I agree with Patty that data.census.gov still isn’t up to par, but I’m beginning to get the hang of it. There’s no going back (as best I understand it) and if you don’t make the switch you’ll be pretty flatfooted when they pull FactFinder away this summer.

While not denying that the changeover from AFF to data.census.gov is challenging, let me throw out a few hacks that I’ve found helpful:

If you’re getting up in years (like me!) you might ask a younger staffer to play with it a while. I’m saying that because a 20-something in my office showed me a neat trick I’d completely missed. I’m not downplaying the value of experience, but the younger generation might have an edge in a few areas.
Be sure to use Google Chrome for data.census.gov, this has the best interface.
I have written a “cheat sheet” of key table numbers to help me find the critical tables I used a lot in FactFinder, like DP-02 (selected Social characteristics), DP-03 (economic characteristics) and so on. While the “search” feature in data.census.gov is arguably better, it can be off-putting. Don’t forget you can select by a list of topics in the “advanced search” mode.
The staff at data.census.gov do listen to suggestions and get back to you with questions and complaints via email.
You can select data straight from a table in data.census.gov and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet. It’s way faster than any previous downloading system, but (for now at least) limited by the fact that you can only select a few cells, you can’t (yet?) do shift-ctrl-right or shift-ctrl-down to grab an entire table (if some data.census.gov staff are reading this please please please this would help).

Jonathan Lupton AICP

Metroplan

Little Rock AR

From: Patricia Becker <pbecker@umich.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2020 3:34 PM
To: ctpp-news@mailman.chrispy.net
Subject: [CTPP] Re: Question Regarding Mapping Low Income Population by Census Tract

I apologize for getting my years mixed up. 2018 5 year ACS is on data.census.gov, and 2017 is on American FactFinder.

Patty Becker

On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 4:04 PM Sally Goodman <Sgoodman@actransit.org> wrote:

We do, too. The key is to define low-income for your analysis. In the SF Bay Area transit agencies all use 200% of the Federal Poverty Rate as the low-income cut off, and you should be able to get Census data on that basis. For example table B17026, “RATIO OF INCOME TO POVERTY LEVEL OF FAMILIES IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS” shows the population (in this case, number of families) with income under 50% of the federal poverty level, 50-74% of the FPL, and so on, up to 5 times the FPL. You should be able to find other data like that by tract, and even by block group.

SALLY GOODMAN

Title VI Program Administrator

Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District

1600 Franklin Street, Oakland 94612

510-891-4719 | sgoodman@actransit.org | www.actransit.org/CivilRights

From: Jackie Eastwood <jeastwood@lacrossecounty.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2020 11:05 AM
To: ctpp-news@mailman.chrispy.net
Subject: [CTPP] Re: Question Regarding Mapping Low Income Population by Census Tract

We use ratio of income to poverty. You can define low-income as the poverty line or some percentage of the poverty line. We use 150%.

Jackie Eastwood

Transportation Planner

La Crosse Area Planning Committee

212 6^th St N, Room 1200

La Crosse Wi 54601

608.785.6141 or 608.792.0520 (cell)

From: Weinberger Penelope <pweinberger@aashto.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2020 12:58 PM
To: ctpp-news@chrispy.net
Subject: [CTPP] FW: Question Regarding Mapping Low Income Population by Census Tract

Hey CTPPers, I received this query, I welcome your thoughts.

We are currently looking at environmental justice factors on Urban Arterials in the Denver Metro area, and I was wondering if you might have any insights into mapping low income population by census tract. The only data I have been able to find includes low and moderate income (from HUD), and I am having trouble even finding that data at the tract level. Do you know of a good data source for this? Any help or insights would be greatly appreciated.
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Patricia C. (Patty) Becker
APB Associates/Southeast Michigan Census Council (SEMCC)
28332 Franklin Rd, Southfield, MI 48034
office: 248-354-6520
home:248-355-2428
pbecker@umich.edu