For the Vallejo family, with seven children, it was a step up from the ramshackle house they rented in nearby Woodville. The construction is one of the reasons local leaders expected the 2000 Census to show a population increase. The bureau sees the two towns as one entity, and the drop is the biggest of any city in the central San Joaquin Valley.
Local leaders scoff at the new numbers.
When you consider that most houses have at least three people, that's 1,500 people right there. He estimates a population of about 2,500. Frankie Walker, a Poplar fixture since 1944, shakes her head. That's not accurate. School enrollment was 516 in 2000, compared to 450 in 1990 and 305 in 1980, he said.