[CTPP] census bureau press release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1999 Decennial Media Relations Team CB99-CN.14 301-457-3691/301-457-3620 (fax) e-mail: pio(a)census.gov Census 2000 Countdown Begins California, America's states, cities and towns are taking part this week in a groundswell of grassroots events to mark the beginning of "Countdown to Census 2000." Census 2000, the 22nd national census of the United States, is scheduled to take place on April 1, 2000, one year from Thursday. Scores of events at all levels of state and local government are stressing the importance of a complete and accurate census and encouraging people to participate. These range from public rallies, to the installation of "Complete Count Committees" and open houses at newly opened local census offices, to activities sponsored by organizations that have already pledged their support for Census 2000. Complete Count Committees are made up of community, business and civic leaders who promote census awareness at the local level. On Thursday, an estimated 500 people in Chicago are expected to turn out to highlight the start of a third wave of block canvassing the final stage in a precensus operation to list all the nation's residential addresses. The event at the Winter Garden Room of the Harold Washington Library will feature the Chicago Housing Authority's children's choir. Also in Chicago, at State and Madison streets, point zero of the city's address-numbering system, city volunteers will distribute to pedestrians census piggy-banks, with the slogan, "Census 2000 Means Money in the Bank for the City of Chicago." Several cities in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin plan to launch bunches of multicolored balloons with the message, "A Year Away to Census Day." Drill teams and marching bands will give the census events a festive air in several cities. In Cincinnati, Ohio, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus is slated to entertain at the inauguration of that city's complete count committee. And in New York City, the City Council will issue a proclamation on the steps of City Hall, stating that it will partner with the Census Bureau to promote census participation. The Native American Complete Count Committee for Oklahoma, hosted by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, will hold a Census 2000 rally in Shawnee on Thursday. Mayor Dennis Archer of Detroit will visit a local census office in East Detroit, where a rally will be held by the city's multi-racial coalition and New Detroit Inc., which is trying to revitalize Detroit's east side. One of the Census Bureau's national partners, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF), is sponsoring 14 Census 2000 Kickoff events at various cities around the country on March 30 and April 1. Those events focus on persuading the Hispanic population, which was undercounted by 5 percent in 1990, to take part in Census 2000. The main MALDEF event in Los Angeles includes an appearance and remarks by Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt. Prewitt also is scheduled to attend a public hearing in Sacramento on April 1, convened by U.S. Rep.Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Calif., to emphasize the effects of the 1990 undercount on California's communities. In early 2000, the Census Bureau will deliver questionnaires to about 120 million housing units in the 50 states and the District of Columbia and to another 1.5 million in Puerto Rico and the outlying islands. It expects to receive back by mail about 79 million questionnaires. To reach the rest, the Census Bureau plans to hire and train more than 600,000 people, who will attempt to make contact with nonrespondents through personal visits or telephone calls. Census 2000 also is the first census in which households that receive the short form may respond via the Internet as long as they can provide the form's control code.