The business economist at work: an economist's work in a city planning department

Business Economics, April, 1993 by Philip Mayer

Liaison to the Public

Inquiries for demographic and economic information provide an opportunity to help educate the public on the interpretation of demographic and economic data. For example, those interested in locating a business often need help in identifying a market area. Not identifying market areas correctly can lead to bad decisions. A firm may be considering location in one of the county's six incorporated cities. Some of these cities have populations of less than 10,000 but may be surrounded by large portions of population in the unincorporated county. Many marketing people out of ignorance will call the population of the incorporated city their marketing area, write it off as too small, and thus miss a good opportunity. When I assist people in working with small area data, I work with them to choose one of several ways of disaggregating the data. One is the census tract. A census tract is a small geographic area of approximately 3,000 to 5,000 and is defined by the Census Bureau. The Planning and Zoning Department aggregates the census tracts into seven planning areas. Planning areas, in a very broad sense, have similar geographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Some Census data are also available at the block level.

Committee Adviser

In addition to citizen inquiries, I also engage in special studies for various county departments. For example, I worked with the Affordable Housing Task Force on a survey of county employees and affordable housing. Currently I am serving on several committees of the Department of Transportation. My task on these committees is to advise on road projects (widenings and new roads) and what their impact will be on land use patterns in the county.

Special Analysis

One extensive project that I performed was a marketing analysis for the Cobb County Library System. The Library System is considering building a new library and requested assistance from Planning and Zoning in helping determine what part of the county was in most need of a new library. The Library System's argument is that all parts of the county should have equal convenient access to the same amount of library facilities. One standard for measuring library facilities is square footage. The Planning and Zoning Department took each census tract and measured how many square feet of library space was conveniently available per capita for 1990 and 2000 based on forecasts of a regional planning commission. To ascertain how many libraries were convenient for each of the census tracts, we considered not only mileage but also psychological barriers. For example, one might hesitate to cross an interstate or even a railroad track to visit a library. A planner who has detailed knowledge of the county is in a better position to do this type of market analysis rather than a research firm in another city.

Author of Data Report

As the principal author and project manager, I oversee the Planning and Zoning Department's compilation of frequently requested information in a yearly report of demographic, economic, and housing data (as well as land-use, transportation and government services data) called the Cobb County Data Report. The book reports much of the data down to the census tract or planning area level. The book is not costly to prepare and is a valuable tool for those interested in market analysis. This makes developers and those interested in opening a business prime customers for the Data Report. The Data Report was published and distributed in its most recent version to other county departments, such as the Department of Transportation and the Parks and Recreation Department. These departments need demographic and economic data for their own planning purposes.