AURORA (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Mayor of Aurora promises to challenge new census figures that indicate the second largest city in Illinois has 17,000 fewer residents.
Aurora still remains Illinois’ second largest city by tens of thousands of people; but at this week's Aurora City Council meeting, Mayor Richard Irvin said he may call for a special census down the line, because there’s no way his city lost nearly 20,000 people, which is the equivalent of one ward.
Mayor Irvin said just looking at the level of housing stock, traffic counts, water usage, and more, there’s no way he can believe Aurora lost residents.
"We all know that, regardless of what that census number says, those residents still live in Aurora. If 17,000 people got up and left, there’d be 17,000 empty houses and apartments all over the city which we do not see," Irvin said.
Still, the mayor said, if the city winds up having to live with the 180,000 resident figure and receives $30 million less a year from the federal government, Aurora will have to work hard to attract more businesses and improve its finances.
"We can’t just take that laying down and say we are going to work with the money that we get and tighten our belts. We’ve got to do extra to make sure we fill that gap. We will do that," Irvin said.
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