[Xastir] Complete set of TIGER 2006 SE shapefiles now available!

[Gerry Creager]

At least for Texas, I can get a good dataset of our State's basemap in 
e00 format.  It takes a bit to automate that transformation to shapefile 
but I can look into that and work on it, as well as automating the 
renaming function from County ID to name...

Somehow I'm not surprised Census is making their data less useful to the 
likes of us.  Their requirements are considerably different from some of 
the things we do and some of their shapes are likely to be highly 
stylized or interpretive to reflect their needs.

Gerry

Tom Russo wrote:
> On Mon, May 21, 2007 at 10:52:11AM -0600, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <russo at bogodyn.org> flavor, containing:
>> On Mon, May 21, 2007 at 12:33:25PM -0400, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <bickley at baybroadband.net> flavor, containing:
> [Re: TIGER/Line shapefiles]
>>> You guys have been really patient in answering several questions form this
>>> rank newcomer to Linux and Xastir.  Am I good for another one?
>>>
>>> What are the benefits of these new offerings versus what was already out
>>> there?  
> 
> I answered the "Why not the online version" question, but not this one.
> 
> The 2006 Second Edition maps will have updated (presumably better) data as
> the Census adds information.
> 
> The previous 2006 shapefile conversions only converted the linear features,
> and were missing all of the polygons.  The files were also named by FIPS code,
> which made it a little difficult to figure out what file applied to what part
> of the state.  The new ones have county names.
> 
> The much older 2004 shapefiles had the polygon features, but were based on
> older data that the Census doesn't distribute anymore.
> 
> The 2006 SE files will be the last data that the Census will be distributing
> in TIGER/Line format.  Starting next year they'll be distributing shapefiles
> of their own.  From the looks of it, these will be less useful, as their 
> current plans show that their files will have a set of attributes that will 
> make it difficult to use them in Xastir.  So these 2006 SE shapefiles will 
> probably be the last set of useful Census data we can get our hands on, unless 
> the Census changes the DBF attributes they plan to attach to their data when 
> they start distributing shapefiles themselves.
> 
> The TIGER/Line data was never meant to provide navigation-quality maps, but
> they're the closest thing we've got to free street-level maps of the whole 
> country.  Better data can often be had from local public works departments,
> but it's hit-or-miss and not at all standardized.
> 

-- 
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University	
Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020  FAX 979.862.3983
MAIL:  AATLT, 3139 TAMU
Physical: 1700 Research Parkway, Suite 160,
College Station, TX 77843-3139