'Modern' census is slow with info

I had hoped this weekend's column would be an analysis of the census numbers for Sikeston as I had promised last week. Sadly that will not be the case.

Here's the problem and believe me, it's shared by communities and counties and other political subdivisions across the country.

In our push for a paperless census and our national embrace of new technology, those important census numbers are simply not yet available. There are links galore on the Internet. But at the end of the day, the critical information is not yet available.

Communities like Sikeston rely on the census numbers. We need this critical information to make decisions. We need this critical information to assess if our past efforts at community improvement are working.

And thus far, most of that detailed information still remains in the "pipeline" with promises that it will soon be forthcoming.

And so we wait.

This new high-tech census was supposed to provide us with neighborhood breakdowns on demographic information. Not yet!

It's critical for community planning to know exactly where you currently stand. What we know is that Sikeston's population has decreased again while the overwhelming number of other communities in our region have increased.

Poplar Bluff - by way of example - saw a population increase to just over 17,000. This marks the first time that the Butler County community has surpassed Sikeston. Jackson and Cape have grown substantially. Farmington took a massive leap.

But that's just about all we know.

We do know that Sikeston has continued on a march toward diversity with a substantial rise in our minority population and a substantial decrease in our majority population. That trend has been consistent through the past three census reports.

That trend toward diversity is not viewed in a negative light. It just provides the city with information on trends and directions in terms of income and education. And communities need this information to better help their citizens.

We need detailed income information. We need detailed neighborhood information. We need to track our young people and recognize that their needs are different and important.

I could go on and on.

The point is that I promised more details and, as of today, I cannot deliver on that promise.

That's what you get with the most expensive census in American history!