Numero uno: New York City has a strong Census finish

After the virus-extended, politically curtailed, extended again by court order deadline, the 2020 Census sputtered to a foolish Supreme Court-decreed end at 6 a.m. on Friday, and now the final numbers are in.

Of America’s big cities, Detroit clocked in with 51% of the population self-reporting their information (self-reporting is more accurate than having enumerators ring doorbells). Miami was higher, at 53.8%. Philly was even better at 56.9%, right behind Baltimore’s 57.0%. Los Angeles scored 58.6%, with Houston at 58.9%.

Next up the ladder were Boston, Atlanta, Dallas and Orlando. Chicago beat all of them, with 60.9%, but it remained the Second City, as New Yorkers produced a self-response rate of 61.8%.

This for a notoriously hard-to-count city with the nation’s largest population of undocumented persons, many of whom may have been frightened away by the Trump administration’s purposely intimidating efforts to include an unconstitutional citizenship question on the forms. The Supreme Court properly killed that in a fight led by New York.

Hand it to yourselves, New York. Despite having a predicted self-response rate of 58%, before the pandemic hit; despite having the worst of the virus of anywhere in the world; despite having thousands who headed for the hills and the valleys and beaches and woods when COVID landed on our head in March and April — despite all those obstacles, you counted yourselves in. It’s a salute to Mayor de Blasio, and to Julie Menin, who led the all-hands-on-deck push.

Now the struggle continues, to ensure that the Trumpies don’t screw around with the data and exclude undocumented immigrants in divvying up congressional seats, a case, led by New York, which the Supreme Court will hear next month. May the good guys win and the nation’s biggest city get what it deserves.

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