Carol Palmoski wrote:
> Does anyone know what conversion software can be used to convert the.upl files to a usable software. I am having problems converting them using the procedures given the Census?
>
> Carol K. Palmoski
> Lancaster County Planning Commission
> 50 North Duke Street
> Lancaster, Pa 17608
> e-mail: palmoski(a)co.lancaster.pa.us
Sounds a lot like what I observed with the 1990 Census block data for
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, North Carolina, primarily in recently
developed areas. In that instance, I was comparing the census data to
recently collected field data and current aerial photography. Where
discrepancies existed, it was fairly easy to imagine that our data
collectors could have missed units, however, there were many instances
where the census indicated dwelling units in clearly undeveloped areas (no
buildings). Well established older neighborhoods, appeared to be very
accurate. The County-wide figures, likewise, were in fairly close
agreement with our local data.
This seems to be common based on my limited experience. Unfortunately, I
have no direct experience with the 2000 census, and although I understand
there are discrepancies with our 2000 data, we will probably not mount a
serious challenge because of our negative experience with the 1990
challenge.
Mark Wilkes, PE, AICP
Director of Transportation Planning
Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission
P.O. Box 8246, 110 East State Street
Savannah, GA 31412-8246
wilkesm(a)thempc.org
tel. (912) 651-1451 fax (912) 651-1480
tmank(a)tompkins-co
.org To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net
Sent by: cc:
owner-ctpp-news(a)c Subject: [CTPP] census dorm errors
hrispy.net
06/05/2001 10:42
AM
I wanted to pass this on to the listserv:
I work for the Tompkins County Planning Department in Upsate, NY.
When I first looked at the Block level populations this year, I noticed
numerous discrepancies, which turned out to be dorm population
counts which were incorrectly georeferenced. We have 2
universities here in Ithaca, NY, Cornell University and Ithaca
College. In our case, the entire dorm population for Cornell (5,700
students) was put in ONE BLOCK - not in the 14 blcoks where the
dorms are actually located. For example, a block that had a 1990
population of 1100 now has a 2000 pop of 2 and a block that had a
1990 pop of 110 now has a 2000 pop of 5882. For Ithaca College,
the dorm population was placed all in 1 block, not in the 4 blocks
where the dorms are actually located. To make things more
complicated, the Cornell Block discrepancies go across municipal
boundaries (from the City of Ithaca to the Town of Ithaca) and
across four of our current Legislative Districts [see attachement
with PDF map].
When I brought this up to the Regional Census Geography dept in
Boston, they were not that surprised and said they were seeing this
all over the country. The New York State Data Center in Albany
says they have had this complaint all over New York State.
In any case, we have noted the dorm capacities and redistributed
the block populations as we think they should be and will submit for
a change through the Census Bureau's Question Resolution
Program, which starts in July. We also have gone ahead with our
2001 Reapportionment for Tompkins County pending the Census
Bureau's approval of the changes.
My questions are:
1) How many of the MPOs are experiencing the same problem?
2) I am concerned that we can estimate the Census errors and
change the Block populations, but ONLY THE CENSUS Bureau
knows the exact number of students who were in those dorms and
their ATTRIBUTES. Only the Census can move those attributes -
i.e. those 5,700 student incomes and journey-to-work responses,
etc. It seems to me that all the long form data that comes out next
year will be skewed - unless they deal with this issue. Which will
probably only happen if the issue is as wide spread as I have been
made to believe.
So what are you all seeing in this regard?
Tom Mank
Planning Analyst
Tompkins County Planning Department
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2000 Census downloads, including the ZCTA geography (in shapefile or Arcview
format) can be found at the site below.
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/zt.html
Thanks,
Michael D. Nichols, P.E.
Virginia Department of Transportation
Transportation Planning Division
1401 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
Telephone (804) 786-0998
Fax (804) 225-4785
Email: nichols_md(a)vdot.state.va.us
-----Original Message-----
From: Jesse Jacobs [mailto:jjacobs(a)avcog.org]
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 8:23 AM
To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net
Subject: [CTPP] ZCTA data
Hi folks
would someone be able to send me a link to the spot where one can download
ZCTA geography? I had it once but cant seem to find it or get back there..
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
The Abilene(Texas)MPO noted similar problems when the redistricting data was
first released. The entire population of two state prisons was pasted into
one tiny block on the wrong side of a road in the wrong census tract and in
the wrong CTPP TAZ. Two separate Assistant Division Chiefs for the Bureau of
the Census told me that the error would not be fixed. One said that they
were encountering problems like it "all over the country."
We are now stuck with an entire special place census tract with a reported
population of 2, and 4,550 institutionalized persons reportedly living in a
small area which is an open field. I was told at the recent TRB conference
that this error may be able to be adusted for the CTPP special tabulation,
although not for any mainstream data products.
Another problem occurred when the entire institutionalized population of
another special place census tract was arbitrarily pasted into one small
block, although not one where any of the people are actually housed.
Fortunately it is still in the correct CTPP TAZ. It does, however,
adversely affect the urbanized area under the proposed criteria by
incorrectly showing a substantial populated area as completely unpopulated,
with the result that most of it would be left outside the UA and prevent
further hops.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net [mailto:owner-ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net]On
Behalf Of tmank(a)tompkins-co.org
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 9:42 AM
To: ctpp-news(a)chrispy.net
Subject: [CTPP] census dorm errors
I wanted to pass this on to the listserv:
I work for the Tompkins County Planning Department in Upsate, NY.
When I first looked at the Block level populations this year, I noticed
numerous discrepancies, which turned out to be dorm population
counts which were incorrectly georeferenced. We have 2
universities here in Ithaca, NY, Cornell University and Ithaca
College. In our case, the entire dorm population for Cornell (5,700
students) was put in ONE BLOCK - not in the 14 blcoks where the
dorms are actually located. For example, a block that had a 1990
population of 1100 now has a 2000 pop of 2 and a block that had a
1990 pop of 110 now has a 2000 pop of 5882. For Ithaca College,
the dorm population was placed all in 1 block, not in the 4 blocks
where the dorms are actually located. To make things more
complicated, the Cornell Block discrepancies go across municipal
boundaries (from the City of Ithaca to the Town of Ithaca) and
across four of our current Legislative Districts [see attachement
with PDF map].
When I brought this up to the Regional Census Geography dept in
Boston, they were not that surprised and said they were seeing this
all over the country. The New York State Data Center in Albany
says they have had this complaint all over New York State.
In any case, we have noted the dorm capacities and redistributed
the block populations as we think they should be and will submit for
a change through the Census Bureau's Question Resolution
Program, which starts in July. We also have gone ahead with our
2001 Reapportionment for Tompkins County pending the Census
Bureau's approval of the changes.
My questions are:
1) How many of the MPOs are experiencing the same problem?
2) I am concerned that we can estimate the Census errors and
change the Block populations, but ONLY THE CENSUS Bureau
knows the exact number of students who were in those dorms and
their ATTRIBUTES. Only the Census can move those attributes -
i.e. those 5,700 student incomes and journey-to-work responses,
etc. It seems to me that all the long form data that comes out next
year will be skewed - unless they deal with this issue. Which will
probably only happen if the issue is as wide spread as I have been
made to believe.
So what are you all seeing in this regard?
Tom Mank
Planning Analyst
Tompkins County Planning Department
The City of Berkeley has reported to me that they have gone block by block through the PL data. According to those counts the dorms at Berkeley were half empty. That is most definitely not the case.
Patricia Perry
I wanted to pass this on to the listserv:
I work for the Tompkins County Planning Department in Upsate, NY.
When I first looked at the Block level populations this year, I noticed
numerous discrepancies, which turned out to be dorm population
counts which were incorrectly georeferenced. We have 2
universities here in Ithaca, NY, Cornell University and Ithaca
College. In our case, the entire dorm population for Cornell (5,700
students) was put in ONE BLOCK - not in the 14 blcoks where the
dorms are actually located. For example, a block that had a 1990
population of 1100 now has a 2000 pop of 2 and a block that had a
1990 pop of 110 now has a 2000 pop of 5882. For Ithaca College,
the dorm population was placed all in 1 block, not in the 4 blocks
where the dorms are actually located. To make things more
complicated, the Cornell Block discrepancies go across municipal
boundaries (from the City of Ithaca to the Town of Ithaca) and
across four of our current Legislative Districts [see attachement
with PDF map].
When I brought this up to the Regional Census Geography dept in
Boston, they were not that surprised and said they were seeing this
all over the country. The New York State Data Center in Albany
says they have had this complaint all over New York State.
In any case, we have noted the dorm capacities and redistributed
the block populations as we think they should be and will submit for
a change through the Census Bureau's Question Resolution
Program, which starts in July. We also have gone ahead with our
2001 Reapportionment for Tompkins County pending the Census
Bureau's approval of the changes.
My questions are:
1) How many of the MPOs are experiencing the same problem?
2) I am concerned that we can estimate the Census errors and
change the Block populations, but ONLY THE CENSUS Bureau
knows the exact number of students who were in those dorms and
their ATTRIBUTES. Only the Census can move those attributes -
i.e. those 5,700 student incomes and journey-to-work responses,
etc. It seems to me that all the long form data that comes out next
year will be skewed - unless they deal with this issue. Which will
probably only happen if the issue is as wide spread as I have been
made to believe.
So what are you all seeing in this regard?
Tom Mank
Planning Analyst
Tompkins County Planning Department
The following section of this message contains a file attachment
prepared for transmission using the Internet MIME message format.
If you are using Pegasus Mail, or any another MIME-compliant system,
you should be able to save it or view it from within your mailer.
If you cannot, please ask your system administrator for assistance.
---- File information -----------
File: 00bloc~1.pdf
Date: 19 Apr 2001, 5:42
Size: 398342 bytes.
Type: Unknown
