John Adams' Geography Class where they have to pick an MSA, define the Central Business District, pick some tracts and find some data is starting up again. The assignment said to pick an MSA of at least 250,000 but to otherwise "stick to smaller MSAs". So, I've got a list in the current assigments folder with all MSAs in 2000 between 250,000 and 1 million. I was showing a student how to find an MSA of a given size and ended up w/the file and figured I might as well print and keep it.
They may use either 2000 or 1990. If they choose 2000 though, the maps will be all digital. This assignment may be a bit easier in print...
Finally, on the subject of Central Business Districts, the Census Bureau says this:
"A central business district (CBD) is an area of very high land valuation characterized by a high concentration of retail businesses, service businesses, offices, theaters, and hotels, and by a very high traffic flow. A CBD was defined in the 1982 Census of Retail Trade to follow existing census tract boundaries; that is, it consisted of one or more whole census tracts.
The Census Bureau discontinued the CBD program following the 1982 Census of Retail Trade. "
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cbd.html
The tracts for CBDs as of 1982 can be found in the Major Retail Centers volumes (C 3.255/5: RC 82-C-#) in the Appendix covering "Boundary Descriptions".
--Amy
Posted by bgi at March 9, 2006 02:54 PM | Email This Entry