Postal Data & Google Maps Shine Light on New Orleans Recovery

Postal Data & Google Maps Shine Light on New Orleans Recovery

Presented by:

Denice RossElaine OrtizJoy BonaguroGreater New Orleans Community Data Center

Founded 1997

10,000 unique visitors/month

50-100 data requests/month

3,500 e-newsletter subscribers

New Orleans Index readership of 5,000

500+ media mentions so far in 2008

Urban Institute Nat’l Nbhd Indicators Partner

“I need population estimates for the New Orleans area by day as the denominator for health rate calculations.”

- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”

“We would like to know the numbers of evacuees that have returned to the area. We are compiling data to use in a funding proposal. We need to know the number of citizens that will benefit from United Way agency services.”

- United Way for GNO

“We need daytime population figures for New Orleans to make informed decisions about the future of television measurement in the market.”

- Nielsen Media Research

“We'd like to know population trends on the West Bank of Jefferson Parish. We'd like to bring a particular major national client into the West Bank market by showing that population has boomed on the West Bank post Katrina.”

-Kirschman Realty, LLC

“As the statistician for Louisiana OPH HIV/AIDS Program I am called on to estimate the number of persons living in the region on a regular basis. I am interested in obtaining the latest population estimates available. Also, in order to create program-wide plans for community outreach, surveillance and behavioral survey efforts neighborhood breakdowns at any level would be immensely useful.

Again, in the face of our recovery, these data are of key importance.”

- Louisiana Office of Public Health

Good questions…

little good data

71.5%

49.5%

Census Bureau population estimates

Utility accounts

Public school enrollment

Voter Registration

Drivers Licenses

Traffic Volume

Postal data

Surveys

Vehicle Registration

Alternative sources of population data

Public school enrollment

November 2, 2005: “New Orleans Public Schools is in the process of assessing the financial and structural feasibility of NOPS schools for January re-openings.”

Open Public Schools in Orleans Parish

Utility accounts

Electric accounts get better household coverage than telephone or water accounts.

However, access to electric utility data is difficult:

• Immediately following Katrina, Entergy could not provide data.

• Then, Entergy simply would not provide data, and they don’t have to do so. Electric data is not public.

• There are two service providers for New Orleans, and could be more in other areas of the country.

• Record keeping practices are not standardized across utility companies, and the quality of data varies.

What the data captures…

Status of addressActive addresses: Someone has picked up the mail within the last 90 days.

Vacant addresses: Mail has not been collected for 90 days or longer.

No stat addresses: Address is vacant AND not likely to become active for a long time, or the address is under construction.

Type of address• Residential or business

• P.O.box or not P.O. box

• Publicly Reported

• Frequent updates

• Short time lag

• Consistent methodology across geographies

• Sub-parish breakdowns

Advantages of postal data

What the data misses…

• No demographic data.

• No data on number of people at an address.

• Some group quarters are excluded, others are included.

• Neighbor or landlord may be picking up the mail at an “active” house.

• Occupied addresses may not receive mail, and be recorded as “vacant.”

Sources of USPS data

Aggregated data:

• USPS Delivery Statistics Product (ZIP Code and carrier route, monthly)

• HUD (Census tracts, quarterly)

Nonaggregated data:

•Valassis (Address-level, monthly)

HUD data: Unoccupied addresses

Rural Route City Route

Single family Mult i-family Drop Stop College Trailer

Do Not Deliver

Total Active Residential Addresses

Jefferson 67 184,652 137,580 47,139 587 0 802 129 184,719

Orleans 11 145,495 111,016 34,490 4,076 1,973 1,984 1,630 145,506

Plaquemines 10 7,896 6,859 1,047 10 0 12 6 7,906

St. Bernard 6 11,117 10,411 712 25 0 375 2 11,123

St. Charles 16 15,719 14,327 1,408 7 0 105 11 15,735

St. John 10 15,615 14,515 1,110 53 0 17 6 15,625

St. Tammany 24 87,926 80,780 7,170 573 0 1,017 106 87,950

Total 144 468,420 375,488 93,076 5,331 1,973 4,312 1,890 468,564

Note: P.O. boxes are excluded from all counts.

Address Fields

• Active/ Vacant

• Residential/ Business

• P.O. box/ Not P.O. box

• Valassis key (unique ID for each address)

Geocensus Fields

• Match code (address match, ZIP Centroid match, no match)

• Six digit census tract

• Four digit census block

• Longitude & Latitude

Standard Distance Test reveals delay in census block geocoding

Standard Distance Test reveals delay in census block geocoding

Database problem: Addresses placed in “neutral grounds”

Database problem: New streets result in a ZIP centroid match

Database problem: Suburban/ rural areas tend to get bad geocodes.

Expand to new geographies?

Selecting our technology

James Feespatiallyadjusted.com To host or not

to host?

What do ourmaps require?

Expand to new geographies?

Geography comparer?

•Polygons•Points•Landmarks & streets•Streets above polygons

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Design & Development

TIGER Navtech

TeleAtlas GNOCDC

Usability Testing & Results

Notetaker

User

Interviewer

Field testing is messy, but you learn more about how people use your site in the real world.

“I like your map, but are there any numbers

I can look at?”

“Wow. This is hard to read, I need my glasses.”

Lower Ninth Ward: More volunteer resources toward rebuilding, fewer toward data collection

Geographer Richard Campanella analyzed patterns of repopulation relative to elevation

Media coverage during Katrina anniversary and storms

Getting a grant for the playground in Palmer Park

Gentilly Civic Improvement Association: Demonstrating critical mass of customers to attract retailers

Community &Planners: Impact of proposed of LSU/VA Hospital