Hi Jonathan and everyone else --  

I am forwarding this to Scott Boggess at the Census Bureau.

Also, I just had the FHWA webpage on ACS updated to include the information below:

Census Bureau hotlines:

   AFF:  1-800-923-8282

   Data Ferrett:  1-866 -437-0171

   Census Bureau Regional Offices: http://www.census.gov/regions/

I have found that the Census Bureau Regional Offices have Information Specialists who do training on AFF2, which is why the first “cheatsheet” we did on AFF2 was taken from materials provided by Linda Clark in the Seattle regional office.    I didn’t look up on the map which region covers you, but I am going to guess Atlanta.

And certainly,  we can arrange another webinar on using Data Ferrett for very large downloads, but I think the answer to that one is that it is probably better to do multiple downloads and then join them outside of Data Ferrett.

Elaine Murakami

FHWA Office of Planning

206-220-4460

From: ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net [mailto:ctpp-news-bounces@chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lupton
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 8:41 AM
To: ctpp-news@chrispy.net
Subject: [CTPP] Census/ACS data downloads

I much appreciate the efforts by Elaine Murakami and others to help with the AFF2 problem by providing the recent webinars in AFF2 and Data Ferret. I must reluctantly confess that I am still struggling, and would like to know how other members on the CTPP list serve are faring. Here are my conclusions at the moment:

1. AFF2 is useful for obtaining pre-organized data profiles (despite its clunky and counter-intuitive interface), but in my experience it’s still hard – even with the benefit of some training – to really drill down into the kind of esoteric data I sometimes need.

2. Data Ferret is great for batches, like downloading a fair amount of data for multiple geographies (like all BGs in a county, etc.) but I’m having a hard time drilling down to the highly specific items I need.

My latest troubles involve trying to get employment/labor force participation by age and sex for counties and/or my metro area from SF-3 in Census 2000. I have been able, with the help of Data Ferret, to obtain the table numbers (PCT 3500-PCT 3518), but Data Ferret can’t seem to give me the figures I need in a single download, and multiple downloads are proving error-prone and troublesome. Searching the table numbers in AFF2 yields the typically useless results. My search of the Missouri State Data Center site, while much appreciated, hasn’t yielded the results I need. My own State Data Center (Arkansas) has some useful profiles, but again not as specific as I need.

Does anyone else have tips?

I feel like I could use further webinars on Data Ferret or – just possibly - AFF2, although I’m deeply suspicious of trying to make anything useful out of AFF2, since results so far have been disappointing. The seminar on Data Ferret back in December was helpful, but didn’t have a lot of in-depth training on large downloads, highly specific data needs, etc.

I’m deep in ‘flyover country,’ and hence there’s a lack of training and information exchange available. Surely others face the same issues. Does anyone else want more web-based training, too?

Jonathan Lupton AICP

Research Planner

Metroplan

Little Rock, Arkansas