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Make Your Maps in QGIS but use R and Tidycensus to Generate Census Shapefiles 🗺

Make Your Maps in QGIS but use R and Tidycensus to Generate Census Shapefiles 🗺

Why choose when you can have it all? Seriously, QGIS makes it easy to move labels as you like and do the styling of the Shapefile or GeoPackage you generate in R with tidycensus and sf.

library(tidycensus)
library(sf)
lowincome <- get_acs(
  geography = “state”,
  table = ‘B19001’,
  year = 2020,
  output = ‘wide’,
  survey = “acs5”,
  geometry = TRUE);
lowincome$under30k <- ((lowincome$B19001_002E +lowincome$B19001_003E+ lowincome$B19001_004E+ lowincome$B19001_005E+ lowincome$B19001_006E) /lowincome$B19001_001E)*100
lowincome %>% write_sf(‘/tmp/under30k.gpkg’)

With the above R code, it will generate a GeoPackage (use extension .gpkg) or Shapefile (use extension .shp) you can use to make your map in QGIS. Then in QGIS if you want to simplify the output, you can use a geometry generator in the styles:

simplify($geometry,0.003)

Or you can specify the simplification in the R script when you run get_acs(), as it is a wrapper around the tigris package:

lowincome <- get_acs(
  geography = “state”,
  table = ‘B19001’,
  year = 2020,
  output = ‘wide’,
  survey = “acs5”,
  geometry = TRUE,
  resolution = ’20m’,
);

Neat ! R and QGIS are great tool to use together.

Conservative working-class life can be kind of fun. 🔫 🔥 🛻 🐮 🤠👨🏻‍🌾

I am not a conservative. If anything I’m libertarian leaning, but I also see the benefit of a state that helps people, especially through the kind of public services that are largely indivisible and free for all to use without discrimination such as public parks, plazas, mass transit and libraries. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think the conservative style of living is fun and has a lot of benefits.

I often think liberals are too intellectual, too concerned about others to have a little fun and relax. At the same time, many on the left lack the inhibition to be respectful of those with traditional values. Now I’m no bible humper or anti-environmentalist, but I think it’s fun to live a life of owning guns, having bonfires, riding quads and snowmobiles, hunting, fishing and farming. A life where you don’t spend your whole life fretting about other people’s problems, where your not worried about saving the planet or country, your just looking to have a little fun.

Conservatives are often seen as dour, but I think many on the left have adopted dour politics as a central tenant of their identity. And while it’s certainly important to control pollution and address racism, especially in our urban areas that are densely packed and impacts of pollution and racist policing tactics can be acute, people should be left alone and not looked down because they live a life different then the imaginary liberal ideal. It’s good to care, but you shouldn’t be so dour in your mannerisms and outlook on life.

Fracture critical bridges in Albany County

Fracture critical bridges in Albany County

There are many fracture critical bridges in Albany County and across the state. While it seems like they are decently well maintain -- it's rare for them to collapse unexpectedly or be red flagged and closed, you got to wonder how safe they are?

Also, at the same time, after seeing non-fracture critical bridge collapse in Pittsburgh, which was a boring rigid-frame bridge, you have to wonder if people's concerns about bridge safety are somewhat misplaced, putting all the fear into fracture critical bridges that have failed in the past like the I-35W bridge in Minnesota or the Silver Bridge in West Virginia and ignoring safety concerns on all other bridges?