Search Results for: google maps counties in new york

Counties In New York

A common question is what county is something located in. This map, using the power of the Google Maps Geocoder can help you locate a street address or building name, then see under it a county map. You can click at the layer below it to figure out what county the point is located in. County Map data comes from the US Census TIGER Map project.

Been building a collection of geopackages from counties containing current election districts 🗺

Been building a collection of geopackages from counties containing current election districts 🗺

Most counties nowadays post their election districts nowadays on their interactive mappers which are backed by ArcGIS REST/services. So you can either Google the REST/services or watch them in the network debugger in the browser to get the URL and then connect to them in QGIS to download the file. Some counties – Allegany and Rensselaer along with New York City and Westchester post shapefiles on their website.

Come redistricting I’m afraid the old election districts will disappear from public view on the servers and won’t be able to obtained easily. But having the old district lines is valuable as you can plot old elections on maps such as the 2018 or 2020 elections than port them over to the new district. Or create cross walk documents that show old versus new election districts. To a certain extent you can use the Voter Tabulation District file put out by the Census Bureau but the problem is that the Census Bureau often collapses small election districts, making it difficult to merge against past local election races.

The state’s LATFOR commission will late this year release election results for recent elections tallied by Voter Tabulation District, that they purchased from a vendor for redistricting purposes. That data will be fairly valuable, especially once they are joined against the new, well updated, election districts created or updated by county boards of elections next year. There is quite a bit of math involved in making the calculations – working with percentages of the old election districts – but I expect I can do a lot of that with PANDAS fairly easy. This might make some pretty maps and interesting analysis of local races.

Maple Trees Tapped

This interactive google map shows how many maple taps were driven in for each county. New York State and Vermont are the nation's biggest maple producers, but there are several other states that have smaller numbers of trees tapped. This is a consolidation of county level data, those counties with only one farm reporting maple production, were not included in the survey results, which depresses tap counts in counties that are marginal maple producers.

Data Source: USDA Agriculture Census, 2012. Maple Taps. Counts. https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/

Some Useful Investigative Open Data Resources

Usually when I want to research a New York organization I start at NY Open Government, which is a website put out by the NY Attorney General and brings together several open datasets.

NY Open Government: nyopengovernment.com

One way to find people’s addresses is to find them in the voter file. Voter Ref contains the voter files for several states, which can be handy for looking up people’s addresses, date of birth, party registration.

Voter Ref: voteref.com

You can confirm the latest information on people’s voting registration and address by using the state board of election’s voter lookup. You will need their county, date of birth and zip code which you can get from Voter Ref.

NY Voter Lookup: voterlookup.elections.ny.gov

See Through NY has listings of many though not all government employees, which can be useful when you are trying to find information on government workers. No addresses here, but you can find salaries and who people work for in government. If you need bulk data, I wrote a scraping script.

See Through NY: seethroughny.net/payrolls

Another good way to gleam people’s addresses and the candidates they search is NYS Campaign Finance Search. If you think somebody might work for a candidate or campaign, you can search the campaign expenses section.

NYS Campaign Finance Search: publicreporting.elections.ny.gov

The FEC Campaign Search includes a contributor’s address and reported employer, which can provide useful information.

FEC Campaign Search: https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/

Every county in New York State is required to post their tax rolls to their website. Tax rolls can be usually found by searching on Google: “XXXX County Tax Rolls” without the quotes. Not only can you find all of the properties owned by a person that way, you can find their address, assessed value and other information. Often the county tax rolls include information on tax exemptions, such as the Guilderland Solar Exemption and Veterans STAR Reduction, which can help you find people who have solar on their homes or are Veterans. I wrote a script to convert the PDFs into Excel spreadsheets.

If you need to search a whole county or the even the state, you will want to get the full roll from NYS GIS. You don’t need mapping or GIS software to use the Shapefiles — Microsoft Excel and OpenOffice can natively open .DBF which contain the data tables. NYS GIS offers selected countys tax-maps as a Shapefile or GeoPackage too.

NYS GIS Parcels Program: https://gis.ny.gov/parcels/
NYS GIS Tax Parcels Centroid Points:
gis.ny.gov/gisdata/inventories/details.cfm?DSID=1300

In addition, most counties offer their tax maps as ArcGIS REST/Services that can be used in a GIS Program like QGIS. You can find them by searching on Google: “XXX County “REST/Services” parcel”.

How to download ArcGIS Rest/Services as KML Google Maps File: mappingsupport.com/p2/kmz_demo/How_to_download_arcgis_data_as_kmz.pdf

ArcPuller is a Great Way to Get this Data in R: andyarthur.org/youll-like-arcpullr.html

In addition, Joseph Elfelt maintains a list of many open government REST/Services:

PDF: https://mappingsupport.com/p/surf_gis/list-federal-state-county-
city-GIS-servers.pdf
txt file: https://mappingsupport.com/p/surf_gis/list-federal-state-county-city-GIS-servers.t
xt
csv file: https://mappingsupport.com/p/surf_gis/list-federal-state-county-city-GIS-servers.c
sv

An easier to read version can be found here: https://servers.cartobin.com/state/New%20York

Sometimes it’s useful to find what state contracts people have:

NY Open Book Contracts Search: wwe2.osc.state.ny.us/transparency/contracts/contractsearch.cfm

See how local governments like counties and cities send their money:

Local Government Reports: wwe2.osc.state.ny.us/transparency/LocalGov/LocalGovIntro.cfm

Many different data sets can be found on data.ny.gov

I Can Help You Make a Map

Geographic Information Services (GIS)MapsCartography 🗺

I am an amateur cartographer who designs maps and does a wide variety geospatial analysis using free and open-source geographic information software (GIS) and public sources of data to design quality maps, graphs, charts and datasets. I am looking for new and interesting projects to improve my skills, make connections and expand my portfolio.

Are you looking for my personal blog with it’s hiking, camping and outdoor recreation maps, along with a variety of charts, photos, and stories? Please visit andyarthur.org.

Mapping Avaliable

  • Tax/Property Mapping
  • High Resolution Aerial Photography
  • Recreational Maps – Hunting, Camping, Hiking
  • Georeference addresses using State Address Mapping service, plot them on a map
  • Wetlands, Topographic Contours, Land Cover
  • Compare historical aerial photos or maps to current photography
  • Web mapping using leaflet (HTML/Javascript file to embed on a website or use at home)

Example maps can found below.

Services Available

  • A list of property owners within 1,000 feet of a proposed development
  • How many cars per day pass a business?
  • How many people who live within 5 miles of a business or park?
  • How many African Americans and Hispanics live within 10 miles of Albany Pine Bush?
  • What are wealthiest election districts?
  • How many people ride public transit in a neighborhood?
  • How much of an area is wetland or farm field?
  • How big an interchange?
  • What is the average slope and elevation of an area or trail?

Example data can found below.

Pricing and Cost

For most projects, there is no fee. I am looking for experience, references, mentors and connections in the geospatial community.

If you have a large project, let’s talk about it. I might be willing to do it for free, if it’s something really interesting
or important like fighting suburban sprawl and pollution. I don’t a business or taxes set up, so I can’t really charge at this point.

How to get started?

Please send me an email describing the mapping or data project in as much detail as possible.

My email is andy@andyarthur.org

Data Avaliable

  • US Census – 2019 American Community Survey, 2020 US Census
  • NYS Tax and Assessment Rolls (2020)
  • NYSDOT Traffic Counts and Road Data
  • Historical Aerial Photography (primarily 1952, but earlier and later exist)
  • ArcGIS REST/Services and WMS Services from state and local agencies
  • LiDAR Elevation Profiles
  • USGS Topographic Maps, historic and modern – with overlays if requested
  • Data Repositories like CUGIR, DataNY.gov and NYSGIS
  • Recreation data from NYSDEC

Software Used

  • Quantum GIS (QGIS) including 3D Mapping
  • Geodata Abstraction Library (GDAL, ogr2ogr)
  • Python, including the data-science libraries PANDAS and GeoPANDAS
  • LeafletJS Web Mapping Services

Geographies Avaliable

  • Primary Capital Region and also much of New York State, also some for Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia
  • State, county, municipal, school districts – Most data sets
  • Parks, highways, buffer (distance to) – Most data sets
  • Election districts – Roughly 75% of NYS counties
  • Census Tract or Blockgroup – 2019 American Community Survey
  • Tabulation Block – 2020 US Census

Are printed maps avaliable at this time?

Not currently. I can send you a file based on your specifications to print at your local print shop.

How long do mapping projects take?

Depends on complexity of the project. Many projects only take minutes, however if a project requires georeferencing, data cleaning, or custom shapes or layouts, it might take significantly longer. More revisions lead to better quality output.

Do you make maps professionally?

No! This is just a hobby. But I’m interested in expanding my skills. I do a lot of mapping for my blog and in support of community organizations like Save the Pine Bush.

Are my maps of good quality?

Thats for you to decide. I don’t have formal education in map making, and I don’t have professional tools. But do take a look at the work I’ve done below.

Examples of Maps


This shows a 3D rendering of the Buckville Canal north of Hamilton


This map shows the use of 2020 PL 94-171 data to calculate population density in City of Albany.


This 1985 aerial photo shows Crossgates Mall prior to it’s expansion.


This GIF image shows the change in unemployment during Coronavirus panademic.

This image shows hiking trails near Brooktrout, Falls Pond and Deep Lake.


Peebles Island, a Comparison 1952


3D Interactive of campsites at Moose River Plains.


Sample tax map in Albany.


Election results – 2020 Presidential Election, Onondoga County.


Map showing where sparklers are legally sold in New York.


Downtown Plattsburgh 1866 Beers (1866 Beers vs. 2020 OSM)


3D Rendering of Canandaigua Lake


Map showing Buffalo Mayoral Primary results and campaign donors.


Overlay of Proposed Retail Core in 1963 Plan for the Capital City.


Map showing Local Area Unemployment Statistics – April 2020.


Interactive tax map in Delmar


State Land in Stockholm, NY – Buckton State Forest.


Empire State Plaza take area, 1952


3D Rendering of the 1898 Watkins Glen Topographic Map

Examples of Data and Code

Properties in Albany Pine Bush Study Area,Excel Files: Various Tax Rolls,Find coordinates and political districts,Look Up State Tax Records and aScript for Processing RPTL 1520 PDFs.

Querying state property database, political enrollments, PL 94-171 Census files, calculating population statistics, what address is a district in, converting old districts to new districts.

Miles from Albany millions population
50 1.002
100 1.750
150 3.511
200 17.102
250 17.725
300 18.699
350 19.411
400 20.187
450 20.201
import pandas as pd
import geopandas as gpd
 
# path to overlay shapefile
overlayshp = r'/tmp/dis_to_albany.gpkg'
 
# summary level -- 750 is tabulation block, 150 is blockgroup
# large areas over about 50 miles much faster to use bg
summaryLevel = 150
#summaryLevel = 750
 
# path to block or blockgroup file
if summaryLevel == 150:
    blockshp = r'/home/andy/Documents/GIS.Data/census.tiger/36_New_York/tl_2020_36_bg20.shp.gpkg'
else:
    blockshp = r'/home/andy/Documents/GIS.Data/census.tiger/36_New_York/tl_2020_36_tabblock20.shp.gpkg'
 
# path to PL 94-171 redistricting geoheader file
pl94171File = '/home/andy/Desktop/nygeo2020.pl'
 
# field to categorize on (such as Ward -- required!)
catField = 'Name'
 
# geo header contains 2020 census population in column 90 
# per PL 94-171 documentation, low memory chunking disabled 
# as it causes issues with the geoid column being mixed types
df=pd.read_csv(pl94171File,delimiter='|',header=None, low_memory=False )
 
# column 2 is summary level 
population=df[(df.iloc[:,2] == summaryLevel)][[9,90]]
 
# load overlay
overlay = gpd.read_file(overlayshp).to_crs(epsg='3857')
 
# shapefile of nys 2020 blocks, IMPORTANT (!) mask by output file for speed
blocks = gpd.read_file(blockshp,mask=overlay).to_crs(epsg='3857')
 
# geoid for linking to shapefile is column 9
joinedBlocks=blocks.set_index('GEOID20').join(population.set_index(9))
 
# store the size of unbroken blocks
# in case overlay lines break blocks into two
joinedBlocks['area']=joinedBlocks.area
 
# run union
unionBlocks=gpd.overlay(overlay, joinedBlocks, how='union')
 
# drop blocks outside of overlay
unionBlocks=unionBlocks.dropna(subset=[catField])
 
# create population projection when a block crosses
# an overlay line -- avoid double counting -- this isn't perfect
# as we loose a 0.15 percent due to floating point errors
unionBlocks['sublock']=unionBlocks[90]*(unionBlocks.area/unionBlocks['area'])
 
# sum blocks in category
unionBlocks=pd.DataFrame(unionBlocks.groupby(catField).sum()['sublock'])
 
# rename columns
unionBlocks=unionBlocks.rename({'sublock': '2020 Census Population'},axis=1)
 
# calculate cumulative sum as you go out each ring
unionBlocks['millions']=unionBlocks.cumsum(axis=0)['2020 Census Population']/1000000
 
# each ring is 50 miles
unionBlocks['miles']=unionBlocks.index*50
 
# output
unionBlocks

Land use in town of Berne (from 2016 National Land Cover Dataset)

Most highly assessed properties in Albany County …

from arcgis.features import FeatureLayer
lyr_url = 'https://gisservices.its.ny.gov/arcgis/rest/services/NYS_Tax_Parcel_Centroid_Points/MapServer/0'
layer = FeatureLayer(lyr_url)
query_result1 = layer.query(where="COUNTY_NAME='Albany' AND FULL_MARKET_VAL > 100000000", 
                                    out_fields='PARCEL_ADDR,CITYTOWN_NAME,FULL_MARKET_VAL,OWNER_TYPE', out_sr='4326')

df=query_result1.sdf.sort_values(by='FULL_MARKET_VAL', ascending=False)
df['Full Market Value'] = df['FULL_MARKET_VAL'].map('${:,.0f}'.format)

df
 OBJECTIDPARCEL_ADDRCITYTOWN_NAMEFULL_MARKET_VALOWNER_TYPESHAPEFull Market Value
112665264 Eagle StAlbany12042549252{“x”: -73.75980312511581, “y”: 42.650469918250…$1,204,254,925
391501200 Washington AveAlbany8862987152{“x”: -73.81092293494828, “y”: 42.679257168282…$886,298,715
4102081400 Washington AveAlbany6423982872{“x”: -73.82369286130952, “y”: 42.685845700657…$642,398,287
0885251 Fuller RdAlbany4400428272{“x”: -73.83559002316825, “y”: 42.690208093507…$440,042,827
518164632 New Scotland AveAlbany3775682018{“x”: -73.80381341626146, “y”: 42.655758957669…$377,568,201
1906141 Fuller RdAlbany3211991432{“x”: -73.83323986150171, “y”: 42.693189748928…$321,199,143
19108087See Card 1067Watervliet2808988761{“x”: -73.70670724174552, “y”: 42.719628647232…$280,898,876
1565380737 Alb Shaker RdColonie2639161003{“x”: -73.80365248218001, “y”: 42.747956678125…$263,916,100
921923304 Madison AveAlbany2342654182{“x”: -73.76227373289564, “y”: 42.648000674457…$234,265,418
2907201 Fuller RdAlbany2034261242{“x”: -73.83362605353057, “y”: 42.692609131686…$203,426,124
1669999515 Loudon RdColonie1660656008{“x”: -73.74958475282632, “y”: 42.719321807666…$166,065,600
72059247 New Scotland AveAlbany1622763388{“x”: -73.77597163421673, “y”: 42.653565689693…$162,276,338
620574132 S Lake AveAlbany1462963602{“x”: -73.77970918544908, “y”: 42.654390366929…$146,296,360
820597113 Holland AveAlbany1434985012{“x”: -73.77306688593143, “y”: 42.650762742870…$143,498,501
1778203MannsvilleColonie1425704001{“x”: -73.71245452369443, “y”: 42.718124477080…$142,570,400
18955091 Crossgates Mall RdGuilderland1305547008{“x”: -73.84702700595471, “y”: 42.687699053797…$130,554,700
102452186 S Swan StAlbany1284364032{“x”: -73.75980563770365, “y”: 42.653931892804…$128,436,403
13468831916 US 9WCoeymans1100000008{“x”: -73.83388475575597, “y”: 42.488730743021…$110,000,000
1235152380 River RdBethlehem1052631588{“x”: -73.76445503554325, “y”: 42.595925419330…$105,263,158
146509715 Wolf RdColonie1019672138{“x”: -73.81423716588279, “y”: 42.709939498581…$101,967,213
Categories:

Site Map

🌲🌲 Our Public Lands 🌳🌲

Interactive maps with backcountry and roadside camping: New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia & Vermont.
List of NYS DEC Lean-Tos with map coordinates. List of NYS DEC Firetowers with map coordinates and more information.
Google Spreadsheet with Roadside, Primitive and Pay Campsites

Explore the Finger Lakes Trail, Long Path, Northville-Placid Trail and Long Trail/Appalachian in Vermont.
Catskill Park Mountain Peaks, Hudson Valley & Long Island Peaks, Peaks Over 3000 ft Elevation, Highest Peaks in Adirondacks, Interactive Map of All Named Summits in NYS, Blaze Colors in Catskill Park, Trailhead Parking Coordinates and Addresses in the Catskills.

Browse USGS Topo Quads as PDF 🆕 by State Lands or County. You can Bulk Download New & Old USGS Topograpic Maps.

Links to various NY State Land Websites 🆕. Get latest GIS Data from state Web Services.

⛺🌲 Camp 🌲🏕

Moose River PlainsCampsite Listing, Maps and photos of state’s largest free camping area.
Piseco-Powley RoadCampsite Listing, Maps and photos of 15 mile dirt road with camping.
Catskill Park Primitive CampsitesAn overview of free camping locations in Catskill Park.
Burnt-Rossman Forest, Cattaraugus County, East Branch Sacandaga River, Finger Lakes National Forest, Madison County, Pennsylvania, Vermont and West Virigina.

Campsite Coordinates for Bog River Flow / Lows Lake, Hudson River SMA (Buttermilk Falls), Lake Lila, Oswegathie River, Nine-Corner Lake, Pharaoh Lake Wilderness, Saranac River Campsites, Stillwater Lake, Schoharie County, and Sugar Hill State Forest.

Overview of Camping Areas in the Catskills, Green Mountains, Southern Adirondacks, Central Adirondacks, Northern Adirondacks, Allegheny National Forest and Penna. DCNR Motorized Campsites and the Monongahela National Forest West Virginia.

Free Campsite Overview Maps: Adirondack – North Country, Catskills, Central NY, Finger Lakes, Western NY. Interactive Map.

Places I camped in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

🏞 🛹 Bicycle Trails and “Blackie” My Mountain Bike 🚲 🚶

Finally bought a mountain bike, after chewing over a mountain vs commuter bike. Really enjoying riding my bike to work and when it rains there is always a bike rack to safely take it back home. One way to get to adventures at Thacher Park is the Nature Bus.

Empire Trail – KMZ and Interactive Map. Parking along it.

More Trailways with KMZ files including the Albany County Rail Trail, Black Diamond Trail, Catharine Valley Trail, Catskill Scenic Trail, Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Rail Trail, Genesee Valley Trail, Link Trail.

🦌🌲 Hunt 🦃🐿

Wildlife Management Units (Deer)KMZ Map shows the WMU boundaries.

Summer 2019 Aerial Photographs of WMUs

KMZ Maps of Deer Harvest Density by Town: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. By WMU 2017, 2016, 2015.

KMZ Maps of Buck Harvest Density by Town: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. By WMU 2017, 2016

2016 -2019 Deer and Buck Harvest by TownKMZ Spreadsheet with FIPS codes for making your own calculations.

🎣🐡 Fish 🐟🐠

Parking and Access to Trout StreamsAn interactive, downloadable KMZ Map.
Lakes with DEC Contour MapsA KMZ Map links to Contour Maps for Fishing.

🌨🏔 Sled & Wheel 🚙❄

State Truck Trails Over A Half MileDirt roads to explore in the backcountry.
NYS Statewide Snowmobile Trail SystemState trails on public and private lands.

📉📊 Learn 💵📈

Interactive Maps of NY CensusExplore and download KML files.
Charts and Interactive DiagramsFrom population to pollution control.
Andy Arthur GitHubGit my R and Python scripts used to make maps and diagrams.
Use ArcPullR to Get Geospatial DataSuper easy way to connect to get GIS data in R from government servers.
GDAL Opens E00 FilesMost open source programs nowadays can open common geospatial formats.
NY Building FootprintsWhere to find on the internet for making maps.
WMS and ArcMap ServicesDownloadable CSV file listing services used on the blog.
2022 US Census Population EstimatesRed states, south continue to gain population.
2020 Cartogram of State Population

💳 🏛 Property Taxes 🏠💸

Properties in Albany Pine Bush Study Area, Excel Files: Various Tax Rolls, Find coordinates and political districts, Look Up State Tax Records and a Script for Processing RPTL 1520 PDFs. Match NY SWIS Codes to FIPS Codes and GEOID. How to Find MapServer Data and Load Into QGIS.

🚗🚗 Big Red 🚗🚗

Big RedPhotos and Videos of my lifted truck with its camper shell. Big Red’s Dual Battery Setup for Camp Power, Video Tour and Diagram. Big Red is getting old. What is next? I’ve thought about going carless for a while to save money and reduce pollution. Or maybe going bigger? Or smaller? Five dollar gas sucks.

🔥🌲 Off-Grid Living 🏠🤠

I am seriously thinking about building an off-grid house. I have a first draft. I need to learn CAD! I have a road map towards buying land and building. I concede might have to live with long commute and give up traveling and camping. I need to be strong.

Why off grid? Well, I’m not into contemporary society. I want to own land, but not be called a landowner, and a cabin, not hooked to electrical grid, farm, raise pigs for food and burn my own trash. I’m saving for a better tomorrow, hoping to make the leap to another freer state. Having acreage is important. Cornfields aren’t bad neighbors. Maybe though my vision has grown smaller and more local. More on off-grid living.

I am 16 years into my career and have made some significant progress in my life. I love my job. But I do wonder on all the things I’m missing out but saving sure makes me high. Maybe it will be different when I own my own land — the end of goal of all this saving.

2020 into 2021 during the pandemic was a year of remote work. It was a struggle not having internet at home, worked a lot out of my truck. But I worked remotely from Horseshoe Lake which was super cool.

Generally I like the idea of owning land in a red state, particularly Idaho, Iowa, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin — and Midwest more generally. But I may settle for New York – it’s all about the f-ing money!

💻👨‍💻 Open Source 🗺️📍

I use open source software and public sources of data for the blog. Quantum GIS (QGIS), GDAL/ogr2ogr, PyQGIS, GeoPANDAS, R Studio and Leaflet for map making, Arduino and ESP32 microprocessors, Ubuntu Linux and XFCE Window Manager. I’ve recently gotten interested in machine learning.

I avoid using commercial software like Microsoft Windows and do not have home internet or television. If you don’t use commercial software and use your brain, fears of computer viruses are overblown. I deleted most of my social media accounts.

Creating Digital Surface Models using LiDAR Point Clouds.

📊🗺 R Statistical Programming 📜👨‍🏫

The R programming language and RStudio are powerful tools for statistical analysis, making maps and charts. Many of the blog posts and analysis I do are in R, ggplot not only makes great charts but also maps using tidycensus. Generally, R is better then Python for geospatial work.

Use IDW Interpolation to fill in missing Census data, Zonal Histograms for land cover, load WMS Aerial Photography in R, find mountain peaks, save Census shapefiles using tigris quickly, pull NY Election Night Results using Selenium. Fast reverse Geocoding in PostGIS. Working with PDFs in R. Fix a common error starting rselenium/wdman. Make data-filled calendars. R is wonderful and weird, learn it!

🐼🔢 Python and Pandas 💻🐍

Querying state property database, political enrollments, PL 94-171 Census files, calculating population statistics, what address is a district in, converting old districts to new districts, Shapefiles missing Projection information in QGIS.

Learn to code for free modern HTML, Javascript, Python and SQL at freeCodeCamp and web development at the Odin Project.

🐴 🐘 Politics 🦁 🐍

Crunched Election Results with Turnout for Albany County: November 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and Primaries June 2019, Pres/June 2020, June 2021, June 2022, Aug 2022, June 2023.

Albany County Races converted to the new 2023 EDs using Super EDs and Code: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and Primaries June 2019, Pres/June 2020, June 2021, June 2022, Aug 2022.

Above Election Results as zipped Excel files.

Albany County Legislature Districts 2024 Maps

Maps Comparing 2017 and 2023 Albany County Election Districts and a Crosswalk Table Showing the Proposition of Voting Age Population in New and Old EDs

Maps of 2022 NYC Assembly Races, NYS Assembly Races, NY Senate Races, Governor’s Race in Erie County and Statewide. Partisan shift in governor race between 2010 and 2018.

A comparison of Democratic Performance 2022 Assembly Districts to those proposed in 2023 by the IRC. Here is latest 4/20/23 IRC Maps, showing ADP and how they change from existing Assembly districts. Most towns upstate, outside of cities, are quite red. Using LATFOR data with R to calculate Average Democratic Performance.

You can scrape employee salary data from SeeThroughNY using R. Other useful investigative resources.

I often think politics is for losers. I’m into the politics of statistical analysis and reading history books.

I believe strongly in the first amendment, second amendment, oppose gun restrictions and I support de-funding the police in favor of lower-cost technology and civilian employees. Maybe use red flag laws for voting to stop dangerous voters? And the media should stop promoting mass-shootings, even if it’s super profitable for all involved. They should tax the media when it promotes violence. I think some people are much too paranoid in politics. How elections are rigged under law to benefit incumbents. But vote, it’s the best option and inexpensive.

Yeah for the third parties! I voted for Larry Sharpe for Governor and Jo Jergenson for President but my views are complicated and often vote for Democrats, after voting Jill Stein Green Party in 2016.

Some thoughts on Joe Biden not seeking re-election. Times change, but Biden was been a good change over DJT and glad the Trump era is over and are glad prosecutors and grand jurors are holding him responsible by indicting him for many serious felonies. I don’t think Trump can win in 2024, as nothing has changed politically from 2020.

I think rural people should be left alone and not worship government workers or have parades for them. I am no fan of Donald Trump, his speeches are bad, I don’t like Trump’s embrace of radical environmentalists, but do admire the homemade roadside monuments to DJT.

🌲🌳The Earth 🌎 🐸

Why I oppose wilderness areas and parks. It’s trendy to be green these days, but is eco-marketing good for the planet? I visited the Mount Storm Coal Plant and Corridor H.

I worry about a lot about overly-aggressive Climate Change Action, and Undermining Environment Laws for Climate Action. I think we should all admit we are Addicted to Fossil Fuels. These days, urban recycling has become a joke, when it’s still an option at all. It’s better to just buy less shit and avoid the alure of Costcos. I really don’t like how aging radicals have become industrial solar salespeople.

Big bucks are coming to state-designated disadvantaged communities under the CLCP. Which counties and political districts are in line for the the most pork? Interactive map.

I’m a big of farmers who are essentially Living Off the Earth and think Rednecks are Noble Savages. Dairy Farming are key to our rural landscape. I’d trust a farmer or a hunter in a pile of guts he’s butchered over any ivory-tower scientist.

🌎🔆 Industrial Solar 🌞 🏭

Hundreds of multi-acre industrial solar farms are being built in our state. How bad is solar for the environment? We should ask tough questions. Interactive of recently built solar farms, proposed facilities. List of proposed industrial solar facilities. See how the Greenville Solar Farm changed the landscape.

💳 💸Saving Money 💰 💷

I am not a fan of ESG Investing as it’s not well diversified. I prefer index-funds and other tax-advantaged ways of saving. Why I am concerned about saving enough for retirement, even though I’m in my late 30s. We as a nation should save more, consume less. I like the idea of carbon tax to replace capital gains taxes to discourage consumption.

🥦 🍎Mission Fifty, Smoking Grass & Being Healthier 🏠🧠

I am now officially in my 40s! I am building to a better life in my 50s, which means getting up early, walking a lot, saying no to cake and yes to more fruit. In many ways, the forties are an awesome time to be alive.

And eating healthy for less without losing sleep over arsenic. And I don’t think we should subsidize unhealthy habits. How I got started in eating healther. Meals are too focused on meat and carbs due to how we describe them, maybe I eat too many bananas in the office, what to eat while camping, worry more about salt then GMOs, eat more beans. Do spend extra for farmers market peaches, especially doughnut peaches and plums. Consider ethnic supermarkets. Thinking about how to make a healthier macaroni and cheese, spinach-mackeral-pasta salad, quick-cook biscuits and whole-wheat bread. That said, too many recipes are junk food crap. Okay in moderation is not okay. The fact that I’m thinner is not a sign I’m dying.

A few years back I decided to explore my mental illness with therapy, thinking about why I have so much anxiety and how many of my values are rational or just thinking too much rednecks’ burn barrels and how much of a throwaway society we live in. Do I want to change?

I’ve learned to care less about the world, and focus more on myself. Maybe I am happier as I am now, saving and investing a lot towards owning my own land, where I don’t have to deal with all the bullshit of modern life.

And smoke more grass, now that’s legal. Smoking pot is fascinating. Enjoying the rich colors. A map of licensed pot retailers in NYS. Yes, that stuff we used to think of as the smell of crime. Thoughts on Stoner Culture. Not that the blog advertisers like it.

Mission Fifty: Getting to the point where I own my own land. 🚜
Healthy Eating 🍎 / Growing My Wealth 💰
Healthy Thoughts 💭 / Enjoying Life 😃

Questions, comments? Feel free to email me at andy@andyarthur.org.

You do your thing, I’ll do mine.
I smoke pot and drink cheap beer, up in the wilderness. Yes it’s my right !

I use GNU open source software.
Plus I like buck goats,
because they’re real macho men
spraying their beards with goat urine.

I own guns, but not nearly enough. Some day when I live in a pro-2A state …
I can’t make everybody happy, so I’ll just be myself.” – Andy Arthur

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November 14, 2017 Night

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 33 degrees in Delmar. Calm wind. Kind of a gloomy but not too cold evening after a rather dark and gloomy day, that got off to such a bad start with the bus running late. But I’m not longer bitter. I promise. I guess they need emission and inspection checks from hardworking individuals to make the state wealthy, so it can spend it on the welfare queens. Steal from the poor, give to welfare queens who always are illegally parked in front of the County Welfare office. At any rate the gloom isn’t expected to last too much into tomorrow. The skies will clear tomorrow around 7 am. But more clouds for Thursday. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 29 degrees at 5am. Three degrees below normal. Cool but not that cold. Calm wind. In 2016, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 34 degrees. Closer to normal. The record low of 14 occurred back in 1939.

Tonight will have a Waning Crescent Moon with 10% illuminated. The moon will rise tomorrow at 3:40 am. It may be clearing by then, so you might see if you get up way before I will be getting up. The New Moon is on Friday night with a chance of rain then rain is likely. The Cold Moon is on Sunday, December 3rd. The sun will rise at 6:46 am with the first light at 6:16 am, which is one minute and 15 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 15 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 10 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, with a high of 45 degrees at 1pm. Yeah, the sun at least for one day. But still three degrees below normal. Calm wind becoming south 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had sunny skies with more clouds in the afternoon. The high last year was 46 degrees. The record high of 74 was set in 1993. 4.8 inches of snow fell back in 1906. Long time ago.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap, even by November standards. Saturday, snow showers likely before 10am, then rain showers. High near 44. Chance of precipitation is 80%. I heard freezing rain up north. Sunday, a chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 43. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Typical average high for the weekend is 47 degrees.

I still think I will take Friday off, if I can get it off. I got the square nuts to build the rack for my solar panel. Now I just need to find bolts that will fit snuggly, cut and drill the aluminum bars that I will buy. Maybe I will do that on Friday. I will have to see if my parents will be around, as I may want to ask my dad if I can borrow his drill. I have diamond-blades for cutting into the aluminum but lack a power drill of my own. Maybe I should think though about adding that tool to my bin. But first I have to carefully measure everything out so I don’t accidentially mess up a hole and things don’t fit tight.

But I’m staying in town for the weekend, because I don’t want to deal with freezing rain up north. I’m not ready to be out washing the road salt of my truck, moreover, I don’t want to get frozen in the truck cap, or have to deal with the extra patrols for the opening of the Southern Zone regular season, even if I will be in the Northern Zone. I’m still hoping to get away on Black Friday through that Sunday though. 

Traffic was pretty heavy coming home on the bus tonight, and I was pretty cheesed out on Facebook about those stupid huts they want to build in the Adirondack Preserve, and charge people big bucks to stay at. Public lands belong to the public, they should be free to use. Pay for public lands by selling timber, hay, and grazing rights. Some oil and gas development. Keep the facilities rustic and manage resource extraction so it pays for public use of the land without compromising it. I don’t get the environmentalists who don’t use office or toilet paper. Or those who want even higher fees to use public lands that should be free for a wide variety of rustic uses. Multiple use can benefit all New Yorkers, we don’t have live under the extreme idea that not a single tree may ever be fallen inside the blue lines of the Adirondack or Catskill Parks. But unfortunately, Manhattan and surrounding areas where all the people live don’t understand that natural resources can be managed for sustainable harvests for generations to come.

I put together a map of the relative state tax rates, but unfortunately the Google Maps export got messed up, so it won’t be posted until later in the week. It also sucks because the US Census Data on State Taxes doesn’t include local taxes, which actually makes New York look lowered taxed then it really is. New York has high state taxes, but when you add in local taxes, we have some of the highest taxes of all. Most states don’t rely on localities to tax as high as New York does, especially with the big Medicaid mandate that pushed down to counties. 

I continue to work on my light dimmer program. Been researching color theory and things along the line of HSV to RGB conversions, along with color temperature algorthms, as I want to be able to have very percise flexibillity in getting just the right light for my bedroom. Also rewrote a timer algorithm that is non-blocking of the central loop, so I can use the remote to adjust lighting settings while a ongoing mode is occuring in my program. I can’t wait until my RGB LED strip arrives, along with the transitors and power supply so I can start playing with a real-life demostration.

Also been looking at the different methods of building circuits boards for permanent use — perf board versus strip board — various soldering irons versus kryon twist wiring. And all the stuff that goes along with soldering like choosing between lead and lead-free solder, solder wicks, etc. I have a solder gun and certainly have wired bigger things but I need to be more percise for soldering electronics. While I still hunt and shoot with leaded ammunition, and l’m not concerned about lead fumes when soldering as my other electrical solder is leaded and lead portion doesn’t melt or vaporize while solder typically, I think I’m going to go lead free for future electronic projects. That’s the future, and it makes the net result less toxic where it gets disposed of in a fire eventually or properly recycled at an e-waste event. I am planning to move out to country and live off gird after all eventually. And I hear a lot of fire is involved with that kind of life. Hopefully though I will get a lot of use out of the projects I end up building and will be able to salvage components from them at the end of their lives. 
I might eventually even switch to lead-free ammunition for hunting and target practice, but that’s a whole another ball of wax because traditional ammunition is a lot cheaper, you use a lot more of it, and it’s a lot easier on your barrel. Solder in contrast is pretty small cost, as even if my electronics hobby picks up and I make a lot of solder bridges on perf board, it’s still only an occassional use. Lead poisioning of Bald Eagles and other raptors is tragic, but as species, it really isn’t a threat to them like DDT once was. Lead shot to humans might break teeth if your not careful, but I doubt you ever swallow it or get enough fragments to do any harm as an adult. I get to get out to range to do some shooting or somewhere in the back country where I have a safe backstop sometime soon. I do pick up my shotgun shells and spent brass as much as possible.

Back to electronics. I also found a local supplier of Arduino Uno cards for a good price in Newburgh on Ebay. Something like $7 each with free one or two day shipping. I should also look at EBay. I don’t have an Ebay prime account but my parents do. Once my LED driver is done, I will want future units for future projects. I calculated that the Arduino run on a 12 volt power supply consumes about a 1/4 watt an hour or 1.9 kWh a year, so it’s pretty reasonable. I expect the LED dimmer to always be powered up so to turn the lights by remote when ever I need them except when I’m out of the town for the weekend or on vacation or traveling for work. 

I was also reading about the Raspberry PI. That’s a miniature full-blown computer compared to the Ardiuno which just a fairly basic microprocessor for driving simple electronics. The Raspberry Pi can drive LEDs at different but it really over kill for that, and at $35 is much more expensive. The base model of the Raspberry Pi uses 3.5 watts, which is nothing for a minature computer on a chip board, and has wireless internet, monitor and takes USB disk port, and runs Linux including a LXDE window manager. I could see the Raspberry Pi as a home computer in an off-grid home, as a much more efficent alternative to using my laptop with a 12 volt power supply. My laptop is fairly energy efficent, but when it’s charging, it can use upwards of 90 watts which is a lot of electricity, when your trying to make every watt count on a battery powered setup. 

I don’t envision ever owning a television or home internet. My smartphone provides plenty of internet access, if I need high speed internet access like for uploading photos or video, there are always public hotspots in town that I can stop at local libraries and the alike. I had that TV tuner for a while before it stopped working, but I almost never used it except for occassionally watching the PBS Newshour. But I quit watching that, as I found it was just such a time waste. I really am not a fan of all that technology.

In four weeks on December 12 the sun will be setting at 4:21 pm, which is 10 minutes and 46 seconds earlier then tonight. The fact is the sunsets don’t get much earlier then they are now, especially on a gray and depressing days like today. In 2016 on that day, we had rain, snow, freezing fog, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 40 and 28 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 37 and 23 degrees. The record high of 62 degrees was set back in 1979.

Looking ahead, Election Day 2018 is in 51 weeks and Election Day 2020 is in 155 weeks. That’s pretty much all you do on Tuesdays is vote. That said, I need to start adding some of the 2018 calendar and special dates to holiday.txt file that powers that automagic date count down thingy-ma-bobber. 

I think it’s time to get some sleep. Good night.