In all of New York City, the neighborhood with the lowest census return rate is a place that NPR calls “the hipster enclave of Williamsburg.” To find out why these cool kids aren’t returning their census, NPR sent a reporter to an “honest to goodness record shop” in Williamsburg. These are the excuses he heard:
“I didn’t see it.”
“We still get mail from the past 30 people that have lived there, so it’s like who knows if people are getting these.”
“Laziness and, like, what’s the point.”
“I mean people would do it if they got like five bucks.”
NPR goes on to say that it’s not just the hipsters in Williamsburg not filling out the census, it’s the Jews too. In fact, the Orthodox part of the neighborhood actually has a lower return rate than the tattooed part. Shirking civic responsibly, the first thing that Jews and hipsters can agree on.
