More census data is in and the news is worse for Ferndale than previously reported.
The Ferndale Patch reported this morning that Ferndale lost 2,205 residents, over twice the 963 reported earlier in the year.
Complete age break-downs aren't available yet, but the number of eligible voters (18+) has been released and those numbers fell to 16,615 from 17,601 in 2000 or 5.5%.
Apparently, the in-flux of millenials (born between the mid-70s and early-2000s) isn't what we thought it was.
In Ferndale, we hear a lot from politicians and other community activists about how the face of Ferndale is changing because of the increased number of residents under 30. But is that more propaganda than fact?
65% of Ferndale's population loss, or 1209 residents, were under the age of 18. Even though they can't vote yet, that's half the Gen-Y population.
There's no data to prove it, but it may be that politicians and others are commenting more on the visitors to Ferndale's downtown than folks that actually live here. If our downtown's population has increased between the hours of 8PM-2:30AM, it's fair to ask our council persons, DDA, and other armchair policy quarterbacks if that is the population our ordinances, zoning, and budget decisions should be based on.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
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