While my family is out skiing I am sitting in my office having a very lazy day. Not in the way you would think though. I am, actually, getting things done. In fact I am just about to tick something off my to-do list. Never mind that the to do list is labeled, “To Do Friday” and that today is Saturday and that the Friday it referred to was not yesterday. Never mind that. I am about to cross off the item that says “find/add population data.”
It wasn’t just any population data I had to find. The group I am working with really wants to determine the spatial and numerical patterns in housing units versus full-time housing units because it is widely known that our study area has a lot of seasonal housing units that may skew the results of our onsite septic system study.
After looking into several potential datasets, including the tax assessor land use codes, I set upon extracting the subset of census data that deals with this (“vacant housing units: seasonal, recreational, and occasional use” for those who want to know.) Although this data is outdated by 10 years and is summarized by block it is probably the best we are going to be able to get for this parameter.
I was quite surprised to see that at least one block in our study area is 100% seasonal housing units, though on closer examination I see that this is due to a block that is mostly national park and has a grand total of 2 housing units, both of which are seasonal.
Now for the lazy part. I downloaded the data and did a couple of selections and exports with it to get it the way I wanted it. The file names? Export_Output, Export_Output_2, and Export_Output_3. The map? Your typical fruits and vegetables color scheme. My future self will get annoyed at the file naming and freggie evocation but my current self smiles as she crosses the item off the list.
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