ctpp-news April 2011

ctpp-news@mailman.chrispy.net

31 participants
21 discussions

by Harun Rashid

Has anyone had success using this web based tool from Census? We are using IE v 8 with popup-blocker turned off . Still the application is not loading. Here's the mail-out from Census: The U.S Census Bureau announces the release of a new tool for accessing the 2005-2009 ACS 5-Year Summary File. The Census Bureau's DataFerrett web application<http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTExOTcwN…> now houses the summary file and provides additional methods for users to define and extract a subset of the estimates. The DataFerrett interface is easy to use and packages the data in six different file formats, including SAS, SPSS, and Stata. For more information about the 2005-2009 ACS 5-Year Summary Files, please visit the Summary File Data and Documentation<http://links.govdelivery.com:80/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTExOTcwN…> page on the ACS web site. Regards, American Community Survey staff Harun Rashid, AICP Senior GIS Planner BCD Council of Governments 1362 McMillan Avenue, Suite 100 North Charleston, SC 29405 T: 843.529.0400 F: 843.529.0305 www.bcdcog.org

13 years, 8 months

CTPP Tables containing decimals and suspicious MOEs

by Weinberger, Penelope

Hi All, We have released updates for every table that contains decimal places because we were showing incorrect Margins of Error (MOE) values for these. This was due to a rounding problem that converted any value less than 1 to 0, and also left incorrect numbers in any decimals for numbers greater than one. For example, look at table 12230. Previously all the MOE values were suspect. Penelope Weinberger CTPP Program Manager AASHTO 202-624-3556 http://ctpp.transportation.org/Pages/default.aspx <http://ctpp.transportation.org/Pages/default.aspx> It's just as bad to not make a plan as to blindly follow the one you already have.

13 years, 8 months

Census Bureau computers will be shut down in the event of government shut down tonight.

by Elaine.Murakami＠dot.gov

Hi Everyone - For TAZ participants: The Census Bureau Geography Division asked me to let you know that you will not be able to download or upload files for the TAZ delineation process if the government is shutdown tonight (April 8). For Census data users: Shutting down the CB computers also means that www.census.gov will fail to function. ("No comment" to those of you trying to use AFF2 ;-) ) Elaine

13 years, 8 months

Working with the ACS BG data

by Bowman, Katy

I've been trying to take a look at some of the ACS block group data just to see what they look like for our region and I see that there are a lot of variables that don't have data at the block group level. A whole lot. Does anyone know, is the Census planning on expanding the number of variables available at this level in the future, or are these variables just a casualty of the small sample sizes? Thanks! Katy Bowman Research Associate Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission One South Main Street, Suite 260 Dayton, Ohio 45402 (937) 223-6323 kbowman(a)mvrpc.org

13 years, 8 months

American FactFinder 2

by Jonathan Lupton

Does anybody on the list serve have anything good to say about American FactFinder2? I want something incredibly simple - total housing units for the United, and occupied housing units, in 2010. When I go into this clunky, counter-intuitive product, it either takes me to housing data from past census estimates, or wants to give me Census 2000 housing figures. Okay, so I decided to try for one of those simple 2010 profiles. You can get them for the states. But what about the country? Can't find it. Am I supposed to add up the housing data for all 50 states? I don't doubt there is an answer buried somewhere in this system, but I'm in a hurry (who isn't, in the modern world) trying to develop some US comparison data for a report. And, as usual, AFF2 lets you down when you need it. Message to Census Bureau: please, please dump the useless thing and just put the data we need in the "old reliable" AFF. Jonathan Lupton AICP Research Planner Metroplan Little Rock AR

13 years, 8 months

[ctpp-news] Demographic Analysis for Block Groups - Decennial Census vs. ACS 5 Year Estimates

by Cogburn, Megan S

My name is Megan Cogburn and I am a Community Planner with the North Carolina Department of Transportation. My group is a part of the Project Development and Environmental Analysis branch and we are responsible for completing all of the NEPA documentation for bridge and highway projects statewide. Specifically, we prepare technical reports assessing potential project impacts on the human environment from the local/urban planning perspective. We currently use decennial Census data for our demographic analyses, however we are thinking of switching to use American Community Survey data to make our reports more current and since the American Community Survey has now replaced the traditional decennial Census long-form. However, it has come to our attention that ACS data is only available at the block group level for 5 Year Estimates (and not annually). Moreover, certain tables that were available for the 2000 Census are not available in the ACS 5 Year Estimates (such as household type by relationship, sex by employment status, and poverty status). Another glaring issue is that ACS 5 Year Estimates were just released in 2010, so there is no previous data to make historical comparisons. So, my question for the listserv is how other organizations are moving forward given the discrepancies between the two datasets. My group is trying to figure out where to get missing data, how to make historical comparisons, and also the best way to retrieve ACS 5-Year Estimates. A huge drawback for us is that we use block group data for multiple variables and this is only available for the 5 year estimates. In order to retrieve summary file data for block groups you have to use an Excel macro retrieval file that takes an extremely long time, download a massive file from their FTP site, or use the not so user friendly Data Ferret platform. Please advise! Megan Cogburn, MCRP Community Planner | Human Environment Unit NCDOT Project Development & Environmental Analysis e: mscogburn(a)ncdot.gov p: (919) 707-6062 f: (919) 212-5785 Email correspondence to and from this sender is subject to the N.C. Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.

13 years, 8 months

ACS and 2010 Block Groups

by Steiss, Todd A.

Elaine/Ed: I'm working on a North Carolina Statewide Transportation Model (NCSTM) for NCDOT. I've just completed the development of the Statewide Model Zones (SMZs) using the recently released 2010 census block geography and have populated the SMZs with total population and households from the PL94-171 data. I'm now looking to use the block group data from the ACS 5 Year Summary File to supplement what I have from PL94-171. Not too surprising, the ACS data is based on 2000 block group geography, which is different than the 2010 block group geography. When should we expect any ACS data to be released that conforms to the 2010 census geography? Todd Todd A. Steiss, AICP, GISP Senior Planner Parsons Brinckerhoff 121 West Trade Street, Suite 1950 Charlotte, NC 28202 Direct: 704-342-5411 Main: 704-342-5401 Mobile: 704-906-7706 Fax: 704-342-8472 Email: steiss(a)pbworld.com <mailto:steiss@pbworld.com> ______________________________________________________________________ NOTICE: This communication and any attachments ("this message") may contain confidential information for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). Any unauthorized use, disclosure, viewing, copying, alteration, dissemination or distribution of, or reliance on this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, or you are not an authorized recipient, please notify the sender immediately by replying to this message, delete this message and all copies from your e-mail system and destroy any printed copies.

13 years, 8 months

FW: ACS Median Calculator

by Elaine.Murakami＠dot.gov

Here is something that the California State Data Center shared with the SDC listserv. I have permission from Nancy to share with CTPP! Elaine Subject: ACS Median Calculator We thought we would share our article on calculating a median from aggregated range data and the Excel calculator. This example uses household income but the concepts could be used for any range data. The formula for calculating the MOE comes from the ACS PUMS Accuracy statement which would also be the source for the Design factor which you should check for your state or any other variable. Nancy Gemignani California State Data Center Demographic Research Unit (916) 327-0103 ext 2550

13 years, 8 months

Re: [CTPP] [ctpp-news] Demographic Analysis for Block Groups - Decennial Census vs. ACS 5 Year Estimates

by Patty Becker

Megan, I can't respond re other organizations. However, I'm most interested in the list of tables you find missing from the ACS data. This is another example of why user input is desperately needed in that arena. However, I'm pretty sure that poverty status and sex by employment status actually are there; at least, they've been there in the 1 year and 3 year releases. If you need historical comparisons, I think you have to compare ACS 05-10 with Census 2000. You should note that long-form data from 2000 were also available only at block group level and higher (in fact, long form data have never been available at the block level, or at least not since before 1960). So you're not losing anything there. You should be able to get household type by relationship from the 2010 SF1 file, due out this summer. That's a short form item. Please be aware that block group data carry extremely high margins of error (sampling errors). This was also true in the long-form data from the census, but the MOEs were not published so no one really noticed. Hope this helps some. Patty Becker At 03:57 PM 4/6/2011, you wrote: >My name is Megan Cogburn and I am a Community Planner with the North >Carolina Department of Transportation. My group is a part of the >Project Development and Environmental Analysis branch and we are >responsible for completing all of the NEPA documentation for bridge >and highway projects statewide. Specifically, we prepare technical >reports assessing potential project impacts on the human environment >from the local/urban planning perspective. > >We currently use decennial Census data for our demographic analyses, >however we are thinking of switching to use American Community >Survey data to make our reports more current and since the American >Community Survey has now replaced the traditional decennial Census >long-form. However, it has come to our attention that ACS data is >only available at the block group level for 5 Year Estimates (and >not annually). Moreover, certain tables that were available for the >2000 Census are not available in the ACS 5 Year Estimates (such as >household type by relationship, sex by employment status, and >poverty status). Another glaring issue is that ACS 5 Year Estimates >were just released in 2010, so there is no previous data to make >historical comparisons. > >So, my question for the listserv is how other organizations are >moving forward given the discrepancies between the two datasets. My >group is trying to figure out where to get missing data, how to make >historical comparisons, and also the best way to retrieve ACS 5-Year >Estimates. A huge drawback for us is that we use block group data >for multiple variables and this is only available for the 5 year >estimates. In order to retrieve summary file data for block groups >you have to use an Excel macro retrieval file that takes an >extremely long time, download a massive file from their FTP site, or >use the not so user friendly Data Ferret platform. > >Please advise! > >Megan Cogburn, MCRP >Community Planner | Human Environment Unit >NCDOT Project Development & Environmental Analysis >e: mscogburn(a)ncdot.gov >p: (919) 707-6062 >f: (919) 212-5785 > > > >Email correspondence to and from this sender is subject to the N.C. >Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties. > >_______________________________________________ >ctpp-news mailing list >ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net >http://www.chrispy.net/mailman/listinfo/ctpp-news ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patricia C. (Patty) Becker 248/354-6520 APB Associates/SEMCC FAX 248/354-6645 28300 Franklin Road Home 248/355-2428 Southfield, MI 48034 pbecker(a)umich.edu

13 years, 8 months

TAZ Delineation and Gov't shutdown?

by Elaine.Murakami＠dot.gov

Dear TAZ delineation participants: The question of what will happen IF there is a federal government shutdown after April 8 has arisen. We hope that this situation will be averted. Summary: Census Bureau Geography staff will NOT be available to provide support. Census Bureau servers will be shutdown, so file downloads will be NOT be available, so my recommendation is that if you haven't downloaded your files yet, you should do it immediately! The timeframe for submission of TAZ files will NOT be extended. The Census Bureau Geography team working on TAZ delineation is at 301-763-1099. Email address geo.taz.list(a)census.gov FHWA staff will NOT be furloughed, although other people at USDOT will be furloughed. Elaine Murakami FHWA Office of Planning ---- In the event of a federal government shutdown and furlough of Census Bureau staff, TAZ Program participants can continue to work on their submissions, but there will be no technical or programmatic support by the Census Bureau during the furlough. In addition, the current plan is that all servers will be shutdown for the period of the furlough; so TAZ Program participants will not be able to download files or upload (submit) completed delineations. We currently do not anticipate a change in the schedule for delivery of the CTPP; therefore, in order to ensure timely delivery of TAZ geography to Census Bureau divisions responsible for tabulating, reviewing, and disseminating CTPP data, Geography Division cannot change its schedule for the TAZ Program. Sincerely, Vince Osier Branch Chief Geographic Standards & Criteria Branch Geography Division U.S. Census Bureau Washington, DC

13 years, 8 months

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ctpp-news April 2011