[TRU Research] Research/data projects

Mon Feb 24 09:06:20 PST 2020

If people have thoughts about how to estimate numbers of employees, that’s great. For something like Starbucks or 7-11, we could guess at the average number of employees per store and just multiply by the number of stores.

We have some recent form entries <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14HbO7S-KLxjt57Mi_lmlKOVMOHd0OH6bPwkmC25balw/edit?usp=sharing> from people telling us about the transit benefits their employers offer. I believe the ones at the end that haven’t been highlighted yet haven’t still need to be transferred to the master spreadsheet <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fwohDvZvJsE9OIivTXerV2JRfBqsiAPz4_dJYOhFQfY/edit?usp=sharing>. Stephen, were you doing this before, and if so do you want to transfer the new ones over?

Katie

> On Feb 17, 2020, at 4:55 PM, Jim Walseth <jim.walseth at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Katie et al,
> The 'Employees' column is conspicuously empty. This seems important for calculating things, but need not be precise to get in the ball park. Not sure how to get that info, but we could divide this list among the Research Team to go get some numbers.
> Jim
> 
> On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 2:28 PM Katie Wilson <katie at transitriders.org <mailto:katie at transitriders.org>> wrote:
> Thanks Jim, this looks great. Even though we can’t 100% trust this list (according to the person who gave it to me) at least it gives us an idea of some employers that may be affected. I’m going to share this with our organizers and ask them if some version of this list would be helpful for them as they plan their outreach.
> 
> I have added Isaac and Bryn to this list, believing that they expressed an interest in being part of our volunteer research/data team. Isaac and Bryn, if this is mistaken, please let me know, and otherwise welcome to our email group!
> 
> - Katie
> 
>> On Feb 14, 2020, at 8:03 PM, Jim Walseth <jim.walseth at gmail.com <mailto:jim.walseth at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi y'all.
>> 
>> I started 'reducing' the spreadsheet manually then realized at 1100 lines I was not up for that. So I wrote a script to collapse multiple businesses. Now 337 rows.
>> 
>> The 'Legal name' is the one associated with the first line in a group. Perhaps of little value. 
>> 
>> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qg5u6Tkphu-jRS8vhRgAXGeN7vDI8zEc/view?usp=sharing <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qg5u6Tkphu-jRS8vhRgAXGeN7vDI8zEc/view?usp=sharing>
>> 
>> Jim
>> 
>> On Tue, Feb 11, 2020 at 8:06 PM Jim Walseth <jim.walseth at gmail.com <mailto:jim.walseth at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> Yes this seems fine to me, I've started on this. Cheers, Jim
>> 
>> On Fri, Feb 7, 2020 at 5:41 PM Katie Wilson <katie at transitriders.org <mailto:katie at transitriders.org>> wrote:
>> And by “occupations” in that first bullet point I meant “locations”.
>> 
>>> On Feb 7, 2020, at 5:35 PM, Katie Wilson <katie at transitriders.org <mailto:katie at transitriders.org>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I think what we’re going for here is a list only including employers we believe will be affected by our legislation— so that means 500+ employees worldwide and not already doing full transit benefits for everyone.
>>> 
>>> The spreadsheet I attached contains food and retail industry employers that probably qualify, in general. So maybe it makes sense to start by stripping down that spreadsheet so that:
>>> 
>>> Businesses with multiple occupations occupy only one row, putting the number of locations (previously the number of rows) in the locations column
>>> Same for franchises, but add a note in the notes column that it’s a franchise
>>> Remove the address columns and the NAICS code column, but maybe retain the NAICS description column since that may be useful for us to know for businesses whose names we don’t recognize.
>>> 
>>> After that, I think it may be best to add other employers we think will be affected one by one, rather than trying to merge any of our other spreadsheets—  otherwise we’re going to be adding tons of smaller employers and ones who may already be doing full transit benefits.
>>> 
>>> Does that make sense? Totally open to other approaches to cleaning up the data if we can get to the desired outcome.
>>> 
>>> Katie
>>> 
>>>> On Feb 7, 2020, at 5:09 PM, Jim Walseth <jim.walseth at gmail.com <mailto:jim.walseth at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I have merged our old spread sheet with the new. The schemas are very different as we say in the data business so it is kind of a hot mess right now. Also there are many franchises (7 Eleven e.g.). Etc. I'm happy to process this more as needed.
>>>> 
>>>> Merged list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ETvJ_YpXIUek9_1ZfKBlaobrzf6f4LnJl-LfijGJUi4/edit?usp=sharing <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ETvJ_YpXIUek9_1ZfKBlaobrzf6f4LnJl-LfijGJUi4/edit?usp=sharing>
>>>> 
>>>> Jim
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Fri, Feb 7, 2020 at 4:33 PM Jim Walseth <jim.walseth at gmail.com <mailto:jim.walseth at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>> Katie,
>>>> 
>>>> I volunteered to do the Employer data spreadsheet. I just copied the data from our previous spreadsheet in there and and added the 'Locations' column. I'll merge in the data from the list you just sent as well.
>>>> 
>>>> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XgvT6L3EF_6029xExDFA7CbK2cMYfliKJiSd_ys3ZMY/edit?usp=sharing <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XgvT6L3EF_6029xExDFA7CbK2cMYfliKJiSd_ys3ZMY/edit?usp=sharing>
>>>> 
>>>> Jim
>>>> 
>>>> On Fri, Feb 7, 2020 at 8:57 AM Katie Wilson <katie at transitriders.org <mailto:katie at transitriders.org>> wrote:
>>>> Hi folks,
>>>> 
>>>> We a had a good meeting last Thursday. My apologies for the slow follow-up, things have been busy! In my recollection — I’m having trouble finding my notes right now — we settled on two main projects:
>>>> 
>>>> 1. Compiling a spreadsheet of employers that could be affected by our legislation, and (if possible) an estimate of the number of employees they have in Seattle who could be affected. I’m attaching a spreadsheet from my friend at Working Washington, listing employers they thought would be covered by the secure scheduling legisation that passed in 2018. He says: "Wouldn’t trust this very far but here you go. Note it also will include franchisees with <500 employees provided the franchise system employs 500+ b/c that’s how coverage works on this.” For our spreadsheet, I think we decided to keep it simple with a column for employer name, another for estimated number of employees, and another for notes. Looking at the WW spreadsheet, I think we should add another column for estimated number of locations. So, a first step would be to create our spreadsheet by condensing the info in this spreadsheet. I can’t remember who volunteered to start this project (Jim maybe?) so if it was you, speak up!
>>>> 
>>>> 2. Thinking of informative data-containing graphics that we could create and spread through social media etc. to help propel the campaign forward. One I remember was to translate an individual’s monthly transit costs into other necessary goods, to show what they could be doing with that money instead. We had some other ideas that hopefully I wrote down in my notes, which I will keep looking for. If we can come up with concepts & numbers, we have a few people in our membership & networks who can probably create the graphics and make ‘em look cool. If you have ideas, just share them with the group by email & we can start that way.
>>>> 
>>>> Also, has anyone been keeping tabs on our spreadsheet of form entries from the O4A website <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14HbO7S-KLxjt57Mi_lmlKOVMOHd0OH6bPwkmC25balw/edit?usp=sharing>? Looks like we have some more people telling us what transit benefits their employers offer. Stephen, can you take a look and move the relevant info over to the master spreadsheet so that Jim can update the chart?
>>>> 
>>>> If I’m forgetting anything from our meeting, please chime in!
>>>> 
>>>> Katie
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Katie Wilson
>>>> General Secretary
>>>> Transit Riders Union
>>>> https://transitriders.org <https://transitriders.org/>
>>>> 206-781-7204
>>>> 
>>>> The Transit Riders Union is a democratic organization of working and poor people, including students, seniors, and people with disabilities, taking control over our own lives, and building up the power we need to change society for the good of humanity and of the planet. We will fight to preserve, expand, and improve the public transportation system in Seattle and beyond, so that every human being has access to safe, affordable, and reliable public transit.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
> 

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