3.30.2001 00:16

Influx of Hispanics, South County boom highlight changes

BY ARIEL SABAR and
DAVID HERZOG
Journal Staff Writers

Rhode Island's Hispanic population doubled in the 1990s, propelling Providence to its fastest overall population growth in nearly a century and making it a majority-minority city for the first time in history, according to detailed numbers released yesterday from the 2000 Census.

The capital city grew 8 percent, nearly twice as fast as the state, to 173,618 residents. The increase gave Providence its largest percentage gain since an influx of European immigrants from 1900 to 1910, and pushed Providence past Worcester as New England's second-largest city, after Boston.

Across Rhode Island, the Census shows a state with more racial and ethnic minorities than ever before and with predominantly white suburbs that are sprawling further south and west. Experts said that the sharp shifts in racial and ethnic makeup could affect everything from public schools and social services to the economy and politics.

Washington County was far and away the state's fastest-growing county, with coastal towns such as South Kingstown, Charlestown and Block Island continuing to draw newcomers to its open spaces, ocean vistas and well-regarded schools. Yet the fastest-gaining town in the state was West Greenwich, in Kent County, where the rural setting and few controls on growth led to a 46-percent population increase in the 1990s.

Seven of the state's 39 cities and towns lost population, but they formed no particular pattern and included such disparate places as East Providence and Foster. The largest population losers in the 1990s were Middletown and Newport, where the departure of a dozen Navy vessels led to a loss of about 4,500 civilian and military jobs.

The purpose of the numbers released yesterday is to allow political leaders to redraw electoral districts to adjust for population changes during the 1990s. And Providence's population growth means that the city will lose less clout to the newer -- and typically less Democratic -- suburbs than city officials had feared.

But the numbers also offer a first look at the state's racial and ethnic mix and population changes down to the block level. A much more nuanced portrait will emerge in the coming months, when the Census Bureau releases detailed figures about age, household composition and income.

THE CENSUS BUREAU reported in December that Rhode Island's population grew by 4.5 percent in the 1990s, to 1,048,319 people. Yesterday's figures show that the state's growth was entirely attributable to minorities.

The state lost nearly 38,000 non-Hispanic whites during the 1990s, as an elderly generation of mostly white residents died and as young professionals crossed state lines in search of jobs.

At the same time, the state gained about 82,500 racial and ethnic minorities, slightly more than half of them Hispanics. Federal immigration statistics show that the largest group of immigrants to Rhode Island in the 1990s were from the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Guatemala.

But experts say that in the past five years, Rhode Island, with its cheaper rents and lower cost of living, has also been drawing Hispanics from New York City, Boston and other major Northeastern cities.

The trend has begun to stem several decades of population loss, since 1950, in former factory centers such as Providence and Central Falls.

"The increase in Hispanic population is a big part of the story," said John P. O'Brien, the chief of the Statewide Planning Program, a state agency that analyzes population data. "That, in itself, seems to have reversed a trend of outmigration from a number of our central cities, particularly Providence, Central Falls and, to a lesser extent, Pawtucket."

In 1990, about 1 in 10 Rhode Islanders was a racial or ethnic minority. In 2000, nearly one in five was a minority.

(The Census recognizes just one ethnic minority, Hispanics, who may be of any race.)

FOR THE FIRST time in state history, Rhode Island has communities -- Providence and Central Falls -- where minorities outnumber non-Hispanic whites.

The 2000 Census was the first to let people choose more than one race, which has complicated comparisons with earlier counts.

Counting those who identified themselves by just one race, the number of black Rhode Islanders grew by 21 percent, to about 46,908, or about 4.5 percent of the population.

Asians grew 31 percent, but still make up just a tiny 2.3 percent of the population. Native Americans grew 26 percent and now account for about half of one percent of Rhode Islanders. Non-Hispanic whites declined by about 4 percent, and now make up about 82 percent of the population.

Some 28,300, or 2.7 percent, of Rhode Islanders identified themselves as of more than one race, slightly above the national average of 2.4 percent. The highest number of multiracial Rhode Islanders was in Central Falls, where 7.4 percent said they were of more than one race, a higher percentage than in New York City's most diverse borough, Queens.

More striking than any other trend, experts said yesterday, was the surge in the Hispanics. Hispanics saw their numbers grow in Rhode Island in the 1990s from nearly 45,752 to 90,820, a pace of growth double that of Massachusetts.

Most of that growth was in Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls, where Hispanics are filling the schools, opening hundreds of new stores and businesses and launching newspapers and radio stations. But the Census numbers also show that Hispanics are following earlier generations of immigrants into suburbs such as Cranston and Warwick.

Indeed, two-thirds of the population growth in Cranston in the 1990s was attributable to Hispanics.

CONCERNED ABOUT an undercount in 1990, Census officials launched an unprecedented campaign to get minorities to fill out the 2000 Census forms. In Rhode Island, Spanish-language radio stations aired months of programs on the Census and Latino advocates held neighorhood meetings to allay immigrants' fears about government forms.

Planning experts said yesterday that half or perhaps more of the increase in minorities could be a result of a more accurate count, rather than actual growth.

"Finally, they're getting the number close to what it really is," said Thomas E. Deller, a former deputy planning director for the City of Providence who is now president of the Rhode Island Chapter of the American Planning Association.

Still, to prominent Latinos, the new numbers offered confirmation of their growing political muscle in a state in which Hispanics now make up nearly 9 percent of the population.

"For Latinos, it means that we have a place where our influence is going to be felt much more than in other parts of the country," said Pablo Rodriguez, a physician from Puerto Rico who is president of the Rhode Island Latino Political Action Committee. "This will obviously translate into more political power."

Experts said that the mushrooming Hispanic population could also increase financial strains on cities, as poor immigrants seek social services and spur schools to hire more bilingual teachers and build new classrooms.

"It is important to strategize and work with others to ensure that these numbers do not represent just more minority people who will end up in poverty," Victor Capellan, a Providence school administrator who is the former director of the Center for Hispanic Policy & Advocacy, said in a statement.

GOVERNOR ALMOND devoted much of a prepared statement to the Hispanic growth, saying "Our cities have grown and prospered through the contributions of new generations of immigrants. It's gratifying to see this trend continue."

Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. has worked to win Providence a national reputation for urban rebirth, with WaterFire, a downtown arts and culture district and a new upscale mall. Yet a critical mass of Latinos on the city's South Side, and a growing business district along Broad Street to serve and employ them, was the key factor in the city's growth, experts said.

Some 24,000 non-Hispanic whites left the capital city in the 1990s and were replaced by about 37,000 minorities.

Many of the city's Hispanics work in low-wage service and factory jobs, but a growing number are starting small businesses and moving into the middle class.

"We are a multicultural city and maybe some people don't like that," Cianci said at a news conference yesterday. "If a white person chooses to live on a farm, because they have money and they don't like the cultural life here anymore, then fine, let them go live on a farm."

But Cianci appeared to delight in the city's population growth, which guarantees Providence more political clout and more federal aid. The only New England city with more than 100,000 people to grow by a larger percentage was Stamford, Conn., the burgeoning New York City suburb.

"We are the sunbelt of the Northeast," Cianci boasted.

The new Census numbers also show the continued popularity of former beach and farm towns on the state's southern coast.

In South Kingstown, which saw the largest numerical increase in Washington County for the second decade, town officials have tried to slow growth with limits on building permits, purchases of open space, and zoning that makes the state's rural outskirts off limits to developers.

"The challenge, of course, is the impact on town services," says South Kingstown Planning Director Anthony Lachowicz. "Being number one in terms of numeric change, it just means we need to continue our growth management efforts."

-- With reports from Scott MacKay, Scott Mayerowitz and Nicole Gesualdo.

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