CITY LIMITS: Phila. joins census battle

Though the Census Bureau swept America's cities in 1990 to improve the quality of its count, many of the largest cities are taking the Census to court, claiming that indeed much of their hard-to-count populations were missed. This undercount, estimates one Philadelphia official, could cost the city $10 to $15 million annually. Though the Census Bureau regularly adjusts for an admitted undercount, the bureau says that undercount among minorities is worse. But cities, which house large numbers of the nation's undercounted minorities, say the Census fails to revise the minorities' numbers thoroughly enough. Philadelphia entered the fray comparatively late, joining litigation early last year. Long-time Census foe New York City has battled for revised counts for almost a decade. The Goode administration denies a lackadaisical pursuit of the census issue, however. "We are very anxious to see an adjustment for the undercount," said Philadelphia Deputy City Planning Commissioner David Baldinger. Baldinger claimed that Philadelphia had approached New York in the late 1980s with its desire to join them as co-plaintiffs in their suit against the Census Bureau. New York declined the offer for technical reasons, and Mayor Goode decided that independent action would be redundant. This time, however, cities are joining forces. "We all have the same interests at stake. By presenting a single unified voice we can get a better response out of them legally," said New York City spokesperson Jennifer Kimball. Philadelphia's Baldinger said that the city believes its undercount to be around nine percent, significantly different than the Census Bureau's estimation of two percent, which he called "way off base." "We are very concerned that the [count] was not as accurate for Philadelphia as it should or could have been," Baldinger said. Baldinger said he feared a burgeoning minority population in Philadelphia would further exacerbate the undercount in the future. But he emphasized the importance of less tangible losses in the form of representation in Harrisburg and in Washington. "These things equate into power, money, and influence . . . it's a matter of fairness," Baldinger said. Last year, the National Council of Mayors decided that a unified effort would be more effective than the scattered and independent approach of the past. Since that conclusion, several cities including Philadelphia have joined New York in the suit against the Census Bureau. The basis of the suit came from a July federal court ruling, which ordered the Census to review its 1990 count to ensure that urban populations were not undercounted. Commerce Department statisticians and demographers revised the cities' figures upwards, trying to account for the difficult-to-reach populations in urban areas. Despite widespread support for the validity of these figures, Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher rejected the revision, calling the 1990 canvass as one of the "two best censuses ever taken in this country." Big city mayors howled at the decision and moved to sue the census. New York City Mayor David Dinkins called Mosbacher's move "statistical grand larceny." The suit is the latest in an ongoing fight between cities and the Census to adjust Census figures more extensively. · Some experts see Philadelphia's newfound interest in the Census issue as strongly tied to city's recent, severe financial difficulties. Philadelphia's previous lack of interest in the past could be attributed to the city's and state's average minority composition, which would leave them little to gain from a Census adjustment, said Demography Professor Samuel Preston. Though Philadelphia would not gain substantially from adjustment, Preston said, it was fairly clear that relative and absolute population numbers would be improved across the country by means of Census adjustment. Preston said that Republican Mosbacher's resistance to adjustment was political. A Census adjustment would boost the population -- and representation -- of traditionally Democratic-voting minorities. Mosbacher refuted any political motivations for his actions, saying that to the contrary, his decision was in part made to avert political meddling in Census proceedings. "I am deeply concerned that adjustment would open the door to political tampering with the Census in the future," Mosbacher said.

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