In a message dated 4/27/2006 4:06:28 PM Eastern Standard Time, jmbarr@ writes:
For the Metropolitan History database on building permits, when I do a search for the year say 1920, the database returns the following "549 RECORDS FOUND". What does the 549 represent? Does that represent the total # of new building permits issued in that year or it is the # of building completions or is it perhaps a sample of some kind? Is it possible to use the number of records as a measure of either the # of new building permits issued or # of buildings completed?
It is the number of NB permits applied for. If you want to build something, you go to the Department, "file plans" for the structure in question, and are assigned a sequential number. The guy who gets there at 9 AM on January 2nd gets NB 1 of 19xx. Some - not many, certainly no more than 5% in a typical year - of these plans are not carried out.
The database indicates that it found 549 entries for NB permits for the year 1920. That suggests that the guy who got there on New Years' Eve at 4:59 PM got NB 549 of 1920.
You can check the field validity by searching for different permit numbers: try 541, 542, 543 etc up into the 560s or even 570s. That should indicate general accuracy. I have done this for a few sample years and things look ok.
To determine completions is a laborious tack, either checking fuller entries of the permit details which were logged in book form (but which for some years do not actually carry completion data) or checking the permit vs. a landmap of a couple of years later. Not pretty, either way, with your scope, I would guess.
Sorry its not better explained, I funded it completely on my own, about $20,000, and I am working on going back to 1880 and then back to 1866. Waiting for the winning Powerball ticket.
c
