CENSUS 2000

Undercount Missed 509,000 Californians

More than half a million Californians were left out of the 2000 Census, according to new estimates released under a court order.

That undercount could have cost California billions in federal funding.

The new estimate of California’s population, 34,380,660 residents, is 509,000 people more than the official count released last year.

The official count reflected the number of people census workers located when they fanned out in the spring of 2000 — by the bureau’s own admission, not every Californian. The new data represented an estimate of the total number they would have tallied if they actually talked to everyone.

Of the 509,000 missed people, about 298,000 were Latino.

In Los Angeles County alone, Latinos accounted for two-thirds of the 171,000 people who weren’t counted. In Fresno County, three-quarters of the 13,300 people who weren’t counted were Latino.

“Despite the strong push for [Latino] census participation, undercount has lead to their under-representation in most of California,” said Bill Frey, a demographer at the Milken Institute of Santa Monica.

There are street-level reasons for this. Minorities tend to be poorer and thus live more transient lives in apartments — making them harder to track down. Also, some undocumented immigrants may shy away from filling out the forms, though it did not ask about legal status.

“We know the census undercounts [Latinos], we know it undercounts blacks. It undercounts whites less, probably overcounts them in some cases,” Frey said. “To the extent that federal programs are directed to minorities, this is a real concern.”

Last year, the federal government decided to use the unadjusted count in funding formulas for about $185 billion worth of programs, from housing block grants to Medicaid and public school funding.

Census officials have called the 2000 count among the most accurate ever and cautioned that the statistically adjusted numbers are flawed and of little value.

During the 1990s, California lost out on $2.2 billion in federal funding based on the undercount from the 1990 census, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office. It appears that this time again, California would have been better off under the adjusted count.

The new data broke down the 509,000-person undercount along all racial lines.

Among the 211,000 undercounted non-Hispanics, 91,000 were white; 61,000 were black; 34,000 were Asian; 6,000 were American Indian; and 5,100 were Pacific Islander. The other 13,000 were multiracial.

Overall, census counters catalogued about 1.5 percent fewer people than California’s actual population. That exceeded the 1.2 percent estimated undercount nationally.

In general, states that are either rural or have large minority populations registered the largest undercounts — California has both characteristics. Counters may have missed thousands of people in Los Angeles’ inner city — but they also failed to find 5,300 blacks in Alameda County and 2,500 whites in sparsely populated Butte County.

The bureau reluctantly released the data after a San Francisco federal court’s order. Opponents of releasing the adjusted numbers, mainly Republicans, have said the complicated statistical methods used to determine the undercount would simply add more error into the results.

The new data provided from the Census Bureau was based on research done in March 2001. Bureau officials said subsequent research has suggested the net undercount may have been substantially less than first thought.

VIOLENCE PREVENTION

Three Californians Receive 2002 Peace Prize Awards

Three violence prevention leaders have been awarded the 2002 Peace Prize by the California Wellness Foundation for their improving the community.

Raja Rahim of San Francisco, Wayne Sakamoto of San Diego and Joseph A. Myers of Santa Rosa, were awarded $25,000 each. A formal ceremony was held Dec. 6 for the 10th annual awards.

“The Peace Prize award recognizes those individuals who are really unsung heroes in their communities and haven’t received wide recognition for their work,” foundation spokesman David Littlefield said last week. Nominations were submitted, and the recipients were chosen by the board of directors.

Rahim, a survivor of sexual assault and domestic violence herself, has spent the past 10 years working at various organizations to help other victims. She currently works at the Greenbook Project, a national pilot program dealing with the connection between child welfare, the courts and domestic violence. Rahim has also worked to clear up misunderstandings regarding Muslim women.

Myers is a member of the Pinoleville Band of Pomo Indians and heads National Indian Justice, a national training program for tribal governments. He helped create the organization, which provides assistance to tribal governments and gives monthly training sessions nationwide on everything from criminal procedure to juvenile justice. He is also involved with the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center in Santa Rosa.

Sakamoto is the son of two Japanese American internment camp detainees who has spent 15 years using his own experiences as a third-generation Japanese American to help communities with violence prevention. He worked to develop Community Organizations United to Reduce the Area’s Gang Environment, which started in Riverside and teaches community members and college students to use prevention and intervention programs in their neighborhoods. Sakamoto currently is the coordinator for the San Diego County Office of Education Safe Schools Unit, where he devises violence prevention programs for school districts.

Sports Deal

Starbucks in Talks With Ichiro for Partnership

If Joe DiMaggio could push Mr. Coffee, can Ichiro Suzuki sell Starbucks’ lattes?

Ichiro, the lead-off hitter for the Seattle Mariners, is in talks with Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. about forming a business and philanthropic partnership that would take advantage of Ichiro’s broad appeal in the United States and his native Japan.

“We have been talking for quite some time,” Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz told The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash. “We are both intrigued now with creating an opportunity in both the Japanese and the U.S. market.”

Like the Yankees’ DiMaggio, who served as a celebrity spokesman for Mr. Coffee coffee makers, Ichiro may carve out an identity beyond being the American League’s Most Valuable Player in 2001 and one of the biggest hitting threats in Major League Baseball.

“His connection to the Japanese fan is beyond our understanding,” Ichiro’s agent, Tony Attanasio, said. “It is like a rock star.”

The details of the partnership are unclear, but Schultz said he is interested in teaming up with Ichiro to help underprivileged children in the United States and Japan.

Starbucks has more than 400 stores in Japan, where 25 of its top-30 highest volume coffee stores are located.

Starbucks has worked with other sports figures, including basketball star Magic Johnson and baseball’s Mark McGwire. Those partnerships resulted in initiatives to open Starbucks stores in low-income neighborhoods and to donate thousands of books through a book drive.

Ichiro, who hit .321 last season, with 208 hits, 111 runs scored and 31 bases stolen, will continue next season as the Mariners’ lead-off hitter, manager Bob Melvin has said.