Pew study: Phila. lags on census awareness

Could Philadelphia's six-decade slide in population be over?

City officials think so. The difficulty is proving it - and making sure the increase is reflected in next years U.S. Census, the once-a-decade count of Americans that determines federal funding and how many representatives a region gets in Congress and state legislatures.

That's why the region's Pew Charitable Trusts today sounded an alarm, warning that its survey of 11 major cities shows Philadelphia is lagging behind most in organizing public outreach and awareness programs urging residents to participate in the census.

Tricia Enright, deputy chief of staff to Mayor Nutter, acknowledged that Philadelphia has not had formalized announcements and committees about census awareness.

Nevertheless, Enright said "We're very confident we will have a robust, effective, complete count of our communities."

According to the Pew study, seven of the 11 cities already appointed or hired census coordinators by began work earlier this month.

Three others - Boston, Chicago and Detroit - already have financial and organizational support from local groups, says the report, "Preparing for the 2010 Census: How Philadelphia and Other Cities Are Struggling and Why It Matters," by Thomas Ginsberg, project manager of Pew's Philadelphia Research Initiative.

The study compared Philadelphia's census preparation efforts with those of five larger cities - New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Phoenix - and five cities similar to Philadelphia and its history with the census: Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit and Atlanta.

Although the census is done by the federal government, ensuring the local count is complete and accurate has become a municipal self-promotion campaign.

"Census preparation really matters," said Ginsberg, and the census has become a hard sell.

Immigrants, especially those here illegally, are suspicious of the count despite the promise of anonymity. They fear the count could lead to discovery and deportation of them or relatives.

Anti-government campaigns involving the Obama Administration's proposal for universal health insurance coverage also appear to be affecting the census.

And the economic recession has dramatically reduced local tax revenue, meaning there is much less to spend on municipal census promotion efforts.

"Nobody is expecting a good census in 2010. I'm not optimistic," said Joseph J. Salvo, New York City's population division chief and a sociologist, quoted in the Pew study.

Salvo, who advises and critiques the Census Bureau, noted that "since the last census we had 9/11, privacy issues, trust of government issues. And there's been no public declaration that we're going to suspend immigration raids like in 2000."

If Philadelphia officials are correct, they can prove the city's population - it peaked at 2.07 million in 1950 - has begun to increase again after bottoming at an estimated 1.45 million last year. The 2000 census counted 1.52 million people in Philadelphia.

One impact of the drop has been a reduction in the number of representatives the city sends to Congress. Since 2000, the city has three Congress members but only two have city-majority districts. Whether the city retains part of a third Congressional District depends on the census results.

Enright said the city Planning Commission has documented 56,000 new or corrected addresses since 2000, the result of new immigrants and Center City redevelopment.

The city also - for the first time - challenged the U.S. Census's annual population estimate, arguing that the 2008 estimate undercounted the city. The 2008 population was 1,536,171, not 1,447,395, city officials maintain.

Enright said the city is focusing on building confidence and trust within neighborhoods most often undercounted: poor blacks, Latinos and other ethnic and immigrant groups.

She said Israel Colon, city director of multicultural affairs, is working with leaders of ethnic communities and others will work with black church leaders, who are often the glue of inner-city neighborhoods.

"We want to turn these old fears around," Enright added. "They need to understand this is no big deal, that it's important to be counted and there is no downside."