PlannovationPlanning data & tools that don't suck

Kristen’s article in the December 2009 American Planning Association’s Planning Magazine is part of the Dillingham Comprehensive Plan! She’s excited that someone actually read it and found it helpful!

Here’s a link to the Creating Jobs Over Coffee article in the Dillingham Comprehensive Plan: http://www.agnewbeck.com/pdf/bristolbay/Dillingham_Comp_Plan/APA_BusinessIncubator.pdf

I find myself googling for this data once a month or so. I just can’t seem to remember where to find it on the Federal Highway Administration’s website. Below are states by total 2008 lane miles–which is the most recent dataset available today and is dated October 2009.

1960 Census Data Collecting

When planners need demographic data, they often turn to the US Census. But Census 2000 data is now horribly outdated.  Even when Census data is up-to-date, there are potential inaccuracies as highlighted by Justin Wolfers in his New York Times post  “Can You Trust Census Data.”  When having accurate demographic data is vital to the success of a project, planners should consider using a Community Social Assessment (CSA).

What is a Community Social Assessment (CSA)?

A community social assessment is a self-completion survey that measures a geographically-defined community’s demographics, the relationships within the community and the opinions about current neighborhood conditions and future roposed projects.  Some people refer to CSAs as social assessments, community impact assessments and several other names; while to others, a community impact assessment is another thing entirely. I’m focusing on the survey tool only in this blog post.

For example: Dr. Richard Krannich from Rocky Mountain Social Science recently used a CSA in an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Utah Department of Transportation’s Geneva Road project.  Krannich’s CSA asked dozens of questions about issues such as resident and household characteristics, neighborhood social integration and cohesion, resident use of the project corridor, resident opinions about traffic and road conditions and about action alternatives.

Now I can hear you thinking–”What a waste of time. No one would respond to a self-completion survey for a new road.”  But Dr. Krannich was able to achieve a nearly 80% response rate.  I’ll tell you how he did it below.

But first, when would I use a CSA?

If you have time and money in a project’s budget, a CSA can provide more current and thorough social data. This data could prove invaluable for projects that are likely to have environmental justice or community cohesion impacts.  In an article for the American Behavioral Scientist Journal, Krannich stated that community studies may be better predictors than socio-economic data for obtaining what people think about their environment.

How do I conduct a CSA and get people to respond?

Step 1: With your project area in mind, write a questionnaire that can measure the community cohesion, public opinion and the social impact of your project. Some interesting questions from Krannich’s CSA include:

• Are you likely to move in the next two years?
• How sorry would you be if you had to move away?
• How many personal friends live within 2-3 blocks?
• How often do you socialize on the other side of the road?

Read more about the Geneva Road project CSA here.

Step 2: Mail the questionnaire to either all people in your area of interest (if it’s small) or to a random sample (if it’s large).  Local appraisal districts are an excellent source of name and address information for residents in a project area.  Include a self-addressed, pre-paid postage envelope for responses.

Step 3: Keep track of the questionnaires that are mailed back to you.  For those questionnaires that are not returned to you, follow up with multiple callback attempts.  Appraisal districts may have telephone numbers of residents.  If they don’t, try looking up phone numbers via a reverse phone book like WhitePages.com.  A reverse phone book allows you to enter an address, and it will provide a phone number.

Step 4: And for the residents that you can’t reach via mail and phone calls, consider a field visit to knock on doors and speak with them in person.

You can save money and time by using low cost touch methods (i.e. mail) first and then following up with only the residents that don’t respond with high cost touch methods (i.e. a personal visit).

What results can I expect when I conduct a CSA?

This process can give planners access to information that they could not find in Census data, such as how much a community is physically active. For example, Krannich’s CSA included questions like: “How often do you get out to walk, jog, or bicycle?” and “Do your children walk or bike to school?”

Also, obtaining more accurate data is possible with a CSA. For example, in Krannich’s case, the project area’s Census 2000 data reports that 10.1% of the population is Hispanic, whereas their 2007 CSA survey reports that 13.6% of the residents are Hispanic.  Granted in this case, there is not a huge difference between 10.1% Hispanic and 13.6% Hispanic. But some regions in the United States have seen large demographic shifts in the past decade years (see “Diversity Spreads Out: Metropolitan Shifts in Hispanic, Asian, and Black Populations Since 2000“)

Where can I get more information on conducting CSAs?

The Social Assessment and Social Impact Assessment page on HD.gov has some good links to guidance documents for conducting CSAs or social assessments. I think the best place to go to get more information is to read actual CSAs and see how planners used this tool for real projects.  Here are two examples of projects that used CSAs:

Geneva Road EIS – This project studies proposed improvements to two major roadways, Geneva Road and a portion of Provo Center Street in Utah.

Tortugas Ecological Reserve – To protect the reef from further degradation, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary oversaw a three-year collaborative process, dubbed “Tortugas 2000.” Sanctuary advisory members, stakeholders, and government agency members were represented throughout the process. “Tortugas 2000″ resulted in the implementation of the Tortugas Ecological Reserve, a fully protected marine reserve within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Your Thoughts?

Have you worked on or reviewed projects that used CSAs? If so, leave me a comment below. Was it a helpful tool? If possible, please link to your project for others to review.

The 2010 Poverty Guidelines will not be revised until at least March 1, 2010 and are currently frozen at the 2009 levels. You can learn more about this issue in the blog post 2010 Poverty Guidelines will not be revised until at least March 1, 2010.

So for now, the 2009 poverty guidelines will remain in effect until at least March 1, 2010. The 2009 guidelines are as follows.

SOURCE: Federal Register, Vol. 74, No. 14, January 23,
2009, pp. 4199–4201

NOTE: The poverty guideline figures above are NOT the figures the Census Bureau uses to calculate the number of poor persons. The figures that the Census Bureau uses are the poverty thresholds.

Other helpful links
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• Federal Register Notice about the extension of the 2009 poverty guidelines–January 22, 2010
• Prior Years Poverty Guidelines
• Frequently Asked Questions Related to the Poverty Guidelines and Poverty

If you have any questions about poverty guidelines, leave me a comment.

The Short Answer: April 2011 through September 2013
Summary files for the 2010 Census data will be released “on a flow basis from April 2011 through September 2013.”

The Long Answer:
Population counts will be delivered to President Obama within nine months of Census Day (on or before Dec. 31, 2010), as required by law. This data will include “the apportionment population counts by state, and the number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives apportioned to each state.”

Also, “Public Law (P.L.) 94-171 requires the Census Bureau to provide only counts of the total population for a variety of geographic areas to be used for the redistricting process. In addition, other data items, such as race, ethnicity, voting age and housing unit tallies, are included in this data set. P.L.94-171 also requires these data be delivered to each state no later than April 1, 2011.”

You can find this information in the 2010 Census Constituent FAQs.

You might be interested in reading: Census Data is So 2000! – How to get data more recent than Census data

Check out the Census 2010 Hard-To-Count Interactive Map (http://www.censushardtocountmaps.org/).  It pinpoints census tracts that the U.S. Census Bureau considers difficult to count. It also displays the detailed demographic and housing characteristics that the Census Bureau believes will create challenges to achieving an accurate count in certain communities.

Hard To Count Census Tracts in San Antonio, Texas

The mapping tool is based on the Census Bureau’s Tract Level Planning Database (http://2010.census.gov/partners/research/), which identified twelve population and housing characteristics associated with low mail response in the 2000 census.  There are six “person” characteristics:
•       language isolation;
•       unemployment;
•       mobility;
•       below poverty level;
•       receiving public assistance; and
•       no high school diploma …

… and six housing characteristics:
•       crowded housing;
•       multi-unit buildings;
•       lack of telephone in home;
•       vacancy rate;
•       renter occupied; and
•       complex households …

…to calculate “hard-to-count” scores, ranging from 0 – 132 for every census tract in the country.  The new mapping site uses a threshold score of 61 or higher to identify hard-to-count census tracts.  The cutoff score of 61+ identifies roughly the top 20% of all tracts nationwide that are the hardest-to-count. In addition to showing these characteristics within hard-to-count census tracts, the database shows tracts with low 2000 census mail return rates and high foreclosure risk.

“This web site will help groups promoting 2010 census participation across the nation get the biggest bang for their buck by focusing precisely on the communities that will be hardest to count,” said Steven Romalewski, director of the CUNY Mapping Service.  ”The tool will also help these advocates communicate effectively with people in hard-to-count areas because the maps reveal why each location will likely face enumeration challenges.”  Mr. Romalewski pointed to language barriers, large numbers of renters, high poverty rates, and a prevalence of non-traditional households as some of the characteristics – alone or in combination – that the Census Bureau’s research indicates will contribute to a difficult environment for the census.  ”The website provides visual evidence of those challenges with powerful maps and interactive data,” he noted.
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I found out about this awesome resource in the Census News Briefs, which is prepared by Terri Ann Lowenthal.  You can check out previous Census News Briefs at www.thecensusproject.org

According to the Department of Health and Human Services website, the 2009 Poverty Guidelines will remain in effect until at least March 1, 2010.

The reason for the freeze is that for the first time since the poverty guidelines were issued in 1965, the annual average Consumer Price Index has decreased from the previous year.  If the 2009 guidelines weren’t frozen, the HHS would have had to issue 2010 poverty guidelines that were lower than the 2009 poverty guidelines.

You can learn more here: http://aspe.hhs.gov/POVERTY/09extension.shtml