Estimating downtown populations

Hello Everyone,

I am working on a project to estimate the number of people living in downtown. One of the first goals is for downtown organizations to better understand and serve its residents (e.g., a downtown residents council). We will certainly use Census 2010 count as a base line but given the new developments and undercounts of some vulnerable population, we will have to find other creative ways (e.g. utilities) that will get us closer to those numbers. Does anyone know of strategies, examples or resources of a similar project?

Best,
Gustavo.

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Cliff Cook over 9 years ago

Good question. Since I was offering advice to another user I am not how he would go about answering this question. If I were the one faced with this task I think I would have to approach this question on a case by case basis. I am not aware of general standard, like that for MSAs. Most larger city planning or economic development departments probably have a working definition of downtown in their respective location. This could be based on historical understanding of the area, current zoning, or an economic development zone of some type. Another source could be a local business improvement district, which typically have well defined boundaries. In the case of Cambridge we do have defined commercial districts based on zoning and historical development patterns.
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Cliff Cook over 9 years ago

Good question. Since I was offering advice to another user I am not how he would go about answering this question. If I were the one faced with this task I think I would have to approach this question on a case by case basis. I am not aware of general standard, like that for MSAs. Most larger city planning or economic development departments probably have a working definition of downtown in their respective location. This could be based on historical understanding of the area, current zoning, or an economic development zone of some type. Another source could be a local business improvement district, which typically have well defined boundaries. In the case of Cambridge we do have defined commercial districts based on zoning and historical development patterns.
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