RE: [CTPP] Please help your data community re: PUMAs

Hi all-- Yesterday I read through the Proposed PUMA Criteria and Guidelines. Census Bureau is taking comments, now thru Feb 28, on the rules for drawing new PUMA boundaries. http://www.census.gov/geo/puma/2010_puma_guidelines.pdf Highlights: * PUMAs must have at least 100,000 population per Census 2010 enumeration. * The basic building blocks of vintage 2010 PUMAs will be counties and contiguous groupings of tracts. * Cities are no longer building blocks -- you have to build up from groupings of tracts. My take: The new rules are all reasonable. The 3rd point above may be controversial, but it seems justified. (It's discussed in the Bureau's document.) That being the case, Metropolitan Council is not going to submit any formal comments to the Bureau. If any of YOU are going to comment -- comments due Feb 28 -- I encourage your support of section IV B of the document, which allows "grandfathering" of vintage 2000 PUMAs with non-contiguous pieces. That's a reasonable and considerate allowance by the Bureau. Elaine-- You asked about the quality of MPO relationships with Census State Liaisons (usually the State Demographer). Metropolitan Council is a regional government, MPO, and SDC network member. And I think we have a great relationship with the Minnesota State Demographer. No complaints. Hope your year is off to a good start. Cheers. ________________________ Todd Graham Principal Forecaster Metropolitan Council 390 Robert Street North Saint Paul, MN 55101 ph: 651/602-1322 email: todd.graham(a)metc.state.mn.us in: www.linkedin.com/in/toddgraham web: www.metrocouncil.org ________________________ ________________________________________ From: ctpp-news-bounces(a)chrispy.net [ctpp-news-bounces(a)chrispy.net] On Behalf Of Elaine.Murakami(a)dot.gov [Elaine.Murakami(a)dot.gov] Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 6:17 PM To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net Subject: RE: [CTPP] Please help your data community re: PUMAs I am getting anecdotal remarks about whether or not SDCs have been open to working with the transportation data community, e.g. State DOTs and MPOs, about PUMA delineation. I think that if a few of you could provide some EXAMPLES of GOOD working relationships, maybe we can reduce the problems in the next round. Some questions to consider: After 2000, how did the SDC do outreach with the data community to get input into PUMA delineation? What are the SDCs' plans for outreach for the next round? Has the MPO or the State DOT participated in the SDC program as an affiliate? Did the transportation data community participate in the 2010 Census tract delineation? State's Data Center contact list: http://www.census.gov/sdc/network.html You don't have to write a book, just a couple of paragraphs would still be helpful! Elaine Murakami FHWA Office of Planning 206-220-4460