From lbarnes@co.jefferson.wa.us Mon Feb 9 09:02:28 1998 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id JAA31530 for ; Mon, 9 Feb 1998 09:02:27 -0800 Received: from jeffco-bo.co.jefferson.wa.us (jeffco-xch.co.jefferson.wa.us [198.239.124.2]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id JAA03325 for ; Mon, 9 Feb 1998 09:02:15 -0800 Received: by jeffco-xch.co.jefferson.wa.us with Internet Mail Service (5.0.1458.49) id <1PGYHTV7>; Mon, 9 Feb 1998 09:03:58 -0800 Message-ID: <9842AA89CB3ED1118F0E0060976B9BA905C05C@jeffco-xch.co.jefferson.wa.us> From: Lesa Barnes To: Washington public health assessment coordinators Subject: Census 2000 data collection Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 09:03:57 -0800 X-Priority: 3 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.0.1458.49) Content-Type: text/plain In Jefferson County, as in other counties, undoubtedly, different users of USCensus data have different needs. I am wondering how other counties have accommodated (are accommodating) these different needs, while maintaining some sense of continuity and comparability from one census to the next. Take for example: Our planning dept. wants, understandably, to track population growth and demographics for "planning areas", while grant applicants (including the health dept.) want current and historical population and health information based on zip codes and census tracts (a misnomer in Jefferson County, since we are not "tracted", but for simplicity I will continue to (mis)use the term "tract".) Currently, our "tracts" follow, for the most part, zip codes. Proposed planning areas follow population growth patterns, which do not necessarily follow zip codes boundaries. So if we were to redefine our "tracts" for the 2000 Census to follow land use planning and zoning designations, we would lose comparability and any sense of continuity with past censuses. And what a nightmare THAT would be! (Planning in Jefferson County has a LOT of clout). How are other counties dealing with this?. That is, how are you coordinating census data collection so as to accommodate the disparate needs of different users, while maintaining comparability and continuity over time? **************************************************** Lesa Barnes Assessment Coordinator Jefferson County Health & Human Services 615 Sheridan Port Townsend WA 98368-2476 direct: 360-379-4470 main: 360-385-9400 fax: 360-385-9401 email: lbarnes@co.jefferson.wa.us .