Challenging Chicago's population

City Council hopes recounting census will bring more people - and federal cash

05/04/2011 10:00 PM

By MATTHEW BLAKE
Contributing Reporter

No Comments - Add Your Comment

The City Council finance committee passed a resolution May 2 urging the city to challenge U.S. Census Bureau results that show Chicago lost 200,000 residents between 2000 and 2010.

Authored by South Loop Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd), the resolution has the support of 44 aldermen who are concerned an undercount has cost Chicago millions in federal aid.

Chicago would follow in the footsteps of New York City, Houston, and Detroit — all cities that have declared they will file a challenge.

But for now, the power to file a challenge lies with Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel and not the city council. Fioretti said he is working with Emanuel on the issue, adding that, “This resolution pushes the new administration toward considering a challenge.”

The resolution passed the committee by a voice vote and the full City Council was expected to approve it May 4. Unlike an ordinance, though, a resolution is non-binding, meaning the mayor’s office has the final say.

Outgoing Mayor Richard Daley, who is often at odds with Fioretti, last month dismissed the idea of a challenge. “We’ve done everything possible,” Daley said of counting Chicagoans. “That’s over with.”

But the Census Bureau does not accept challenge filings until June 1 — at which point Emanuel will be mayor.

Fioretti said that the incoming administration is giving “serious consideration” to a challenge.

But Fioretti also said if talks with Emanuel fell through, he would consider introducing an ordinance that required Chicago file a challenge.

The case for a challenge is that $400 billion in national funding is tied into population count. This includes social services like Medicaid, food stamps, and temporary assistance to needy families as well as cash for infrastructure and education programs. Each Chicago resident brings the city about $1,200 in federal money.

“We don’t how many millions — if not billions — of dollars will be lost in federal aid because of the failure of not having an accurate count,” Fioretti said at the finance committee meeting.

But a challenge is not a recount done by federal Census Bureau employees. Instead, cities must finance and conduct their own reexamination of parts of the city they suspect were undercounted.

City employees would comb through blocks in search of residents possibly overlooked by federal census workers in 2010. Next, Chicago would send their results to the Census Bureau in Washington.

The Census says Chicago went from 2.8 to 2.6 million residents in the last ten years. Of the ten most populous U.S. cities, it’s the only one to record a population count decline.

Fioretti suggested that part of the recorded loss could be blamed on human error. Specifically, he cited the lackluster work of temporary employees the Census Bureau hired in 2010 to go door-to-door.

“It was a mess from the beginning,” he said. “[Temporary census workers] got paid regardless of work quality and they didn’t care what happened. This was the message I got from one of the work supervisors.”

Also, regardless of worker’s performance, Chicago’s population was harder to count due to a foreclosure crisis that increased home vacancies and the number of residents on the move.


No Comments - Add Your Comment