makes on a city. Funding , development, jobs and more.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

I worked for the Census and can tell you ... it was @+#$&. There is NO place in America that had better than a 60-70 percent return rate, and the task of going door-to-door to count the missing is so gargantuan and wrought with flaws, it was impossible to do any accurate count. But it's not the fault of the burueau, it's the absolute refusal of Americans to particpate -- ALL Americans, not just Democrats or Republicans. You had a massive "conspiracy theory" anti-Census campaign perpetuated by morons like Glenn Beck on the right, and a "fear of government" at play to people on the left. I had doors slammed in my face in nice neighborhoods and in public housing projects. We did the best we could here in Savannah (I spent three whole days trying to straighten out a mess made of patients living in a huge senior assisted living facility, for example). But at the end of the two-month bltiz, when time was running out and we still had hundreds of unanswered addresses to account for, all we could do was throw in the towel. I think there's still going to be a HUGE period of protests / challenges / adjustments coming. There's simply NO way the Census can maintain any credibility in the future with its estimates program so far off the mark from the official door-to-door count.

One issue too is measurement error has always existed. The difference today is the tools researchers have to present information, database information, survey population, and how much intellectual methods in research have progressed so much measurement error is becoming much more apparent.

Moving forward into the future the intellectual arguments that will be really interesting to watch is... how much will the Census Bureau decide to adjust 2011 estimates? How much will they...nope we are keeping our survey (not census) methodology for estimates and how much will they say... we need to re-do the methodology to reflect census counts?

Also, the arguments that the census needs to be weighted to reflect under counts have been around for a few decades now. It is more politically dicey to say we should do this for congressional district representation, but it doesn't have to be as dicey to use for federal spending funding equations.

Originally Posted by MrPortCity

Numbers are lower than I expected but not surprising. ATL is a suburb city, makes sense 420k are in the city, because of the suburbs but 420k does seem a lil low

Well you are right that most of Atlanta is a suburban city... but what people are so at odds with is there has been a ton of new infill residential buildings built in Atlanta city (proper) in this past decade. It is hard for people to believe the growth was just 3,000 people.

Whereas I live northeast of town and we have tons of new homes built out here (Gwinnett Co.). If I saw all of these neighborhoods and was told we only grew by 3,000 people my jaw would drop.

In many ways without further research that provides adequate explanation... Atlanta could very well become the poster child to prove there is a high urban under count

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

well it looks as if the people in the more republican leaning counties were returning them. If there was an undercount there it was slight.... nothing like Atlanta proper

One thing about Republicans, whether you agree with their politics or not, they won't let stuff like this slide by.