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November 22, 2005
If you don't know your own community, don't blame the government
Friend, colleague, and research wonk Neill Archer Roan reminded me of the wonderful riches available on-line from the U.S. Census Bureau. Their American FactFinder is a treasure trove of market research and demographic information on your community.
Just run a quick ''fact sheet'' search of your city and you'll see what I mean: median household income, education levels, ethnicity, median home value, mean travel time to work, median age, and on and on...all available in numbers and many available in maps (see the income distribution map of Madison, Wisconsin, included in this post, or just jump to the fact sheet).
Take 10 minutes to sort your own membership or ticket database by ZIP code. Pick the three most popular ZIPs and get a fact sheet on each. E-mail the links to your staff. Then tell me it wasn't time well spent.
Thanks Neill.
