In last Saturday’s newsletter from LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl—whose district includes Malibu—the city was called out for its dismal 36 percent rate of participation in the 2020 Census.
This is what Kuehl’s office had to say: “This is a critical time for the Census! We need you to step up and #BeCounted for your community—and you don’t even have to leave your home. Some of our cities have excellent response rates (keep it up Westlake Village!), but there are still many Third District residents that need to be counted for the 2020 Census. I’m looking at you, Malibu!
[President Donald] Trump has made attempt after failed, unconstitutional attempt, to create an undercount in diverse regions like LA County, hoping to divert crucial federal funding away from us and reduce our representatives in Congress. With his plan to cut the self-response period short, we can’t procrastinate one more minute. A full count means better schools, roads, parks, and health care for your neighborhood. Visit my2020census.gov and get counted TODAY!”
The issue of Malibu’s low census participation has been raised several times on the local level as well, including by City Manager Reva Feldman at city council meetings this summer. An ongoing campaign of social media posts, alerts, videos and other outreach by the city has attempted to promote census participation.
“The response rate for Malibu is very low, still about 36 percent, while the county, state and nation are much higher,” a city Facebook post from Monday, Aug. 10 stated. “The data collected by the census is need to allocate federal funding for roads, bridges, hospitals, schools and public infrastructure, and determines the level of representation in Congress.”
In 2010, then-Third District Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky called out Malibu for having one of the lowest turnout rates in all of LA County, according to previous reporting in The Malibu Times.