ctpp-news July 2001

ctpp-news@mailman.chrispy.net

6 participants
9 discussions

Census Bureau issues corrections to Proposed Urban Area criteria based on 2000 Census

by Nanda Srinivasan

The Census Bureau has released a second notice in the Federal Register on July 27, 2001 that includes corrections and clarifications to their original March 28 notice and additional information regarding specific areas that might be adversely affected by the proposed criteria. The comment period has been extended to August 27, 2001. Attached is the notice in pdf format. You can also access an HTML version of this document from the FHWA portal on Census Geography issues at: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census/27jy0137.htm For further questions on the new notice, contact the Census Bureau Geography Division by phone at (301) 457-1099, e-mail: ua(a)geo.census.gov, or by mail to: Geography Division/GAB, U.S. Census Bureau, 4700 Silver Hill Road, Stop 7400, Washington, DC 20233-7400. When sending comments by e-mail, please include a telephone number, street address, and professional/organization affiliation. The Census Bureau portal for the UA Criteria is http://www.census.gov/geo/www/ua/ua_2k.html Thanks Nanda Srinivasan

23 years, 4 months

Call for Poster Session - August 1st Deadline

by Chuck Purvis

Dear CTPP-News recipients: This is the last friendly reminder to submit your Census 2000 Poster Session Abstracts for the 2002 TRB Annual Meeting, by Wednesday, August 1st, to Ed Christopher of BTS. We really want to encourage the MPO and State DOT staffs, as well as consultants and academics, to offer posters on Census 2000 data. (The PL 94-171 data has been out since this past March, and it looks like all of the SF-1 data will be released before the end of August!) Following the census subcommittee CALL FOR POSTERS is our urban metadata subcommittee's CALL FOR PAPERs. Again, the August 1st deadline is firm! Thanks! Chuck Purvis, Chair, TRB urban data committee. **CENSUS CALL FOR POSTERS** Call for Poster Session Papers/Presentations The Subcommittee on Census Data for Transportation Planning (A1D08-1) is interested in developing a poster session for the 81st TRB Annual Meetings in January 2002. The subject of the poster session will center on the innovative and creative ways, in which census related data is being presented, displayed or delivered. Under the TRB guidelines, a poster session is a series of presentations on vertical display boards with direct interaction between the presenter and attendees. The entire presentation is placed on a display board and should be considered the equivalent to the conventional paper or presentation sessions. Typically, a TRB Poster Session is made up of reviewed papers. However, due to the evolving nature of the subject and the fact that the US Census related data is just now being released--time is short--presentations will be considered. Individuals interested in sharing some of the innovative and creative ways in which they are displaying and making Census data available within their transportation community are encouraged to "show their work". Those seeking publication as part of the TRB Research Record series need to have their paper submitted, according to TRB guidelines no later than August 1, 2001. For more information on the paper submittal process or the Annual meeting refer to; http://www4.trb.org/trb/annual.nsf For those wishing to present their materials without seeking full publication may submit an abstract by August 1, 2001 to Ed Christopher, Chair of the Subcommittee on Census Data for Transportation Planning at the address and phone number below. More detailed information and general instructions for a TRB Poster Session can be found at http://www.nas.edu/trb/archives/publications/am/poster.pdf Should you have any questions please contact either Ed Christopher, Subcommittee Chair, or Chuck Purvis Chair of the Urban Data and Information Systems Committee (A1D08). Ed Christopher Transportation Industry Analyst Bureau of Trans. Statistics K-30 400 Seventh Street, SW Washington D.C. 20590 202-366-0412 edc(a)bts.gov Chuck Purvis, AICP Senior Transportation Planner Metropolitan Trans. Commission 101 Eighth Street Oakland, CA 94607 510- 464-7731 cpurvis(a)mtc.ca.gov **METADATA CALL FOR PAPERS*** Invitation to submit papers for 2002 TRB MetaData applications in transportation Data has become considerable more plentiful, but the means of accessing it have become more difficult to manage. Metadata provides a practical technical means of communicating between very different needs of data collectors and owners and the users, however it is not without cost. One of the costs is the need to work out agreed vocabularies for the increasingly formalised metadata frameworks that are now becoming established. Most discussion in this area to date has concentrated upon the technical means for creating and underpinning metadata, and a plethora of Standards have been proposed for this. The objective of this invitation is to look at what the benefits might be to the end users, and what the barriers are to them being realised. To this end strongly technical papers focussing on the detailed debates on metadata implementation are being addressed in a separate Call for data Interoperability papers. The metadata subcommitee wishes to invite those making operational use of metadata, or who are working on delivering benefits to different transportation related groups to marshal these views and experiences to share help provide a cumulative view of what metadata and the data interoperability advances can deliver on the ground. Please contact Marcus Wigan (mwigan(a)vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au) subcommittee chair of AID08-2 for futher details or to discuss paper submissions or presentations. *********************************************** Charles L. Purvis, AICP Senior Transportation Planner/Analyst Metropolitan Transportation Commission 101 Eighth Street Oakland, CA 94607-4700 (510) 464-7731 (office) (510) 464-7848 (fax) www: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/ Census WWW: http://census.mtc.ca.gov/ ***********************************************

23 years, 5 months

News Alert (Very Long)

by berwyned

From: Census2000 <Census2000(a)ccmc.org> House of Reps Approves Census Bureau Funding, Designates Money to Explore Count of Overseas Americans Plus: Senate Committee Clears Census Bureau Funding; Hearing Scheduled on Counting Overseas Americans; Census Bureau To Release ACS Test Data On July 18, the House of Representatives approved funding for Census Bureau activities in fiscal year 2002 (FY02) as part of the Commerce, Justice, and State, The Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill (H.R. 2500), one of 13 regular annual spending bills that fund all federal government programs. The House agreed to an amendment offered by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) that designates money to plan for a count of private American citizens living abroad in the next census. Lawmakers narrowly rejected two other census-related amendments sponsored by Rep. Maloney, a member of the census oversight subcommittee. The $38.5 billion Commerce spending measure, approved by a vote of 405 - 19, allocates $519.8 million for Census Bureau programs in the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2001. The amount is $23.6 million below President Bush's budget request, but a $25 million carryover from previous years will give the Bureau $544.8 million to spend in FY02. The House appropriated $350.4 million for Periodic Censuses and Programs, which includes dissemination of Census 2000 data, planning for the 2010 census, and continued development of the proposed American Community Survey (ACS). The $25 million carryover, earmarked for Census 2000-related activities, brings the total spending level in this account to $375.4 million. The Bureau received $169.4 million for its Salaries and Expenses account, which covers ongoing statistical programs and surveys. The spending bill provides the full $29 million requested for the so-called "Long Form Transitional Database," which includes the first national-scale test (the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey) for the ACS. Another $27.1 million, under the Continuous Measurement program, covers continued data collection in the 31 ACS test sites. House adopts amendment on counting overseas Americans: Lawmakers adopted, by voice vote, Rep. Maloney's amendment on counting Americans abroad in the census. The proposal shifts $2.5 million from the Census 2000 account to the 2010 census account, to plan for a count of overseas Americans in the 2010 census. Last year, appropriators directed the Census Bureau to submit a report to Congress on the feasibility of counting private American citizens abroad. That report is due September 30. Speaking in support of her amendment, Rep. Maloney estimated that three to six million Americans who are not federal or military personnel are living outside of the United States. These Americans, she said, vote, pay taxes, and "make huge contributions to our economy each year." In Census 2000, the Census Bureau used information from administrative records to include members of the armed forces and federal civilian employees in the state population totals used for congressional apportionment. The State of Utah challenged that policy in court, claiming it was unfairly denied a fourth congressional district because private American citizens living abroad, such as Mormon missionaries, were not counted. A three-judge federal panel unanimously rejected Utah's challenge earlier this year; the state has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Census Subcommittee Chairman Dan Miller (R-FL), who also serves on the Appropriations Committee, agreed to the Maloney amendment. Rep. Miller said the Bureau and Congress must determine who should be included in a count of Americans living abroad, but that "[o]ur goal is to have them counted in the 2010 census." The congressman also cautioned that $2.5 million was "an arbitrary number" for the planning effort and that he would consult with the Census Bureau to include the necessary amount of money in the final bill. Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-NY), a former chairman of the Committee on International Relations who also spoke in support of the amendment, has introduced legislation calling on the Census Bureau to include private American citizens living outside of the United States in the decennial census. House rejects Maloney-Kucinich amendment on street and shelter data: A second amendment offered by Rep. Maloney and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) would have set aside $500,000 for the Census Bureau to publish data on the number of people counted at shelters, food kitchens, and on the streets during the Census 2000 Service-Based Enumeration (SBE). The House defeated the proposal, 217-209. The Census Bureau conducted a separate nighttime count of people without a usual residence over a three-day period in late March 2000. The Bureau worked with local governments and community service providers to identify, in advance, outdoor locations, food kitchens and vans, shelters for the homeless, and other sites where people who had no permanent address at that time might gather. However, the Bureau decided not to report separately the number of people counted on the streets or in shelters and food kitchens, below the national level. Bureau spokespeople have said the data could be misinterpreted as a count of the homeless population and have pointed to criticism of the 1990 Street and Shelter Night count, which advocates for the homeless contended was highly inaccurate. Instead, the Census 2000 counts of people on the streets and in shelters were included in the numbers for non-institutional group quarters such as college dormitories. Nationally, the Census Bureau said it counted about 280,000 people during the Service-Based Enumeration. Rep. Maloney said many local governments and community groups helped facilitate the Census 2000 street and shelter count, with some providing incentives (such as blankets) to cooperate with census takers and others training local residents to help enumerators interview wary people. While "no one should delude themselves that this is an accurate count of the homeless," the congresswoman said, "[t]his is not a good reason to suppress these data." Rep. Maloney said the Census Bureau recently agreed to release a report on the SBE this fall, elaborating on the information collected from people at shelters and food service locations. She suggested that the report could "clearly describe just what these data do and do not represent." Her amendment would have earmarked funds for that report. After homeless advocates strongly objected to the 1990 census Street and Shelter Night counts, the Bureau agreed to include a caveat in data publications, clarifying that the numbers did not represent a count of the homeless. Rep. Kucinich said the SBE data released so far "is not in a format useful to local governments." The former Cleveland mayor argued that only local data would "enable communities to determine what services are needed" for their residents. He emphasized that the count of people in shelters and living on the streets was not meant to be an official count of the homeless, but that "to withhold the information or to say it might be misinterpreted really is to lose an opportunity to get a broader assessment of the picture of homelessness in this country." Rep. William L. Clay, Jr. (D-MO), the ranking Democrat on the census oversight subcommittee, said a special report on the data collected during the SBE would "give local governments and community groups a way of evaluating their efforts." He said the only way to improve the accuracy of such a count "is to make it public and to enlist the efforts of all involved in improving those data in the next census." Rep. Miller opposed the Maloney-Kucinich amendment, saying that "professionals at the Bureau" believe the street and shelter counts are "not accurate information to release." The congressman released a letter signed by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the National Coalition for the Homeless (a member of the Commerce Department's Decennial Census Advisory Committee), and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, in support of "the Census Bureau's decision not to release a separate homeless count in the 2000 Census." The advocacy groups said that "people without housing should be counted by the Census," but that publishing separate counts of people "enumerated in homeless situations... would be inaccurate and misleading." "[H]omelessness is not a permanent condition, but a state of extreme poverty marked by a temporary lack of housing. ...A one-day, or 'snapshot' estimation of homelessness therefore distorts the reality of homelessness for most people who experience it," the advocates wrote. They also noted that census takers were not able to visit all shelters, service facilities, or outdoor sites where people might spend the night. In response, Reps. Maloney and Kucinich said many local service providers wanted the Census Bureau to release the street and shelter counts for their communities. They cited statements from the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, Baltimore's Office of Homeless Services, Seattle's Strategic Planning Office, and other organizations that said they had expected to see detailed results from the Service-Based Enumeration after helping the Bureau carry out the operation. Lawmakers split on proposal to improve Hispanic subgroup data: A third Maloney amendment to the Commerce spending bill failed on a rare tie vote of 215-215. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) joined the congresswoman in an effort to earmark $2 million to fill in gaps in the reporting of Hispanic subgroups in Census 2000. Rep. Maloney contended that a change in the wording of the so-called 'Hispanic origin' question led to a significant jump in the number of respondents who identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino but failed to write-in a specific subgroup, such as Dominican or Nicaraguan. Both the 1990 and 2000 census forms specified three subgroups - Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Cuban - that people of Hispanic origin could check. The 1990 question instructed respondents checking "Other Hispanic" to print one group and gave examples, such as Argentinean and Salvadorian. In 2000, the "Other Hispanic" option was followed only by the instruction, "Print group," leading some people to write in "Hispanic" or "Latino" instead of a specific subgroup. As a result, Rep. Maloney said, 17 percent of Hispanics were identified simply as "Other Hispanic" in 2000, compared to 1.9 million in 1990, making comparisons in growth of specific population groups over the decade difficult. Nationally, the Hispanic population grew by 58 percent between 1990 and 2000. But Census 2000 data showed a 15 percent decline in the number of Nicaraguans and a drop in the number of Panamanians, for example, even as the number of "Other Hispanics" grew from 2 million to 6 million, Rep. Maloney noted. She suggested that the Census Bureau could use data reported on the long form, which asked for a person's ancestry or national origin as well as their place of birth, to produce more accurate estimates for Hispanic subgroups, an editing procedure she said was used in 1990. Rep. Rangel, whose Harlem-based district is home to many Dominican Americans, said that the Bureau should "give us a clearer understanding of who we call Hispanic." Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the Commerce appropriations subcommittee, described the "Other Hispanic" category as "this incredible new number that, one, we do not know how to service; two, we do not know where they come from; and three, we do not know how best to deal with all of their needs." Rep. Miller, who opposed the amendment, said that the proposal "may be well intended, but it sets a dangerous precedent." He argued that the Census Bureau could not determine the national origin of a respondent who wrote in "Hispanic" instead of a specific subgroup and suggested that the long form would yield more detailed information. "[W]e cannot go back and change what people put down on the short form now," the congressman argued. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), chairman of the Commerce appropriations subcommittee, also spoke against the amendment, saying "the professionals [at the Census Bureau] would be opposed to this." Senate committee approves Bureau funding: The FY02 Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary spending bill began moving through the U.S. Senate, as the Committee on Appropriations approved its version of the measure on July 19. The Commerce appropriations subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC), did not vote on the bill separately. According to preliminary information from the committee, the $41.49 billion bill includes $517.1 million for Census Bureau programs in FY02. The Periodic Censuses account is funded at $348.5 million, about $2 million below the House-passed level. (The prior-year carryover brings the total spending level for this account to $375.5 million.) The Senate bill designates $26.2 million for Continuous Measurement (covering the ACS test sites), about $1 million below the House-approved funding level. The Bureau received $168.6 million for its Salaries and Expenses account. Congressional hearing scheduled: The House Subcommittee on the Census will hold a hearing on Thursday, July 26, on "Americans Abroad: How Can We Count Them?" The subcommittee had not released a witness list, but groups representing private American citizens living outside of the United States are expected to be among those testifying. The hearing will start at 1:30 p.m. in Room 2247 Rayburn House Office Building, and is open to the public. Census Bureau to release ACS test data: The Census Bureau will release data from the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey (C2SS) at a Washington, D.C. press conference on July 31. (Please note this has changed from the original date.) The C2SS, the first national-scale test of the proposed American Community Survey, collected data from 700,000 housing units during the decennial census year. The survey questions were substantially similar to those found on the Census 2000 long form. The initial C2SS data release includes information for the nation, the 50 states, and the District of Columbia. In the fall, the Census Bureau will publish additional C2SS data for most counties and cities with 250,000 population or greater. At the July 31st press event, the Bureau also will release data from 21 of the 31 ACS test sites, for geographic areas and population groups with 65,000 population or greater. New ACS resource materials available: Two new Fact Sheets on the Census Bureau's proposed American Community Survey are now posted on the Census 2000 Initiative web site. Go to www.census2000.org <http://www.census2000.org> for "The American Community Survey in Brief: Key Policy and Operational Issues" and "Meeting 21st Century Data Needs: >From the Census Long Form to the American Community Survey." Questions about the information contained in this News Alert may be directed to Terri Ann Lowenthal at 202/484-2270 or, by e-mail at <terriann2k(a)aol.com>. For copies of previous News Alerts and other information, use our web site www.census2000.org <http://www.census2000.org>. Please direct all requests to receive News Alerts, and all changes in address/phone/fax/e-mail, to the Census 2000 Initiative at <Census2000(a)ccmc.org> or 202/326-8700. Please feel free to circulate this information to colleagues and other interested individuals.

23 years, 5 months

Urban Area Boundary News and HPMS

by ed christopher

I just received this from Barna Juhasz and Company, of the FHWA Office of Highway and Information regarding the 'proposed' replacement of the Federal-aid Urban Area boundary with the Census Small Urban and Urbanized Area Boundaries. If you are having trouble reading the attachments or have questions or comments on the material that you want to direct to FHWA please contact Paul Svercl at paul.svercl(a)fhwa.dot.gov -- Ed Christopher Bureau of Transportation Statistics U.S. Department of Transportation 400 Seventh Street SW Washington DC 20590 202-366-0412

23 years, 5 months

RE: [CTPP] 1990 Urbanized Area Population

by Rob CASE

Thanks. I found it. >>> "Jesse Jacobs" <jjacobs(a)avcog.org> 07/12 10:10 AM >>> try american fact finder on the census website www.census.gov or if you have the redistricting data cd its on there for all census georaphy boundaries. Jesse Jacobs Transportation Planner/GIS Coordinator AVCOG, 125 Manley RD, Auburn, ME 04210 Phone (207) 783-9186 Faxx (207) 783-5211 e-mail jjacobs(a)avcog.org -----Original Message----- From: owner-ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net [mailto:owner-ctpp-news@chrispy.net]On Behalf Of Rob CASE Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 9:59 AM To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net Subject: [CTPP] 1990 Urbanized Area Population Where can I find a 1990 Urbanized Area Population figure for my metro area (Norfolk-VaBeach-Newport News)? I realize that because there are several different definitions of "urbanized area", there may be several different answers to my question. I simply would like to find one of those answers. Thank you for your help. Robert B. Case, PE Principal Transportation Engineer Hampton Roads Planning District Commission 723 Woodlake Dr., Chesapeake, Va. 23320 voice:757-420-8300; fax:757-523-4881 rcase(a)hrpdc.org

23 years, 5 months

1990 Urbanized Area Population

by Rob CASE

Where can I find a 1990 Urbanized Area Population figure for my metro area (Norfolk-VaBeach-Newport News)? I realize that because there are several different definitions of "urbanized area", there may be several different answers to my question. I simply would like to find one of those answers. Thank you for your help. Robert B. Case, PE Principal Transportation Engineer Hampton Roads Planning District Commission 723 Woodlake Dr., Chesapeake, Va. 23320 voice:757-420-8300; fax:757-523-4881 rcase(a)hrpdc.org

23 years, 5 months

Urban Areas from Census

by Bill Moore

Can anyone tell me what the status of the proposed rulemaking and procedures for defining the "3C" area is? I've had a request from a member district to expedite the expansion of our boundaries and I'd like to know how best to accomplish this or, when newly defined boundaries will be available from Census. Thanks for any assistance anyone can provide... Bill Moore, Senior Transportation Planner Pueblo MPO / City Planning and Development 211 E. D Street, P.O. Box 1427 Pueblo, CO 81003 Phone: (719) 583-4485 FAX: (719) 543-0572 E-Mail: bmoore(a)ci.pueblo.co.us

23 years, 5 months

Census 2000 news Alert (ITS LONG)

by ed christopher

From: Census2000 <Census2000(a)ccmc.org> Congress Reviews American Community Survey Plans; Census Bureau to Release First National ACS Test Data Plus: Updates on Funding, Lawsuits, and Monitoring Board Activities; Mayors, State Officials Press for Release of Adjusted Numbers; and more. The House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Census held its second hearing on the Census Bureau's proposed American Community Survey (ACS) on June 13. Acting Census Bureau Director William Barron Jr. told panel members that the ACS "is the cornerstone of the government's efforts to keep pace with the country's ever-increasing demands for timely and relevant household data." The proposed survey, which would collect data from three million households a year when fully implemented in 2003, is one of three key components of the Bureau's strategy for planning a 2010 census that does not include the traditional long form. (Note: The Census 2000 Initiative is preparing Fact Sheets on the ACS history, methodology and operations, and data products, as well as on key issues associated with development and implementation of the program. Look for these new materials on our web site starting July 16, at www.census2000.org <http://www.census2000.org>.) Three demographers who have closely followed development of the ACS expressed strong support for the concept of producing annual estimates of important demographic and socio-economic characteristics, but warned against abandoning the census long form before a thorough evaluation of the ACS program is complete. Dr. Paul Voss, Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Director of the Wisconsin Applied Population Laboratory, noted that the ACS evolved from a recognition following the 1990 census that "old data... cannot possibly serve decade-long programmatic needs in an era of fast-paced demographic change and devolution of authority." He commended the Census Bureau for modifying basic design elements of the ACS plan in response to feedback from local data users, particularly those from rural areas and small communities. The current ACS plan would produce annually updated estimates for small areas and small population groups, starting in 2006 and 2008, based on three or five-year averages. The multi-year averaging is necessary to ensure accumulation of sufficient sample size to approximate the reliability of census long form data gathered from 17 percent of U.S. households. Dr. Voss said his greatest concern is the sample size, over time, for small areas, which he said must be sustained to ensure high quality data for these communities. While the Census 2000 long form was sent to an average of one in six households, the sampling rate in the most sparsely populated areas was as high as 50 percent. The proposed ACS sample size, Dr. Voss cautioned, is "already beginning to fall short of th[e] goal" of yielding data as reliable as census long form data for rural and small areas. Insufficient funding, he said, "could well place the quality of small-area data from the ACS outside the range of acceptability." Linda Gage, who served as the California Governor's Census 2000 Liaison, said the state "support[s] the full development and rigorous evaluation of the American Community Survey," but that it is "premature" to endorse its use over the census long form. Ms. Gage noted that the survey would not be fully implemented until 2007, when five years of accumulated data would be available to produce the first estimates for areas and groups of 20,000 population and below in 2008, a category that includes 92 percent of the nation's cities. She said it is important for the ACS sample to increase as the number of housing units grows throughout the decade. Ms. Gage also urged improvements in the Census Bureau's annual (or 'intercensal') population estimates, which will be used as controls for the ACS sample. The Bureau's national annual estimate for April 1, 2000 was nearly seven million below the census count tied to that date. Other issues the Bureau should address, Ms. Gage suggested, include the effect of voluntary versus mandatory response and assistance for non-English speakers who receive the ACS questionnaire. "We recommend that 2010 census planning include a contingency for a long-form questionnaire until a positive decision to use the ACS can be made," Ms. Gage told subcommittee members. Don Hernandez, representing the Population Association of America and the Association of Population Centers, called the ACS an "innovative effort...to dramatically improve the timeliness of data" collected previously on the census long form and said the two organizations "strongly endorse the on-going development and evaluation of the ACS." Historically, Mr. Hernandez said, the long form has been "the most accurate, and often the only, source of data" for public and private sector decision-making, particularly at the local level. He echoed the concern that the ACS must receive full funding each year to sustain an adequate sample size that reflected growth in population and housing units. Mr. Hernandez suggested that the ACS content should be flexible to collect data on "pressing, emerging state-level public needs for local data." The Bureau must conduct broader and systematic evaluations of the ACS data and operations through release of data for the smallest areas in 2008, Mr. Hernandez said, before data users can assess fully the program's viability. The subcommittee also heard testimony from Marilyn McMillen, Chief Statistician at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. Department of Education. NCES "collects and disseminates data on all aspects of American Education from pre-school through adult education," using sample surveys, performance and skill assessments, longitudinal studies, and universal surveys. NCES uses data from the census long form to compile information at the state, local, and school district levels, Ms. McMillen said. The ACS would allow the agency to produce more timely data, as well as to identify households with "rare populations," such as recent immigrants, in order to field more targeted surveys to assess the educational characteristics of these populations. Ms. McMillen noted that the Education Department distributes $12 billion annually to state and local governments based in whole or in part on data collected only on the census long form, but that lawmakers have required the use of updated counts of school-age children in poverty for the largest grant program. The ACS, she said, would help improve the accuracy of those estimates for counties and school districts. Subcommittee members expressed a range of views about the proposed ACS design and content. Chairman Dan Miller (R-FL) expressed concern about the survey's potential cost, noting a Bureau estimate of $131 million in fiscal year 2003 (FY03), the first year of nationwide implementation. He acknowledged the benefits of the new program, such as providing more timely information than the once-a-decade long form, but said cost and privacy concerns must be considered "in order to determine whether the ACS is the best means by which to collect" the data policymakers need. Rep. William L Clay (D-MO), the panel's new Ranking Minority Member, said Congress must consider whether the ACS is an effective investment in light of requests to improve statistical programs in several agencies. Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) said there were "very serious privacy concerns" associated with the questions proposed for the ACS, which currently includes 69 questions, compared to 53 asked on the Census 2000 long form. "There is no way that this is the bare minimum of information that the government needs," Rep. Barr told Mr. Barron. Mr. Barron acknowledged that the first year cost estimate of $131 million for the ACS was lower than projected costs for subsequent years, because there would be only nine months of field follow-up required in FY03. (Note: The federal fiscal year begins October 1, while the ACS will run on a calendar year starting in January.) But the "life cycle costs" for the 2010 census, Mr. Barron said, "will demonstrate cost neutrality" between repeating the Census 2000 design in 2010 and conducting a short-form only census in 2010, with the ACS replacing the long form. In response to concerns about the intrusiveness of the ACS questions, the director noted that all of the topics have a federal law mandate or are required to administer federal programs or laws. Bureau set to release national, state ACS test data: This month, the Census Bureau will start releasing data collected in the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey (C2SS), which surveyed 58,000 households a month using the questionnaire and methods developed for the American Community Survey. The C2SS, administered in 1,203 counties during the decennial census year, was designed "to demonstrate the operational feasibility of collecting [census] long form information at the same time, but separately from the decennial census," according to the Bureau. The July release will include demographic, economic, and housing information for the nation, the 50 states, and the District of Columbia. The tables will be available through the Bureau's web-based American FactFinder at <http://factfinder.census.gov>. By the end of 2001, similar data will be available for most counties and municipalities with 250,000 population or greater. More information on the C2SS can be found at www.census.gov/c2ss/www <http://www.census.gov/c2ss/www>, beginning July 25. Utah pursues legal, legislative remedies for loss of House district: The State of Utah formally appealed a lower federal court ruling that the Census Bureau was not required to count all American citizens living abroad in Census 2000, a policy the State claims cost it a fourth congressional seat in the post-census apportionment process. The appeal goes directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Utah, its state legislative leaders, and its congressional delegation filed a lawsuit in January, contending that the Census Bureau's failure to count more than 10,000 Mormon missionaries serving in foreign countries, while including members of the armed forces and federal government employees stationed abroad, had shifted the last seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Utah to North Carolina. In April, a three-judge panel unanimously rejected the State's argument that the Census Bureau's policy was unconstitutional. Meanwhile, Rep. Christopher Cannon (R-UT), a member of the Subcommittee on the Census, introduced legislation that would require the Census Bureau to submit a detailed plan for counting American citizens living abroad in future censuses. H.R. 2171 (introduced on June 14) would prohibit the Bureau from spending funds to implement the American Community Survey until the Secretary of Commerce approves a written plan for counting overseas Americans and puts regulations in place to carry out the plan. In a written statement, Rep. Cannon said his bill "will address the Bureau's perverse set of priorities." The congressman told The (Salt Lake City) Deseret News that, "The information [collected in the ACS] is nice. But the core mission of the census according to the Constitution is for apportionment." H.R. 2171 was referred to the Committee on Government Reform, which has not yet scheduled hearings on the measure. The Census Bureau is preparing a report to Congress, due September 30, on the issues involved in counting overseas Americans. Acting Director Barron told the Decennial Census Advisory Committee at a June 21 meeting that the report would raise significant concerns about the feasibility of such a count. Utah is challenging its failure to gain a fourth congressional district on other grounds, as well. It filed a second lawsuit in April, arguing that the use of a statistical method called "imputation" violates the Census Act and the Constitution. Imputation involves the use of statistical models to assign occupants (or vacancy status) to housing units for which census takers cannot gather any information, based on data collected from nearby households. A hearing in the second case has been set for August; the State filed a motion for summary judgment in June, asking a new three-judge panel to declare the use of imputation illegal without a prolonged trial. The Census Bureau has said imputation added about 1.2 million people, or 0.2 percent of the population, to the state population totals used for apportionment in Census 2000. Census Monitoring Board activities: The Congressional Members of the U.S. Census Monitoring Board held a press briefing in Washington, D.C. on June 7 to discuss their semi-annual report to Congress. A. Mark Neuman, co-chair for the Board's three Republican members (there is one Republican vacancy), called Census 2000 the "most successful" in history, citing a 60 percent reduction over 1990 in the undercount gap between African Americans and non-Hispanic Whites and a "dramatic reduction" in the undercount of Hispanics. Mr. Neuman, who succeeded Kenneth Blackwell as co-chair for the Congressional appointees, said the Census 2000 results do not mean "we can't do better in the future," but that analysis of the count "tells us how to do better." He credited local partnerships and the use of enumerators indigenous to the neighborhoods they counted for helping to increase participation among traditionally hard-to-enumerate populations in 2000. Republican Board Member David Murray called the possibility of using the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) survey results to statistically correct under- and overcounts in the census a case of "hope over experience." He criticized the adjustment methodology, which is based on the A.C.E. survey results, for relying on "weak" assumptions about the similarity of different demographic subgroups (i.e. racial groups, renter/owner, age cohorts, male/female) and for having too small a sample to measure the accuracy of the raw census data for numerically small population groups. The A.C.E. program included a quality-check survey of 314,000 households, designed to measure the numbers of people missed and counted twice in the census. The Congressional Members' report, entitled "A Guide to Statistical Adjustment: How It Really Works," is available on their web site at www.cmbc.gov <http://www.cmbc.gov>. The Presidential Members issued their own report in April, which is available on their web site at www.cmbp.gov <http://www.cmbp.gov>. Congress established the eight-member Board in late 1997 to monitor Census 2000 activities. Congressional Republican leaders and President Clinton each appointed four members to the panel. Earlier this week, the Board's four Presidential Members released estimates of the Census 2000 undercount for counties with populations of 500,000 or greater. Dr. Eugene Ericksen, a professor of statistics at Temple University and co-chair of the Special Advisory Panel on Adjustment during the 1990 census, prepared the estimates based on information from the A.C.E. survey. The co-chair for the Presidential Members, Gilbert Cassellas, said the analysis was necessary in light of the Census Bureau's decision not to release the A.C.E.-adjusted numbers, which he said "could be of significant use to state and local governments for planning decisions and funds distribution." Dr. Ericksen described his county undercount estimates as "reasonable approximations" of the Census Bureau's calculations and noted that they do not include the 'group quarters' population. He previously estimated the undercount rates for states, which he said, "equal the [Census Bureau's] estimates." According to Dr. Rexene's analysis, Los Angeles County had the highest number of people missed (176,000), while Bronx County (NY) had the highest undercount rate (2.7 percent), of the nation's largest counties. The Presidential Members also criticized the Commerce Department and Census Bureau for proposing new rules governing the release of information to the Monitoring Board and other oversight bodies, which they believe "plainly violates our enabling legislation" and "severely impedes our statutory reporting requirements." In a letter to Commerce Secretary Donald Evens, Mr. Cassellas said the proposed Memorandum of Understanding was "designed to repress the flow of information" on the census. In a subsequent letter to the chairmen of the Senate committees that oversee and fund the Census Bureau, Mr. Cassellas said the Bureau would not comply with requests for data from the Monitoring Board unless its members agreed not to reveal the information publicly until 2002. The Board's authority will expire on September 30, 2001. The final report from the Presidential Members "will not be complete, having been denied the data necessary for a thorough and complete analysis of Census 2000," Mr. Cassellas told the senators. Census Bureau FY03 Funding Bill Starts Moving Through House: The House of Representatives began the process of funding Census Bureau activities in Fiscal Year 2002 (FY03), as the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and State, The Judiciary and Related Agencies approved a draft spending bill by voice vote on June 27. The subcommittee "mark," as it is called, includes $519.8 million for the Census Bureau in the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2001, about $23.6 million less than the Bush Administration's request of $543.4 million. The $38.5 billion spending bill, one of 13 regular annual appropriations measures that fund all federal government activities, allocates $4.76 billion for the Commerce Department, which houses the Census Bureau. The Commerce-Justice-State panel approved $350.4 million for Periodic Censuses and Programs, about $24.5 million below the President's request of $374.8 million. The "Periodic" account, one of two main Census Bureau funding categories, covers the decennial census and proposed American Community Survey. The panel approved $169.4 million for the Salaries and Expenses account (which funds ongoing surveys), an increase of $863,000 over the President's request of $168.6 million. A more detailed spending bill will emerge in the coming days, as the full Appropriations panel prepares to consider it when Congress returns from its July 4th recess next week. (For details of President Bush's FY03 budget request for the Census Bureau, please see our April 16, 2001 News Alert.) Stockholders continue calls for release of adjusted data: The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCG) adopted a resolution at its annual meeting in Detroit, calling upon the Census Bureau to release the statistically adjusted census numbers down to the block level. The resolution, offered by Stanford (CT) Mayor Daniel Malay and approved on June 25, also urged the U.S. Senate to hold hearings to address the mayors' "grave concerns" about the implications of the Census 2000 undercount for cities and to review the Census Bureau's plans to complete the analysis of the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (A.C.E.) program. The USCG "applauded" the Bureau for "an admirable job of conducting the 2000 Census under difficult conditions," but said the Administration has not adequately explained how it will account for the 6.4 million people the census missed. Two state legislators from Oregon are seeking access to the adjusted Census 2000 data through the Freedom of Information Act (FOE). Sen. Margaret Carter (Portland) and Sen. Susan Castile (Deign) filed a lawsuit in federal district court on June 11 after the U.S. Commerce Department (the defendant in the lawsuit) declined to release the statistically adjusted numbers in response to the senators' FOE request. The department cited a FOE exemption for information that is "pre decisional and deliberative." Sen. Castile said the unadjusted numbers, which the Census Bureau sent to the states in March for use in the redistricting process, "continue historical patterns of undercounting," but that "we won't really know how badly Oregonians are being shortchanged" unless the Bureau releases the entire set of adjusted data. Sen. Carter said the adjusted census numbers "will ensure that Oregon and other states get what they deserve when it comes to the allocation of federal funds. ...We need to right a wrong, not perpetuate one." Thomas Balmier, an attorney representing the senators, noted that the 9th United States Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Oregon, granted California's FOE request for the state's adjusted though unofficial data following the 1990 census. In Washington, DC, 51 Democratic Representatives called upon the Senate to "investigate the Commerce Department's refusal to release the corrected data." In a letter spearheaded by Rep. Clay and Rep. Carolina Mallory (DNA), the legislators asked Sen. Earnest Holdings (D.Sc.), who chairs the Commerce appropriations subcommittee, and Sen. Joseph Liberian (CDT), chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, to hold hearings on the department's decision to withhold the adjusted numbers, which they said could affect the allocation of $185 billion annually in federal program funds. Acting Bureau Director Barron told members of the agency's advisory committees at their meetings in late June that the Executive Steering Committee for A.C.E. Policy (ESCAPE) would recommend whether to use statistically adjusted data to allocate federal program funds and for other non redistricting purposes by October 15. Newly confirmed Commerce Under Secretary Kathleen Cooper, who also spoke to advisory committee members, said she was not sure who would make the final decision about using the adjusted numbers. Questions about the information contained in this News Alert may be directed to Terry Ann Lowenthal at 202/484-2270 or, by e-mail at mailto:terriann2k@aol.com. For copies of previous News Alerts and other information, use our web site www.census2000.org <http://www.census2000.org>. Please direct all requests to receive News Alerts, and all changes in address/phone/fax/e-mail, to the Census 2000 Initiative at mailto:Census2000@ccmc.org or 202/326-8700. Please feel free to circulate this information to colleagues and other interested individuals. -- Ed Christopher Bureau of Transportation Statistics U.S. Department of Transportation 400 Seventh Street SW Washington DC 20590 202-366-0412

23 years, 5 months

How to convert SF1 data to other platforms

by Nanda Srinivasan

This e-mail is a follow-up to the another posted a while ago. Daryl Scott from South Western Regional Planning Agency wrote to me a note on how he converted SF1 data into an Oracle database, and subsequently related it to Arcview. Attached is his note. SF1 has a number of tables. Oracle and other databases are especially capable of handling huge tables and files. Darryl's note will be useful to anyone interested in developing extensive Census 2000 databases for their planning region. Thanks Nanda Srinivasan ********************************************** INCOMING from Darryl Scott: Here is my experience with importing the data into Oracle. My goal was to load all the data for the State of Connecticut, all Counties in Connecticut, all Towns in Connecticut, and all tracts, block groups, and blocks in Fairfield County from Census 2000 Summary File 1 into Oracle and link it to GIS. Below are the steps I took to accomplish that task. I do not describe the failed attempts in detail. 1. I downloaded the data in ASCII format for Connecticut from the Census Web Site and extracted all the files. 2. I imported the ctgeo file into Oracle. 3. Then I created a view that contained all the records that I wanted to import into Oracle. --- create view ctfcgeo as SELECT sumlev, geocomp, logrecno, state, county, cousub, cousubcc, place, placecc, placedc, tract, blkgrp, block, msacmsa, cmsa, macci, pmsa, necma, necmacci, ua, uatype, ur, sldu, sldl, vtd, vtdi, zcta3, zcta5, arealand, areawatr, arealand/2590000 as area_sqmi, name, funcstat, gcuni, pop100, hu100, sdelm, sdsec, sduni, taz, macc, uacp, stfid FROM ctgeo WHERE (sumlev = '040' and geocomp='00') or (sumlev='050') or (sumlev = '060' and Name Like '% town') or (sumlev = '140' and county = '001') or (sumlev = '150' and county = '001') or (sumlev = '101' and county = '001'); --- 4. I tried to import one data file and delete the unneeded records with a SQL command, but the process proved to be very inefficient. So I wrote an Avenue Script that extracts the desirable records from sf1 data files. I saved the list of good values from the logrecno field to a text file. The script created one .dat file for each each .uf1 file. In addition, the script removed the first four fields from the uf1 file. The script caused ArcView and even the computer to hang, but that was how I knew the script was working. --- mypath="d:\gis\gisdata_temp\Census2000\sumfile1\" file_list={"ct00005","ct00006","ct00007","ct00008","ct00009", "ct00010","ct00011","ct00012","ct00013","ct00014","ct00015","ct00016","ct000 17","ct00018","ct00019", "ct00020","ct00021","ct00022","ct00023","ct00024","ct00025","ct00026","ct000 27","ct00028","ct00029", "ct00030","ct00031","ct00032","ct00033","ct00034","ct00035","ct00036","ct000 37","ct00038","ct00039"} rec_file=TextFile.Make((mypath+"ctfcgeo_logrecno.txt").AsFileName,#FILE_PERM _READ) rec_source=rec_file.Read(rec_file.GetSize) rec_file.Close rec_list_string = {} rec_list_number = {} rec_list_string=rec_source.AsTokens(nl) for each rec in rec_list_string rec_list_number.add(rec.AsNumber) end for each file_prefix in file_list data_file_name=(mypath+file_prefix+".uf1").AsFileName newdata_file_name=(mypath+file_prefix+".dat").AsFileName data_file=LineFile.Make(data_file_name,#FILE_PERM_READ) newdata_file=LineFile.Make(newdata_file_name,#FILE_PERM_WRITE) for each i in 0..(data_file.GetSize-1) dline=data_file.ReadElt if (dline=nil) then continue end dline=dline.Right(dline.Count-15) d_recno=dline.Left(7) d_num=d_recno.AsNumber results=rec_list_number.FindByValue(d_num) if (results= -1) then continue end newdata_file.WriteElt(dline) end newdata_file.Close data_file.Close end msgbox.info("Finished Processing Files","Script") --- 5. The following day, I created the SQL statements to create the tables in Oracle and control files to import the information in the dat files. (These files were compressed into a zip file and attached to this document.) I decided to use the same field names as described in the data dictionary. I sought help from Nanda Srinivasan at FHWA who told me about the sf1combo.xls file found at http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/data/sf12000/Tools/. That file saved hours of work because I was able to create most of my SQL and control files from it. I still had to explore the data files to see which fields had decimal places, but fortunately most of the data did not have decimal places. I also added the number of the datafile to the logrecno field name to make sure that each table had unique fields (e.g. logreno1 for ct00001, logrecno2 for ct00002, and so on.) I also used TextPad (http://www.textpad.com) to create the SQL and control files because of its ability to select text as blocks rather than lines. The SQL and control files worked and I was able to import the data from SF1 into Oracle. 6. Then I had to link the data to TIGER 2000 files in shape file format. I already had the shape files from http://www.geographynetwork.com/. I created some views in Oracle where I joined the data files to the geography file and used the [logreno] field as the common field. Then, I used ArcView's Database Access Extension to add the Oracle views to a ArcView project. Except for the town level, I discovered that I needed to create a common field to link the Oracle views to the shape files. Thus, I created a stfid field in the ctgeo table with the SQL statements below. --- alter table ctgeo add stfid VARCHAR2(16); update ctgeo set stfid = state||county||tract where sumlev='140'; update ctgeo set stfid = state||county||tract||blkgrp where sumlev='150'; update ctgeo set stfid = state||county||tract||block where sumlev='101'; --- 7. To improve performance, I created indexes on the logrecno* field on each sf1 table. I also indexed the sumlev field and stfid field in the ctgeo field. It took a little bit longer than expected, but I accomplished my goals. I imported the sf1 data into Oracle and became able to produce thematic maps in ArcView. Because of this approach, the sf1 data can be used in ArcView, Microsoft Access, and any other software that can connect to the Oracle database through an ODBC connection. <<sf1_oracle_sql.zip>> -- Daryl Scott South Western Regional Planning Agency Stamford Government Center 888 Washington Blvd., 3rd Floor Stamford, CT 06901 Tel: (203) 316-5190 Fax: (203) 316-4995 E-mail: dscott(a)swrpa.org

23 years, 5 months

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ctpp-news July 2001