Claim Ames

From Rofflehaus

There was a big publicity thing in Ames during the 2000 Census. The deal was that if enough people claim Ames as their place of residence (at least 50,000) Ames would move into the next-higher bracket in the federal thingamajig. Basically, they'd get assloads more money for road repair, and a bunch of other stuff.

The way the Census works, you have to claim one place as your permanent residence. According to the "official" rules, you have to claim the place you stay most of the time. For college students, that place would be Ames. However, lots of ISU students claim their hometown. Probably for the same reason Ames wanted to be claimed.

Lots of Out of state students were pissed off by the whole thing. Ames wanted students to "claim Ames" for the increased government benefits, but due to Iowa law, they still had to pay out of state tuition. That's fucking lame.

By the way, it worked. Ames eeked out just a little more than 50,000 people.