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V I NC ENT C. GRAY

M A'r'OR

July 11, 2011

US Census Bureau

Count Qu es tion Resolution Office

Decennial Management Di vision

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

Red istr icting Data (Public law (P .L.194·171). Th is letter and the enclosed documents are being submitted to

the U.S . Cen sus Bureau's Count Qu est ion Resolution (CQR) p r o g r ~ m for th e purpose of this challenge.

Complete and acc urate data from the decennial census co unt 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 con gressiona l and legislative d is tr ict s, allocate billions of dollars in federal

assistance to states and local governm en ts, and for many other publiCand pr ivate sector purposes. While we

applaud the U.S. Ce nsus Bureau on conducting a very succes sful 2010 Census, we afe also aw are that failure

to delive r quality data could skew the eq uitable distribution of political power, impair pub lic and privat e

decision making, and erode public co nfidence 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 population appear to hav e been ass igned to the wrong census blocks and /o r

incorrectly tabulated.

As permissib le under the Count Ques ti on Resolution progra m, I am requesting: 1) geocoding corrections

where the Bureau placed the living qu arters and their as sociated population in the wrong location, and 21

coverage corrections where the Burea u's enumeration of livin g quarters and their corres ponding population

wi thin census blocks differs substantiall y from what the Di strict believes to be the correc t number. This

challenge relat es to 549 ce nsus blocks with iss ues categorized as follows:

• The Cen sus has reported housing units in census blocks that are clea rly medians, 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 Censu s records for so me census

blocks; an d

• Census co unts of housing units in some census blocks differ from those in the District's records by a

substantial number.

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I urge the Cen sus 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 the

Bureau's full cooperation in this process, and refer you to the following individua ls as the District's point of

contacts for this challenge:

Joy Phillips, Ph.D.

Assoc iate Directo r

State Data Center

DC Office of Planning

1100 4'" St ., SW., Suite E6S0

Washington , DC 20024

Ph: 202·442·7630

Fax: 202·442·7638

Email;joy .phillips@dc.gov 

and/or

Dan iel Sheres

Demographic Specialist

State Data Center

DC Office of Planning

1100 4th St., SW., Suit e E650

Washington, DC 20024

Ph: 202-442-7632

Fax: 202-442·7638

Email: daniel.she res @dc.gov 

in rely,~ C . cent C. Gray

Mayor

Enclosed: City-Sty le Address List for CQRChallenge: District of Columbia

DC point location for addresses in quest ion.shp

DC census blocks w ith misa llocated housing units.pdf

DC census blocks w ith misa llocated housing uOits.shp

DC census blocks with undercounted housing units.pdf

DC ce nsus blocks with undercounted housing un ·ts.sh p

DC 201 0 Census challenge add ress certificat ion statement