Census Kick Starts In Los Angeles; New York Gets Bigger Census Rig

U.S. Census

A trailer in full bloom.

As the 2010 U.S. Census head count kicked off in Los Angeles this week, we were disappointed to learn that New York hosted a bigger traveling rig than what L.A. is getting. First New York claims it sees twice as many international tourists as the City of Angeles, now this?

The Census Bureau is rolling out a fleet of advertising-and-outreach rigs as part of its 2010 Census Portrait of America Road Tour, "part of the largest civic outreach and awareness campaign in U.S. history," the bureau claims. The campaign kicked off in Times Square, so New York got the bureau's Mail It Back rig, a 46-foot gooseneck trailer towed by a dual axle pick-up. L.A.'s rig? A 14-foot trailer called the Confidential.

Actually, New York's official rig is also a 14-footer, called the Liberty. So, on Monday, New York had two. We're keeping score. Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Kansas, Philadelphia and Chicago also got 14-footers. (Charlotte gets a trailer but San Francisco, Seattle and San Diego did not? We're sensing some anti-West Coast bias here).

"We have 100 days where we are going to be doing outreach into the communities throughout the county and southern California," U.S. Census Bureau spokeswoman Jennifer Giles told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. "We are going to go into ... communities we consider hard to count."

L.A. is huge. You're going to need a bigger rig. And more of them.