DDA Confusion

[shinblind]

Minor point.

In the recent City Council Agenda Packet, the DDA claims that they sent out a Holiday Mailer to..."8,000 households in Manistee, Ludington and Scottville on USPS routes with an average income of $44k".

Except that the annual household income of these 3 cities is closer to $34,000 not $44,000. 

Now if you take the annual income of both  Mason and Manistee County households that figure is around $44,000.

But then you are dealing with around 22,000 households, the DDA said they sent out 8,000 Holiday Mailers.  

Were the Holiday Mailers sent only to residents above a certain income level? 

Seems it can not be both ways.   

Data from US Census Bureau.

Come to think about it, I am uncertain if I got a holiday mailer.

[XLFD]

Thanks for noticing the discrepancy, I'm glad I'm not the only numbers wonk.  I hope you don't mind my 'snip' of the relevant entry I placed in your analysis, and I hope you don't mind these further facts from the same website (bestplaces.com) which shows the disparity between city and county living in the two counties and three major cities:

[XLFD]

The latest census figures on households don't add up for the DDA figures either.  City of Ludington has 3600 households, City of Manistee 2718, and City of Scottville 450.  That adds up to only 6768 households in those three cities.  Looks like they did cherry pick the upper crust of the cities and those outside of the cities too.  Their rational may be:  Why send mailers to poor folks, they'll only use them for heat in their burning barrels?

Fortunately, the city has a mayor that is admittedly not good with numbers and a community development director who is not good with truthful disclosures, so they can explain the discrepancy away easily.