The census data for Massachusetts has been posted. I downloaded the files but couldn’t really make much sense of it. Any smart folks out there who know what to do with it?
Here’s the link:
http://www2.census.gov/census_…
Please share widely!
Reality-based commentary on politics.
marcus-graly says
Total MA population: 6,547,629
Per CD: 727,514
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p>Current Populations
CD 1: 644,956
CD 2: 661,045
CD 3: 664,919
CD 4: 656,083
CD 5: 662,269
CD 6: 650,161
CD 7: 648,162
CD 8: 660,414
CD 9: 650,318
CD 10: 649,239
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p>No real surprises there.
christopher says
Per Senate district: 163,691
(Governors Council = 1 GC district made up of 5 Senate districts)
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p>Per House district: 40,923
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p>It appears that CD1 has the most to make up. I really hope we find a better way than extending it farther east than it already is.
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p>Prediction time – Which two incumbents do you think will be forced into a primary if nobody calls it quits?
ryepower12 says
someone will, if only to throw their hat into the Senate race.
conseph says
I agree, it makes no sense to push the district east along the NH border while keeping the western cities and towns along the CT border in a separate district. CD 1 can be kept almost totally intact and make up the needed population by incorporating most of Springfield into the district. Now this would throw CD 2 into the position of needing a whole lot more population and so on. Would have been easier to accomplish if Barney had decided to retire, but he did not so the hard work begins.
bolson says
I’m importing the data now and maybe tomorrow I’ll have first results for compact maps up at http://bdistricting.com/2010/
stomv says
but it’s not at all obvious to me that compactness should be a first order goal of redistricting.
chilipepr says
But I think it should be a lot higher than Gerrymandering.
david says
chilipepr says
certain areas being kept together, like not splitting up the Springfield or the Lawrence/Lowell area to keep similar ethnic groups together so they can vote as a block (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/graphics/03_22_11_2010_census_town_population/). I can even justify in my mind the 9th due to cape cod bay (but would rather see the 9th stop at Plymouth and then head south to Westport/Fall River).
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p>But when you look at districts like our 3rd and 4th, odd-ball attachments (like Framingham in the 7th, Bedford in the 6th or Hadley in the 7th), I believe there are better ways to “compact” these districts.
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p>It still boggles my mind that Westport and Brookline are in the same congressional district.
stomv says
Should a district be relatively uniform, or relatively diverse? How important is physical natural geography or man-made physical infrastructure in drawing lines?
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p>Forget about compact for a moment, and forget about drawing lines with an eye focused on election outcomes. What should guide drawing the lines?
christopher says
…by geographic and economic rather than demographic indicators. I’ve never had much interest in taking ethnicity into account.
stomv says
they instead see that the district isn’t compact, and therefore is gerrymandered. I’m not so sure I agree with your answer, but I solute that you answered.
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p>P.S. The 15th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act has a different tact than you with respect to ethnicity.
christopher says
I understand the Voting Rights Act has certain requirements. The law needs to be followed, but I disagree on the merits with those provisions of the VRA. The 15th amendment only says that no person shall be denied the right to vote on the basis of race. It makes no guarantees as to the makeup of the district that a voter is resident in.
peter-porcupine says
Frankly, they need to start there. Go west from Provincetown, keep adding entire communites, and stop when you have the size of a district. It worked the other way to accomodate Delahunt, starting at the west and then heading east, and then BINGO! No adjacent community to pull a precinct from unless you allow dolphins the vote.
chilipepr says
but Quincy is not on the cape!
peter-porcupine says
stomv says
Obviously you’ll get the entire “arm” and islands, but then… do you head north along the Cape Cod Bay coast, or west along the coast, or somewhere in between. And, of course, there’s no guarantee that an ‘entire community’ will make the population divide out correctly. They may well have to give the 9th a divided up community, and in fact may have to give ’em two depending on what happens in other CDs.
christopher says
…and I like it. Here is the map. I only wish city and town boundaries were overlaid on these maps for clarity.
gmoke says
Hands-on Census class: Finding stories & doing research with Census data
will happen on Tuesday, March 22, 2011
When: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 7:00 PM
Where: Boston Globe – 135 Morrissey Blvd. Dorchester MA
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p>Arthur Bakis from the Boston office of the US Census Dept will conduct a hands-on class for reporters and others. He will show people how they can unearth important facts and trends being released by the Census for the nation and Massachusetts. The Census is in the middle of releasing decennial data, as well as information from the American Community Survey (and learn what the difference is). Arthur has been with the Census Bureau for 11 years. He serves as Information Services Specialist and is responsible for disseminating census data to the public and spreading awareness about available demographic and economic data and data products throughout New England.
Bring your own laptop
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p>http://meetupbos.hackshackers….
pogo says
randolph says
Eagerly awaiting complete data, but here are some interesting points I picked out.
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p>Boston probably* still majority people of color. It’s hard to know for sure until we can tell what chunk of its 54% white population is Latino.
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p>Among the state’s major cities, Brockton has the largest portion of black residents (24%), Fall River is whitest (87%), Quincy most Asian (24%), and Lawrence most Latino (74%).
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p>My hometown of Randolph grew by nearly 4% to 32,112. This is after several iteration of the ACS survey claimed it had lost about 5% of its population. So the ACS was told a reverse story from the decennial census. Why does this matter?
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p>Well, the ACS data was widely reported and understood to prove Randolph was in fact experiencing massive white flight and an inexorable decline. Yet the town has now in fact reached an all-time population high.
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p>The ACS is heralded as a way to keep up with changes more frequently than the decennial census, but it seems least reliable in places actually experiencing interesting changes. Not sure what if anything it’s really good for…