First assignment progress & dataset question

[allenmoench]

Hi all! Thought I'd make a post after my first round of work on the Chicago greenspaces assignment. I was able to write some code importing libraries, creating a directory and a path for the census information, and defining the data download for the census tract. However, when I tried to do the row filter, I realized that the data for Chicago was not present in my dataset. Am I downloading the wrong dataset? Or the wrong part of it? I was a bit confused from the instructions about exactly what dataset we should download, and how to find it. Any advice on how to link to the correct dataset would be appreciated! Here's what I've got so far:

[BioNCphilic]

I'm a bit lost for several reasons including:

1. I had trouble getting logged into GitHub during class and wasn't able to focus on the demo
2. I can't access the video recording from class
3. The GitHub assignment says: "You can find full instructions on the textbook page, under Unit 6", but unit 6 does not currently exist.

However, I am looking at your code @allenmoench and am curious where you found the census_url. I'm looking at the notebook which says "Download the Census tract Shapefile that goes along with CDC Places" When searching the website, I get this url for the shapefile: https://data.cdc.gov/500-Cities-Places/500-Cities-Census-Tract-Boundaries/x7zy-2xmx/about_data. I'm not sure how to download the file using python so I did it manually and used code to extract the shapefile from the zipfile, however that's not working either.

On the CDC Places site I also found this url: https://data.cdc.gov/500-Cities-Places/PLACES-Local-Data-for-Better-Health-Place-Data-202/eav7-hnsx/about_data and then the api for the data is under actions. I'm just throwing that in there because it took me a while to find it and I'm a bit frustrated to have such simple barriers right off the bat. Not sure this is helpful, but I hear you!

[allenmoench]

Thanks, that is super helpful! The URL I used was something I saw on the screen during our class, and wrote into the code to test in case it yielded the correct dataset. It didn't, but it did point me towards a larger dataset which I think is the correct one, except I can't figure out how to download the portion I need. I think this is where the API comes in - I understand what an API is in principle, but I still get confused sometimes when it comes to actually using one. Long story short, I also spent quite a while browsing around the CDC website and not being able to find what I was looking for. Thanks for posting those links - I'll try them out and see if it works!

[ZimmZone]

I was able to get the data for Illinois to download using this code

As for the video and Unit 6, I think those will be posted on Monday.
What I am struggling with is how to get past this part. For instance, how do I sort down to Chicago? Any suggestions?

[BioNCphilic]

I'm still struggling with the Census data for Chicago. I get this message: "The area of census.gov that you are trying to access is currently unavailable due to maintenance. We are working to have this area back online as quickly as possible. For assistance, please contact our Call Center at 1-800-923-8282."

[hanried]

I'm also seeing this same message when trying to use the TIGER service.

[hanried]

@allenmoench I'm having similar problems! That API we found during class has a limit of 1000 rows, so I think the 1000 rows automatically pulled just don't have Illinois. When I ran my code w/ the same link as you have in your screenshot, I got 1000 rows, all for Virginia. I think this dataset is just massive. I found some info on this site about filtering, and here's where I'm at with accessing the data. This give me 1000 rows of Illinois data for DuPage county, one of the counties that Chicago is in. I don't know yet how to tell whether these 1000 rows are all the DuPage data (I kind of doubt it). @ZimmZone, maybe that filtering info could be helpful to you?

@BioNCphilic the census_url that we found during class comes from this site: https://data.cdc.gov/500-Cities-Places/PLACES-Local-Data-for-Better-Health-Census-Tract-D/cwsq-ngmh/data_preview. On that site, we clicked on the "Actions" button/dropdown menu, then "API" in the dropdown menu. A window popped up and we selected GeoJSON as the data format and copied the link:

[katherinesiegel]

Hi everyone! Thanks for all the activity in this discussion! Elsa is working on getting the demos/solutions up on the ESIIL Learning Portal -- there's been a little delay, but she said she'll have something for you all to work on by class time today.

I think I led us a little astray with the census tract data on Thursday (sorry about that!). You should be able to get the census tract shapefiles from the Census's TIGER/Line Shapefiles page (the link is at the very bottom of the Step 2 section of the assignment). If there are continued issues with the website being down for maintenance, you can write the code you think would work and then I can get you the actual shapefiles.