“So was it a boom or wasn’t it?Do you have any more elbow room today, knowing that Bainbridge Island’s population is a tad over 20,000, rather than the 23,000 or more some had predicted?We confess to being somewhat taken aback by the results of the 2000 census, doing a double- and triple-take when we saw the numbers over the weekend. Just a year ago, looking back on a decade of new subdivisions even as more building permits piled up on the desks of city planners, we predicted on this page that our census numbers were going to be huge. And as quick as that (along with plans to take our crystal ball down to the psychic fair on weekends), all our illusory neighbors vanished. The highway sign will read: Welcome to Bainbridge Island: Population 20,308.Perhaps we’ve all been swept up in the angst over change in our community. Or perhaps it’s simply a matter of perspective. If the vacant lot down the street sprouts a mansion, it’s a boom. If the book you want from the library is already checked out, it’s a boom. If you’re stuck in traffic trying to get out of the Safeway parking lot, it’s a boom.And it’s a boom because there are still enough people living on Bainbridge who can recall a day when nobody really moved here for any reason. A day when the Seattle P-I would do a feature story on a family just because they lived on Bainbridge year round – the novelty!Truth is, confronted with the reality check of the census numbers, nothing has changed. We still face the same questions that persist in our planning and our community-building:Is island growth going where we want it? Is development showing a healthy respect for our natural systems? Are expensive land and home prices changing the social demographics of the island, leaving us too exclusive? Fast food joints, or no fast food joints?They’re all worthy issues, and we suspect our priorities and goals will remain unchanged. Even as we write, the mayor has a 90-day committee looking at possible open space acquisitions, and gauging support for a bond levy in the $5-10 million range; it will be another test of our resolve to protect more of the rural Bainbridge of story and myth.For the record, our rate of growth was about level with the previous decade – 2.5 percent compounded – and on par with what the rest of the county experienced from 1990-2000. We’re still 54th in the state in total population, and always at the bottom in population density. Expressed another way, over the decade, Washington picked up 1 million new residents over the decade, and 4,458 of them settled here – about 0.46 percent. Whoops – there’s that sign again: Bainbridge Island: Population 20,308.Cause for alarm? Could be worse.Some readers may have noticed that one of the regional newspapers – apparently failing to realize that its 1990 figure included only Winslow, not the whole island – has been publishing a chart showing Bainbridge’s population a decade ago was less than 4,000.That would be a growth rate of…550 percent!Yikes. Now that would be a story. “