Preferences

Smart growth is a phrase on everyone's lips these days, but as with most politically charged catchphrases, it can have a variety of interpretations. As articulated by Vice President Gore and others, smart growth means matching housing to jobs, easing traffic gridlock, and preserving open space. The meaning for municipal planning and zoning authorities might be no growth at all, because the cost of providing municipal services, including education, to residents usually exceeds the revenue from property taxes, no matter how much homeowners are willing to pay. These municipalities prefer commercial and industrial growth, which provide much and require less.

John Sullivan is a lawyer with the Project on Civil Rights and Public Contracting Roger Clegg is president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity Supporters of racial and gender preferences in public contracting claim that preferences are needed because, without them, few contracts would go to minority- or women-owned firms. But a study recently done for Charlotte, N.C., reached exactly the opposite conclusion. After race and gender preferences ended, work awarded to minority- and women-owned businesses increased.

By declining Monday to hear a challenge to California's ban on race- or sex-based preferences, the U.S. Supreme Court has added ammunition to efforts nationwide to kill affirmative-action programs. Philadelphia has been hit hard. But its attempts to ensure awarding of public contracts to businesses owned by women and minorities are not dead. The city is in an uneasy cease- fire, as the Rendell administration gears up to write a new affirmative-action policy to replace the one that was struck down in 1989.

To become a county police officer in Louisville, Ky., an applicant must pass all sorts of tests. One of them is a written exam, and to pass the one given in April, whites needed a score of 92. Blacks needed a 73. When word of the disparity got out, the local newspaper wrote about "preferences," white candidates protested, the union threatened to sue and J. Alphonso Brown shook his head in disgust. "I said if that's what affirmative action means to you, you can keep your affirmative action plan," said Brown, a Louisville businessman and black Republican who sits on the federal Glass Ceiling Commission.

Anton C. Nelessen, urban planner, sat in his darkened office contrasting two slides projected on the wall. On one side was a picturesque one-way street in Boston's Back Bay area lined with three-story houses, brick sidewalks, trees and shrubs. The other side showed a contemporary townhouse development that was in Virginia but could have been anywhere, a cluster of identical units plunked down on a barren street. "It's all asphalt because there are no sidewalks," Nelessen said.

A profoundly divided Supreme Court, echoing the widespread discontent with affirmative action programs, made it tougher yesterday to defend many federal programs that give preferences to racial minorities. Splitting 5-4 along ideological lines, the justices said that to pass constitutional muster, any race-based affirmative action program must be "narrowly tailored" to further "compelling governmental interests. " That is a more severe standard than the one applied in 1980 by retired liberal Justice William J. Brennan Jr. He gave Congress leeway to enact affirmative action programs that were "substantially related" to an "important governmental objective," such as enhancing diversity.

GEORGE W. BUSH didn't idly sit by when the University of Michigan's policy of racial preferences in admissions was being argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last year. He sent out the U.S. Justice Department to oppose Michigan's "anti-merit" admissions policy. So imagine our surprise last week after he was cornered by a columnist who got him to say he also opposes "legacy" preferences like the one he got as the son of a Yale alumnus when he was accepted at the Ivy League school.

Following is a breakdown, as of Friday, of the presidential preferences of delegates to the Democratic and Republican national conventions. The preferences are based on actual delegates' public statements or binding state laws or party rules. The Democrats' super delegates - which include governors, and members of Congress and the party's National Committee - are included in the totals. DEMOCRATIC Bill Clinton 2,511.75 Paul Tsongas 551 Jerry Brown 608.25 Uncommitted 498 Other . 29 Total 4,198 Needed to nominate 2,145.

TATTOOS ARE beautiful and significant artwork adorned on a body. Instead of judging others for their preferences, why doesn't your letter-writer fix the government and worry about himself? I'm sure there are worse things in life than criticizing someone for tattoos. Being in the medical field, I have to cover up just because I need to make sure I respect each patient the same. Blah! Theresa A. Collins Philadelphia

Members of the Federal Communications Commission came under heavy fire yesterday at a congressional hearing for suggesting that minorities and women should not be given preferences for broadcast licenses. For years, the FCC has encouraged the ownership of radio and television stations by minority and female investors by offering credits that gave them an edge over whites or males in the licensing process. But a federal court has thrown out the FCC's preference policy for women and harshly criticized the minority preference policy.

PHOENIX - Jodi Arias spent 18 days on the stand sharing emotional and oftentimes X-rated details of her life before a rapt television and online audience. She had hoped it all might convince a jury that she killed her onetime boyfriend in self-defense. But the eight men and four women on the panel didn't buy it, convicting Arias of first-degree murder after about 15 hours of deliberations. Jurors will return Thursday to begin the next phase of the trial that could set the stage for Arias' receiving a death sentence - a penalty she said she now desires in a stunning interview after her conviction.

As the hydraulic lift rose one story to eye level with the Chink's Steaks sign, a few yards away Robert Quinn stood on the curb, venting - loudly - to his girlfriend. "I mean, he's ignoring the 10,000 signatures on the petition to keep the name? Now, he's giving in to political correctness !" Quinn, a 59-year-old truck driver from the Wissinoming neighborhood, represented the overwhelming sentiment among residents who showed up Monday morning to witness Chink's rechristening as Joe's - a small but symbolic blip in the city's history.

DETROIT - It's been called one of medicine's "open secrets" - allowing patients to refuse treatment by a doctor or nurse of another race. In the latest example, a white man with a swastika tattoo insisted that black nurses not be allowed to touch his newborn. Now two black nurses are suing the hospital, claiming it bowed to his illegal demands. The Michigan cases are among several lawsuits filed in recent years that highlight this seldom-discussed issue, which quietly persists almost 60 years after the start of the civil rights movement.

Q: For the last two years I have gone skiing with my girlfriend and some other couples. I should say they ski and I wait for them in the lodge. I honestly have no interest in skiing. That didn't seem to be a problem this year until my girl started really leaning on me to join the activity. Fact is, I have no interest in it and, honestly, I'm not down for getting hurt trying. - Slopeless in Southampton A: I'm down with you, dude. If you're not interested in skiing, that is your choice and it should be respected.

Question: I have low testosterone treated with Androgel applied once a day to my shoulder and upper chest area. It does seem to help, but I find the gel pretty messy. I know this is the most popular way low testosterone is treated, but why couldn't I just take testosterone pills instead? Answer: If it were only that easy! The problem is that testosterone in pill form just doesn't work well to correct a low testosterone level. When swallowed, it's absorbed in the digestive tract and sent to the liver, where not only is it heavily broken down, but it also exerts a direct toxic effect on the tissues of the liver before it has a chance to exert its desired effect on the rest of the body.

The state-owned Port of Wilmington took a step Friday toward a partnership in which Kinder Morgan Energy Partners Inc., a publicly traded energy company, would operate the terminal, expand cargoes, and invest $150 million in needed port infrastructure repairs. The Diamond State Port Corp. named Kinder, based in Houston with operations at Tioga Marine Terminal in Port Richmond and Fairless Hills, Bucks County, the "preferred" bidder to lease the port. In coming weeks, Kinder will meet with the port's customers, including Dole and Chiquita, and by the end of March, a "hard"-number proposal should be known, the port's chairman, Alan Levin, told a board meeting in New Castle.

'Gandalf is in Middle-earth to keep an eye on everybody, and that can be a rather serious matter," says Ian McKellen , not all that seriously, on the phone from his London home the other day. Absent last week from the Wellington, New Zealand, world premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , McKellen, of course, is Gandalf - the wise old wizard and guiding spirit in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and now in The Hobbit ...

The Daily News Pet of the Week is Bugsy (above), a 10-month-old American bulldog/German shepherd mix at the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society. Bugsy is affectionate and goofy. He would do best in a home with no cats, and with an owner who can give him basic training. To adopt Bugsy, visit PAWS, 100 N. 2nd St., or call 215-238-9901. When inquiring, please provide his tag identifier, A17751294-Clinic. A $110 fee includes sterilization, vaccines and microchipping.