TO: HAP, Mayor Potter's Office, Multnomah County Journalists:
While you are constructing a thoughtful, careful and timely response to my request of June 1, 2005 which was:
Will you send me a tab delimited text file containing approximately 35,000 HAP client records each with only two fields, one with a neighborhood, one with a HAP designation of median income (0-30,31-50,51-80%). I would like a copy ASAP, next week would be good, and then I would like to get updated versions once a month which I or any member of the public could download from the HAP web site.

I'd like you to consider the following:
There are only TWO ways to produce the minimally acceptable public housing data by neighborhood. Method one - Manually
A person given the singular task of editing database records by entering a neighborhood into a group of records sorted by street address could comfortably repeat this task at least 368 times a day. Typing in one search address to Portland's online mapping site would allow the user to copy and paste the resultant neighborhood into every record with the same or even nearby addresses. Since many HAP clients share a similar address, a single address search could yield dozens or perhaps hundreds of the sequential records that only require a paste and no lookup. In fact, by placing a neighborhood wall map in front of the user many neighborhoods could be easily determined without using Portland's online mapping site for neighborhood address identification.

A person given the singular task of editing database records by entering a neighborhood into a file of 35,000 records on January 26, 2005 would have completed that task by June 8, 2005. If that person were an intern or a volunteer or several volunteers the cost to HAP would be nothing. If that person were a minimum wage employee the cost would be about $5,244.

Method two - By Computer Script
A professional computer programmer writes a small script which takes HAP's database file and runs a loop into the already written address to neighborhood conversion program. The loop does this: If this is a valid address then give me the neighborhood attached to this address and write it in this field. Save record. Next record until done.

If it took a professional programmer on HAP's staff or on the city's payroll one month to write this script, at $32.75 per hour, it would cost about $5,244. A one time expense. In this case the project would have been finished on February 27, 2005. The looping conversion script could be run every month thereafter at virtually no cost.


Richard Ellmyer
President, MacSolutions Inc. - A Macintosh computer consulting business providing web hosting for artists and very small businesses.
Writer/Publisher - HAP Watcher commentary* - Published on the Internet* and distributed to 3500 readers interested in public housing policy in Multnomah County.
Portsmouth - formerly the 18%, currently the 6% solution neighborhood, North Portland
* http://www.goodgrowthnw.org