With the exception of Rossmoor, Walnut Creek is slacking off on the Census

I filled out our family’s U.S. Census form and mailed it back. What a good citizen I am. I guess.

I happen to be a census geek, digging around different data tables, trying different queries. The census is a  goldmine for data about the United States and local communities. It provides a picture of who we are, where we come from, and how we live. 

Cities are particularly keen on making sure the census gets accurate numbers of the people who live within their borders. There are big bucks at stake, which are especially crucial for geographic areas in these tough economic times.

“When you fill out your 2010 census form, you help determine how more than $400 billion a year is distributed to communities," the census website says. On Walnut Creek’s website it reads: “Census participation is important, especially in today's tight economic environment, because per-capita federal funding is tied to census count. Our community stands to lose about $11,450 in federal funding for each person who goes uncounted.” 

So far, on National Census Day, Walnut Creek’s participation stands at only 59 percent. We might have our very civic-minded residents of Rossmoor to thank for scoring just a bit better than the 52-percent national participation rate. According to the Contra Costa Times, more than 75 percent of households in the Walnut Creek retirement community already have mailed back their 2010 census forms, the highest rate of any Bay Area neighborhood.

The city as a whole is doing a bit better than those bigger slackers in San Ramon (52 percent); Danville (57 percent); Pleasant Hill (55 percent); Martinez (57 percent); and Concord (51 percent). But we’re not keeping up with those Lamorinda overachievers: Lafayette, 61 percent; Orinda, 61 percent; and Moraga, 63 percent. You can view this map to see how communities are doing. 

Those Lamorinda numbers are up there with the top five states in census participation rates: the Dakotas, North and South; Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Iowa. (To be snarky, one might say that there’s not a lot else to do in some parts of those states than to fill out a Census form. )You can view maps showing regions and communities and their participation rates at the U.S. Census website.

Starting in May, federal census workers will start walking the streets, visiting the homes of those who have not completed their forms.

If you didn’t receive a Census form in the mail, and want to avoid that visit and participate in this once-in-a-decade count, you can pick up forms in the City Hall lobby, 1666 North Main Street.  

  

Body found in creek near Las Lomas High ID'ed as 47-year-old Moraga man who had been reported missing

The Contra Costa County Coroner's Office has identified the body found in San Ramon Creek, near Las Lomas High, as Adam Milford, 47, of Moraga.

The Coroner's Office said the cause of death is still being investigated. 

According to various news reports, a passerby discovered the body at about 8:15 a.m. near the school's entrance at 1460 South Main Street. Lt. Mark Perlite said there were no obvious signs of why the man died, and police told Las Lomas High Principal Pat Lickiss that it doesn't immediately appear that the man died of foul play.

Walnut Creek police issued a press release Wednesday afternoon, indicating that Milford had been reported missing out of Moraga on Tuesday. And again, police said in this release, that "there were no obvious signs of trauma or foul play to the body."

The autopsy is scheduled for Thursday.

The Suburban Wall 2009

As local police investigate a growing number of racist incidents in Walnut Creek and other surrounding cities, I received a note from Brian Copeland, the KGO 810 radio host and creator of the successful one-man stage show, Not a Genuine Black Man. He wanted to let me know that such ugliness is nothing new in our supposedly placid, pleasant suburban communities.

With respect to local incidents, word came Tuesday that Orinda police are investigating racist graffiti scrawled in a restroom at Miramonte High School. Meanwhile, Walnut Creek police recently provided details about two Volvos that were vandalized with ethnic slurs in front of their home sometime in the middle of the night on Friday, September 25.

In this Walnut Creek case specifically, the two cars were parked in front of the family’s Fyne Drive home, says Sgt. Tom Cashion. One of the cars had a “Support Free Iran” sticker affixed to a rear window. Sometime between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., someone scratched F--- Iran below the window on the trunk. The vandal or vandals appeared to extensively “key” the second car, leaving scratches all over it.

“There is a possibility that the race of one of victims had something to do with it since one family member is Iranian,” Cashion said in an e-mail to me. He asked for the public’s help in identifying the vandals. “Out police department takes these incidents very seriously and will use all of our resources in investigating these types of crimes.”

Oh and remember this happening in Walnut Creek? In August, an employee at a North Main Street Midas auto service shop reported to KTVU that he endured repeated racial slurs from a mechanic and, as some kind of sick joke, seeing a noose hung in a work area.

Meanwhile, an update came in regard to the KKK-style cross found in front of a Moraga driveway over Labor Day weekend. Lamorinda blogger East Bay Daze says that the FBI's San Francisco field office is turning the investigation back over to Moraga police. The investigation involves a small cross, wrapped in cloth and with KKK scrawled on it, found on September 8 outside the home where an inter-racial couple were visiting.

Finally, last I heard, Pleasant Hill police are still investigating racist-tinged vandalisms at an elementary and middle school in their town, while Martinez police are looking for the teenager who last month was reportedly harassing an African-American family at the park near that town’s marina by shouting “White power!” and waving a Confederate flag in their direction.

These Pleasant Hill and Martinez cases prompted my recent post, asking "What's up with white pride crime in suburbia?" That story in turn prompted Copeland to e-mail me and briefly share his perspective.

"Unfortunately, discrimination in the 'burbs (and in Northern California) is nothing new," he said.

I listen to Copeland's show on Sunday mornings when I get the chance, and I’ve cited his concerns about a growing atmosphere of hate and racism in our society--perhaps sparked by some people's resentment about our nation's first African-American president being in office.

However, I haven’t seen Not a Genuine Black Man yet, even though it comes to the Lesher Center a couple times a year. It is supposed to be great, and it just celebrated its fifth anniversary.

This show, which was also the basis of a best-selling book by Copeland, chronicles the challenges, including outright taunts and harassment, that he, as an 8-year-old, and his family faced when they were one of the few African-American families moving into the lily white suburb of San Leandro in the early 1970s. In 1971, San Leandro was named one of the most racist suburbs in America, and a systematic pattern of housing discrimination prompted Congressional hearings. In his show, Copeland also talks about what asks the questions of what it means to be a "black man."

Copeland sent a link to information about a multi-part CBS documentary on San Leandro's housing discrimination that put the suburb in the national spotlight. While researching and writing his stage play, Copeland heard about the documentary from several long-time residents but had trouble tracking it down and learned that copies of it might no longer exist. It wasn't until after his show opened that he managed to obtain an audiotape copy of it, with the help of two former San Leandro residents who had come to see his show and who themselves had been involved in efforts to fight white flight from their city.

The documentary, "The Suburban Wall," looks at the concerted effort by local realtors and politicians to keep black people from moving into San Leandro. Copeland describes listening to an hour from San Leandro's past that "made my jaw drop." You can view "The Suburban Wall" at Copeland's website. He also provides a link to "The Invisible Wall," a 1981 follow-up of the original documentary.

Thanks, Brian, for sharing this disturbing but true aspect of East Bay suburban history.