Is Fort Thomas a suburb of Newport or is it the other way around?

Is Fort Thomas, Kentucky, a suburb of Newport? Or is it actually the other way around?

Those of you who keep an eye on the census every 10 years to guard against gerrymandering may have noticed something rather curious in northern Kentucky. According to the just-released 2010 census figures, Fort Thomas has just surpassed Newport as the largest city in Campbell County (though both cities lost people). This is probably the first time since at least the Civil War that Newport isn't the county's largest city.

Is this a politically motivated undercount of Newport? Probably to some extent, because I'm sure some of the dwellings that were deliberately skipped in 2000 were simply never added back to government address lists by 2010. (I notice some major streets missing from the TIGER files.) Then again, central cities elsewhere are growing again. (Only a handful of America's top 20 cities lost people in the new census.)

On the other hand, the city brang much of its decline on itself. In the past decade, Newport politicians have actively tried to chase out the working poor. The city has forced some multifamily buildings to be converted into single-family houses. The city also tore down a housing project that was home to hundreds. That space now sits empty. And city rulers abused eminent domain to decimate a huge working-class neighborhood to build a shopping center. Officials even tried abusing federal low-income housing funds by spending the money on homes for the rich. (None of these policies had any input from residents.)

If it's any help, Fort Thomas's population declined in the last decade even though it actually gained hundreds of housing units - which Newport did not.

Still, Newport leaders estimate their town actually has 20,000 people - not 15,000 as the latest census claims. After urban areas were undercounted last time, I can't argue with that, and it's imperative that the census figures are challenged at once. After living in Campbell County for 38 years, I know there's no possible way Newport could have fallen behind Fort Thomas, despite Newport's loss of housing stock. No way, no how, no why, no what.

The Newport debacle is a fly in the ointment of what may be an otherwise game-changing census. For example, I was amazed and delighted to find that Elliott County (Obama's best in the state) is now one of Kentucky's fastest growing counties, while GOP counties nearby are bleeding population. I'm waiting for the inevitable Republican meltdown that's going to result when they realize they can't milk as much out of redistricting as they did last time.