Welcome to DC! All 31,528 of you!
Yes kids, what you might have missed while dodging Sidewalk Closed signs, DC’s population increased by 31,528 from 2000 to 2005, bringing DC up to 582,049 residents.
That’s according to the new Census figures for DC, figures revised upwards after Mayor Williams challenged the US Census’s 2005 numbers and they found 2,500 Wayan’s in America.
Why does it matter, these new folks who are less than a National’s game attendance? To quote the WashPost:
William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, called the decision “a big deal.” “This is real. D.C. is increasing its population at a very significant level,” Frey said. The addition of 31,528 people “makes up for all the losses of the 1990s and is equivalent to the loss in the 1980s as well.”
Yep, DC is back! And we’re adding people every day, like DC Court’s Executive Officer, Anne B. Wicks.
Until recently she was an Arlington resident, in violation of the residency requirement for her position. Apparently, she was having move in trouble, which is why there is a 180 day grace period, but her move-in trouble lasted three years.
Before Tom whips out his lame-o “The District is too expensive,” line, it wasn’t like Ms. Wicks was hurting for cash. Her $165,200 salary alone would offer her a wide variety of choices, as would her nest egg from selling a home in Chevy Chase. She was just guilty of the “I wanna’s”. To quote the WashPost again:
In an interview, Wicks said that her purchase of the house, in the Palisades neighborhood, was evidence of her intent to live in the city and that she wanted to raze the house and build another on the site.
Seems her dreams of upgrading to a McMansion after buying a tear-down didn’t go as planned. Now, to her personal horror, I’m sure, she’s living in her Palisades palace.
Welcome Ms. Wicks, your resident number 582,050 in the great re-population of DC!
Don’t forget the 2x income tax, Wayan. It’s costly to live in DC, with real estate what it is, not to mention that DC taxes are twice that of surrounding areas. If you want to grandstand for being fiscally assraped by the District CFO, fine, but it’s a perfectly valid decision to live where taxation is less of a burden.
What timing! The census taker in this photo came back today, checking up on her prior surveys and I asked her how they could miscount like they did.
She says that census takers have to report what people tell them, not what they see, so even though she’s been to apartments and houses with beds stacked to the ceiling, obviously the domicile for dozens, she had to put down what the survey participant says, usually something like “two” or “four.”
Now I don’t think that undercount makes up the missing 31K, but it does help explain some of the variation.