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The Top 17 L.A. Zip Codes with the Worst Census Participation Rate. Is One of them Yours?
If you live in the Northwest Valley, congratulations. You and your neighbors are among the top group participating in the Census. If you live in some parts of Hollywood, Echo Park (hipster problem?), downtown, South L.A., among other areas, then your neighborhoods needs some nudging.
Why is this important? California is "perilously close to losing out on congressional seats because of lackluster participation in the U.S. census," the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Adding to that is Norma Vega, who heads up Los Angeles' census effort. "This is about L.A. money staying in L.A., it's as simple as that," she said over the phone. "People don't realize that other states take our money."
At Wednesday's City Council meeting, Vega and John Kim of the Healthy City Project presented a report (portions seen above) to officials, showing which districts are doing well and which are not. Most importantly, they've taken the data and targeted neighborhoods where participation is the lowest. And that's important--come Saturday and over the next two months, Census workers begin knocking on doors.
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