Nonprofit group: JC undercounted in 2010 U.S. Census by 19,000 units
A nonprofit group hired by Jersey City to determine whether its population was undercounted during the 2010 U.S. Census has determined that 19,000 housing units were missed in the count, according to City Clerk Robert Byrne.
As a result, Byrne plans to ask the county for more time to redraw boundary lines for Jersey City’s six municipal wards. Without an extension the city would be required to redraw the ward boundaries within 30 days of its Sept. 6 public hearing on the matter.
Jersey City, working with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Social Compact, plans to file a challenge to the 2010 Census results, which found the city has 240,000 residents. Byrne said at Wednesday’s City Council meeting that he wants to postpone redistricting until the U.S. Census Bureau has made a decision on this challenge.
Census numbers are used to determine the level of federal aid municipalities are eligible for and are also used to set electoral boundaries for local, state, and federal political districts.
For the past several months researchers from Social Compact have been doing block-by-block topographic analyses of Jersey City neighborhoods to determine which housing developments were missed during the census count. According to Carolina Valencia, the organization’s research director, there are areas where census data showed no one living on certain blocks even though photos reveal cars on the street or in nearby parking lots, indicating that people likely live on those blocks.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Jerramiah Healy told the Reporter in July that as many as 20,000 Jersey City residents could have been missed in the count.
Robert Bernstein, a spokesman for the Census Bureau, said some errors are unavoidable. Still, Bernstein said, “We believe in the accuracy of the census and in most of the numbers we released.”
Byrne hopes redistricting can be postponed until this matter is resolved.
“We know we’re going to have to redraw the boundaries of six wards,” Byrne said Wednesday. “I’d rather do it one time and get it right than do it, then find out later that we have to redo it because of results from this challenge.”
The city will hold a public hearing on redistricting on Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall, 280 Grove St.
A Tale of Our City book fest returns
Next weekend, on Saturday, Sept. 10, the Jersey City Free Public Library will present A Tale of Our City, Jersey City’s fourth annual book festival. The festival, which will feature the work of 21 authors, will be held from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. in Van Vorst Park. (Van Vorst Park is located across the street from the Main Library, at 472 Jersey Ave. and Montgomery Street.)
Among the authors whose work will be showcased include Eunie Guyre (author of Happy Victory: Celebrating a Jersey City Childhood); Sandra Guzmán (author of The New Latina’s Bible); Alina Oswald (author of Vampire Fantasies); Alyssa Pierce (author of Caroline & Rebecca’s Day at the Beach); Jim Waltzer (author of The Battle of the Century: Dempsey, Carpentier, and the Birth of the Modern Promotion); and Maureen Wlodarczyk (author of Young & Wicked: The Death of a Wayward Girl (Jersey City history); among many other writers.
Eighth Annual Festival of Birding
On Saturday, Sept. 10 and Sunday, Sept. 11, the Hackensack Riverkeeper will co-host its 8 Annual Festival of Birding at the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission’s Meadowlands Environment Center in Lyndhurst. The popular event will introduce novices to the wonderful world of birding and will give more experienced birders an opportunity to see migrating birds in a beautiful setting in the company of other enthusiasts.
Registration for the event is $40 and includes: breakfast and lunch on Saturday; an eco-cruise (regular price $25) on the Hackensack River; a bird banding demonstration in Harrier Meadow; guided tours; various workshops; and a keynote presentation by Sandy Komito, author of Birding’s Indiana Jones – A Chaser’s Diary and I Came, I Saw, I Counted, and subject of the book and movie The Big Year.
To register, visit www.hackensackriverkeeper.org or call, (201) 968-0808.
CASA, Barclays donate back-to-school backpacks to foster kids
Barclays Capital has partnered with Hudson County Court Appoint Special Advocates (CASA) to host a backpack drive for foster care children.
Hudson County CASA is an independent, non-profit organization committed to advocating for the best interests of abused and neglected children. CASA works through trained community volunteers to ensure that needed services, such as back-to-school supplies, are available to foster children while helping to move them toward safe and permanent homes.
Each year CASA holds an annual backpack drive, and this year, because of funding from Barlcays, the Backpack Drive was brought to a new level. More than 200 children obtained complete back-to-school gear, which included Northface, Jansport, and Nike backpacks filled with such supplies as notebooks, folders, binders, pens, and pencils.
With the cost of school supplies averaging around $90 per child, this year’s backpack drive was essential to the preparedness of CASA’s 200 foster care children.
To learn more about CASA’s work, visit www.hudsoncountycasa.org or call (201) 795-9856.