[ { "id": "class", "label": "Where the water comes from", "chapter": "water", "question": "Where does the tap water come from?", "blurb": "Each ZIP is colored by the community water system that serves the most of its residents (2020 census block populations against EPA service areas), traced through any wholesale purchases to the utility that actually treats the water. A ZIP is hatched only when more than half of its residents live outside every mapped system, which in Ohio means private wells.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "water", "source": "U.S. EPA SDWIS and Community Water System Service Area Boundaries (v3, 2026), Ohio EPA primacy data, 2020 census blocks: the system serving most residents, traced through purchases to the treating utility; Ohio EPA 2023 Sewer and Water Rate Survey (Ohio State, May 2025) for household bills; Ohio EPA DEFA loan awards since 2016 for the loans paragraph", "links": [ [ "EPA SDWIS", "https://enviro.epa.gov/envirofacts/sdwis/search" ], [ "EPA service area boundaries", "https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/community-water-system-service-area-boundaries" ], [ "Ohio EPA drinking water", "https://epa.ohio.gov/divisions-and-offices/drinking-and-ground-waters" ], [ "Ohio EPA rate survey", "https://epa.ohio.gov/divisions-and-offices/environmental-financial-assistance/reports-and-data/sewer-and-water-rate-survey" ] ], "coverage": 1233, "bins": [], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/class/" }, { "id": "intake", "label": "Intakes and plants", "chapter": "water", "question": "Which plant or well field actually treats it?", "blurb": "Every ZIP is colored by the specific treatment plant or well field that supplies it, rather than by the parent utility that owns it. The legend lists the intakes and plants visible in the current view, so panning or zooming brings different ones into the list. Click a plant for its own card: what it draws from, how it blends sources when it runs more than one, and every ZIP it reaches.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "point", "source": "U.S. EPA SDWIS and Community Water System Service Area Boundaries (v3, 2026), Ohio EPA primacy data, 2020 census blocks: the system serving most residents, traced through purchases to the treating utility; Ohio EPA 2023 Sewer and Water Rate Survey (Ohio State, May 2025) for household bills; Ohio EPA DEFA loan awards since 2016 for the loans paragraph", "links": [ [ "EPA SDWIS", "https://enviro.epa.gov/envirofacts/sdwis/search" ], [ "Ohio EPA source water protection", "https://epa.ohio.gov/divisions-and-offices/drinking-and-ground-waters/source-water-protection-and-underground-injection-control-%28UIC%29" ] ], "coverage": 1233, "bins": [], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/intake/" }, { "id": "safety", "label": "Violations", "chapter": "water", "question": "Has the water system had any violations?", "blurb": "EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System compliance record for the community water system that serves most of the ZIP: health-based violations since 2015 (a contaminant above its maximum level, or a treatment technique such as the lead and copper rule not followed), with paperwork violations counted separately and the latest 90th-percentile lead result on the card. A violation is a compliance event, not a measurement of what came out of any one tap, and a large system with one slip counts the same as a village with one; most were resolved. ZIPs on private wells carry no record.", "unit": null, "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "EPA SDWIS (Envirofacts, pulled September 2026): health-based violations since 2015, all violations since 2020, lead and copper 90th-percentile results, for the system serving most of the ZIP", "links": [ [ "EPA SDWIS (Envirofacts)", "https://enviro.epa.gov/envirofacts/sdwis/search" ], [ "EPA ECHO", "https://echo.epa.gov/" ] ], "coverage": 673, "bins": [ { "key": "w1", "label": "No health-based violations since 2015", "sub": "The serving system met every contaminant and treatment rule", "max": 1 }, { "key": "w2", "label": "One violation", "sub": "Usually a single lead-and-copper or disinfection slip", "max": 2 }, { "key": "w3", "label": "Two or three", "sub": "", "max": 4 }, { "key": "w4", "label": "Four to seven", "sub": "Repeated problems", "max": 8 }, { "key": "w5", "label": "Eight or more", "sub": "Chronic compliance trouble", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/safety/" }, { "id": "dbp", "label": "Disinfection byproducts", "chapter": "water", "question": "How much disinfection byproduct is in the water?", "blurb": "When chlorine meets the organic matter in river and reservoir water it forms trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, the most common contaminants actually measured in Ohio tap water. EPA's Six-Year Review file holds every compliance sample from 2012 through 2019; the map shows the latest yearly mean of total trihalomethanes for the system serving each ZIP against the 80 µg/L annual-average limit, and the card adds haloacetic acids (limit 60), the highest nitrate, arsenic, radium, gross alpha and uranium results, and how many samples sit behind each number. Well systems usually run low; big surface-water systems sit closer to the line, especially in late summer.", "unit": "µg/L", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring data, 2012 to 2019: total trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids (HAA5) sampled in the distribution system, nitrate, arsenic, combined radium, gross alpha and uranium at entry points; yearly means by system, non-detects as zero; benzene, carbon tetrachloride, 1,2-dichloroethane, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene and vinyl chloride from the same files; atrazine, alachlor, 2,4-D, chromium, cadmium, barium, mercury, selenium and thallium likewise; total coliform and E. coli distribution samples from the same review (presence or absence)", "links": [], "coverage": 671, "bins": [ { "key": "db1", "label": "Under 20 µg/L TTHM", "sub": "Well water with little organic matter", "max": 20 }, { "key": "db2", "label": "20 to 40", "sub": "", "max": 40 }, { "key": "db3", "label": "40 to 60", "sub": "", "max": 60 }, { "key": "db4", "label": "60 to 80", "sub": "Close to the limit", "max": 80 }, { "key": "db5", "label": "80 or more", "sub": "Above the 80 µg/L yearly-average limit", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/dbp/" }, { "id": "pfas", "label": "PFAS", "chapter": "water", "question": "Is there PFAS in the water?", "blurb": "Two rounds of testing for the forever chemicals: Ohio EPA sampled every community and non-transient system in 2020 for six PFAS, and EPA's fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) sampled every system serving more than 3,300 people, plus a lot of smaller ones, for 29 PFAS and lithium between 2023 and 2025. The map takes the system serving most of each ZIP and colors it by the highest PFOA or PFOS result (at the plant that serves the ZIP, where the system runs more than one) against the 4 nanogram-per-litre limit EPA set in 2024 (compliance is due in 2029, and EPA has proposed an optional two-year extension to 2031 and rescinding its limits on four other PFAS). Trace means other PFAS turned up below the limits; grey ZIPs are on private wells or on small systems that fell outside both rounds. Ohio EPA's own sampling status layer, updated through 2026, adds the latest round for the system, and the county's registered stock of PFAS firefighting foam is noted. The same UCMR 5 round measured lithium, shown on the card against EPA's draft 10 µg/L reference level.", "unit": "ng/L", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "EPA UCMR 5 occurrence data (final release, August 2026: 29 PFAS and lithium at 347 Ohio systems) and Ohio EPA statewide PFAS sampling 2019 to 2021 (1,479 systems), for the system serving most of each ZIP; Ohio EPA water treatment plant PFAS sampling status layer (DrinkingWater/PFAS_SAMPLING, samples through August 2026) and the AFFF firefighting foam inventory county summary; Ohio EPA large river PFAS survey (EnviroScience) stations; UCMR 5 lithium results for the same systems (EPA occurrence data, August 2026 release)", "links": [ [ "Ohio EPA PFAS", "https://epa.ohio.gov/divisions-and-offices/drinking-and-ground-waters/pfas" ] ], "coverage": 673, "bins": [ { "key": "pa1", "label": "No PFAS detected", "sub": "Nothing found in either round of testing", "max": 0.001 }, { "key": "pa2", "label": "Trace PFAS, under the federal limit", "sub": "Other PFAS found, or PFOA and PFOS below 4 ng/L", "max": 4 }, { "key": "pa3", "label": "PFOA or PFOS at 4 to 10 ng/L", "sub": "At or above the 2024 limit in at least one sample", "max": 10 }, { "key": "pa4", "label": "10 to 20 ng/L", "sub": "", "max": 20 }, { "key": "pa5", "label": "20 ng/L or more", "sub": "Five times the limit", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/pfas/" }, { "id": "lead", "label": "Lead", "chapter": "water", "question": "How much lead turns up in tap tests?", "blurb": "Lead comes from pipes, not from the lake or the aquifer. Every system samples taps in the homes most likely to have lead service lines or lead solder and reports the 90th-percentile result to EPA; the map shows the latest one for the system serving most of each ZIP, against the 15 ppb action level (10 ppb from 2027). The card adds the record since 2016, copper, and the service line inventory every system had to file by October 2024: how many lines are lead, galvanized steel that must be replaced, or still unknown. A Children line says whether the Ohio Department of Health counts the ZIP as high-risk for childhood lead exposure, which makes blood tests at ages 1 and 2 mandatory. Systems that got H2Ohio help building their service line inventory are marked. A housing-age line gives the share of homes built before 1960 and before 1940, the years of lead pipes, solder and paint.", "unit": "ppb", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "SDWIS lead and copper 90th-percentile tap results (Envirofacts) and EPA's service line inventory dashboard (2026 Q2 submissions), for the system serving most of each ZIP; Ohio Department of Health high-risk ZIP code list for childhood blood lead testing (as reproduced in the Cuyahoga County Board of Health questionnaire, October 2024); H2Ohio RCAP lead service line inventory assistance sites (Ohio EPA); Census ACS 2020-2024 B25034 housing age", "links": [ [ "ODH childhood lead testing", "https://odh.ohio.gov/know-our-programs/childhood-lead-poisoning" ], [ "ODH high-risk ZIP list (CCBH PDF)", "https://ccbh.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Lead-questionnaire-and-high-risk-zip-codes.pdf" ], [ "Ohio EPA lead and copper", "https://epa.ohio.gov/divisions-and-offices/drinking-and-ground-waters/ddgw-programs/contaminant-monitoring/lead-and-copper/lead-and-copper" ], [ "H2Ohio", "https://h2.ohio.gov/" ] ], "coverage": 673, "bins": [ { "key": "w1", "label": "No lead detected", "sub": "Nine in ten sampled homes had none", "max": 0.001 }, { "key": "w2", "label": "Under 5 ppb", "sub": "Typical for a system with corrosion control", "max": 5 }, { "key": "w3", "label": "5 to 10 ppb", "sub": "", "max": 10.05 }, { "key": "w4", "label": "Over 10, up to 15 ppb", "sub": "Above the action level that applies from 2027", "max": 15.05 }, { "key": "w5", "label": "Over 15 ppb", "sub": "Above the current action level", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/lead/" }, { "id": "fluoride", "label": "Fluoride and treatment", "chapter": "water", "question": "Is the water fluoridated?", "blurb": "Whether the water reaching each ZIP is fluoridated, from the Ohio Department of Health's report to CDC's My Water's Fluoride, with the treatment steps the serving system registers with EPA and, where it buys its water, the steps of the utility that treats it (a buyer such as Gahanna registers no treatment of its own because Columbus fluoridates the water before selling it), with the whole treatment train on the card: chlorination or chloramine, softening, iron removal, activated carbon, membranes. Ohio has required fluoridation of systems serving 5,000 or more people since a 1969 law, unless the community exempted itself by ordinance or vote in the window the law allowed, which is why a handful of cities sit unfluoridated among fluoridated neighbours; smaller systems and naturally fluoridated wells decide for themselves. EPA's 2012 to 2019 compliance samples give the fluoride actually measured leaving the plant. Blue is fluoridated, teal natural fluoride at the dental level with no fluoridation step, gold not fluoridated.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "categorical", "source": "CDC My Water's Fluoride (fluoridation status of each system as reported by the Ohio Department of Health, fetched 2026-09-10); SDWIS treatment table (Envirofacts): each system's registered treatment steps, inherited from the supplier for systems that buy their water; Ohio Department of Health county fluoridation profiles (DataOhio); EPA Six-Year Review 4 compliance monitoring fluoride results by system, 2012 to 2019", "links": [ [ "EPA SDWIS search", "https://enviro.epa.gov/envirofacts/sdwis/search" ] ], "coverage": 673, "bins": [], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/fluoride/" }, { "id": "algae", "label": "Algal toxins", "chapter": "water", "question": "Have algal toxins reached the water?", "blurb": "Since the August 2014 weekend when Toledo told half a million people not to drink the tap water, Ohio EPA has had every surface-water system test its raw and treated water for microcystin through the bloom season. The map shows the highest raw-water reading since 2016 at the intake of the system serving most of each ZIP, which is what the plant has had to remove; the card adds any detections in treated water against the 0.3 and 1.6 microgram-per-litre advisory levels, and the seasons in which the bloom reached the intake. Groundwater systems are not monitored and stay grey. Grand Lake St. Marys, the state's most bloom-prone lake, gives Celina the worst raw-water readings in Ohio, and the western Lake Erie intakes at Toledo, Oregon and Ottawa County see the summer bloom most years.", "unit": "µg/L", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "Ohio EPA public water system harmful algal bloom monitoring (geo.epa.ohio.gov DrinkingWater/HAB): microcystin results in raw and treated water since 2016 for surface-water systems, for the system serving most of each ZIP", "links": [ [ "Ohio EPA HAB information for public water systems", "https://epa.ohio.gov/divisions-and-offices/drinking-and-ground-waters/ddgw-programs/source-water-characterization-and-protection/harmful-algal-blooms" ] ], "coverage": 409, "bins": [ { "key": "ab1", "label": "Monitored, no microcystin found", "sub": "Raw or treated water tested every bloom season since 2016", "max": 0.001 }, { "key": "ab2", "label": "Under 5 µg/L in raw water", "sub": "Trace toxin at the intake, removed in treatment", "max": 5 }, { "key": "ab3", "label": "5 to 20 µg/L", "sub": "Over the 5 µg/L step-up threshold of the 2016-2022 rule", "max": 20 }, { "key": "ab4", "label": "20 to 100 µg/L", "sub": "A heavy bloom at the intake", "max": 100 }, { "key": "ab5", "label": "100 µg/L or more", "sub": "Grand Lake St. Marys", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/algae/" }, { "id": "groundwater", "label": "Groundwater", "chapter": "water", "question": "How vulnerable is the groundwater here?", "blurb": "For the households on private wells, three things from the Ohio Geological Survey: the DRASTIC groundwater vulnerability index of the ground under the ZIP's population center (a 23 to 230 scale built from depth to water, recharge, aquifer, soil, slope, vadose zone and conductivity; higher means contamination from the surface reaches the aquifer more easily, and sand-and-gravel valleys with shallow water score highest), the karst features (sinkholes, springs and closed depressions) the survey has mapped inside the ZIP, where surface water can reach the aquifer in hours, and the state's inventory of water well logs, every well a driller has reported since the 1940s, counted inside the ZIP with median depth, yield and the split between bedrock and sand-and-gravel wells. Vulnerability describes the setting, not measured contamination. The nearest monitoring well adds the measured water table: the latest depth, the 2015 to 2019 average and whether it is running lower or higher. Urban Setting Designation areas, where Ohio EPA has agreed groundwater is not used for drinking, are flagged. Ohio EPA's Class V injection wells inside the ZIP are counted by type. Ohio EPA's wellhead protection areas and sensitive geologic settings, with ODNR's verified sinkholes and springs, say how exposed the aquifer is. A last row names Ohio EPA's nearest ambient groundwater monitoring well, its depth, rock and sampling schedule. A Nitrate risk row gives EPA researchers' modelled chance that a public system in the subwatershed exceeds the nitrate standard, for groundwater and surface-water supplies.", "unit": "index", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "ODNR Division of Geological Survey: DRASTIC groundwater vulnerability polygon at each ZIP's population center, mapped karst features, and the state water well log inventory (about 655,000 logs) counted inside each ZIP; ODNR glacial, bedrock and sole source aquifer maps (Ohio EPA hydro/Aquifers) at the population center; groundwater levels at the nearest active monitoring well from the USGS Water Data OGC API (ODNR and USGS observation wells, depth to water since 2015); Ohio EPA Urban Setting Designation areas; Ohio EPA Class V underground injection control wells by ZIP; Ohio EPA source water protection areas and inner management zones for public wells (DrinkingWater/SWAP), karst and spring points and sensitive geologic settings (geology/Geology); Ohio EPA DrinkingWater/Ambient_GW_Monitoring well locations and construction (392 active wells), nearest to the ZIP center; EPA EnviroAtlas nitrate violation index (modelled probability of a public-system nitrate violation) for the subwatershed", "links": [ [ "ODNR Geological Survey", "https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/safety-conservation/about-odnr/geologic-survey" ], [ "Ohio EPA GIS services", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services" ], [ "USGS water data", "https://waterdata.usgs.gov/" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "gw1", "label": "DRASTIC index under 100", "sub": "Deep water under thick clay till; least vulnerable", "max": 100 }, { "key": "gw2", "label": "100 to 120", "sub": "", "max": 120 }, { "key": "gw3", "label": "120 to 140", "sub": "", "max": 140 }, { "key": "gw4", "label": "140 to 160", "sub": "Thin soils over fractured bedrock", "max": 160 }, { "key": "gw5", "label": "160 and up", "sub": "Shallow sand-and-gravel aquifers along the rivers; most vulnerable", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/groundwater/" }, { "id": "aquifer", "label": "Aquifer", "chapter": "water", "question": "How exposed is the aquifer under this ZIP?", "blurb": "Ohio EPA's map of sensitive geologic settings marks the ground where the drinking water aquifer has little natural protection: sand and gravel outwash, buried valleys, karst limestone, or bedrock within a few feet of the surface. The map shows the share of each ZIP in such a setting; the card adds whether the ZIP's center sits on bedrock known to form karst and how much glacial drift covers it (510 of 1,233 centers sit on such rock, 337 on Silurian-Devonian carbonate and 173 on Ordovician limestone and shale, but only 129 under less than 20 ft of drift, where sinkholes are likeliest), ODNR's field-verified sinkholes and springs, and how much of the ZIP lies inside a wellhead protection area or a river intake's emergency zone. It describes exposure, not contamination: a spill, a leaking tank or over-applied manure simply reaches the water table faster there.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "Ohio EPA Sensitive Geologic Settings (geology/Geology layer 0) intersected with ZCTA polygons; ODNR karst geology at the ZIP center (layer 7, point query) and karst and spring points (layer 5); Ohio EPA source water protection areas (DrinkingWater/SWAP)", "links": [ [ "Ohio EPA geology layers", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services/geology/Geology/MapServer" ], [ "Ohio EPA source water protection (SWAP)", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services/DrinkingWater/SWAP/MapServer" ], [ "ODNR Geological Survey", "https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/safety-conservation/about-odnr/geologic-survey" ] ], "coverage": 1233, "bins": [ { "key": "aq1", "label": "Under 10% sensitive", "sub": "Thick clay till shields the aquifer", "max": 10 }, { "key": "aq2", "label": "10 to 30%", "sub": "", "max": 30 }, { "key": "aq3", "label": "30 to 60%", "sub": "", "max": 60 }, { "key": "aq4", "label": "60 to 85%", "sub": "Outwash plains, buried valleys, thin drift", "max": 85 }, { "key": "aq5", "label": "85% or more", "sub": "Karst plains and gravel valleys", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/aquifer/" }, { "id": "sewage", "label": "Sewage plants", "chapter": "water", "question": "How does the nearest sewage plant perform?", "blurb": "Ohio has no statewide map of who is on a sewer, so this layer shows the treatment plants themselves: every publicly owned treatment works of at least 100,000 gallons a day with a Clean Water Act discharge permit in EPA's ECHO database (about 500; the smallest package plants serving a school or a rest area are left out), with its design flow, whether it is a major (over a million gallons a day) plant, whether its system has combined sewer overflows that dump raw sewage in heavy rain, and its compliance record: significant noncompliance status and the number of the last twelve quarters with any violation. The map colors each ZIP by the compliance history of its nearest plant, which is usually the one it drains to. The card also counts combined sewer overflow outfalls within 3 miles from EPA's ECHO inventory: 89 older Ohio sewer systems still have pipes that carry sewage and storm water together and spill the mix into a river when it rains. The card also counts the ZIP's other Clean Water Act permit holders, the factories, water plants and package plants that discharge to streams, with their compliance record. Ohio EPA's own layers add the farm fields permitted for sewage sludge and whether the ZIP sits in a permitted storm sewer area. Ohio EPA's revolving-fund loan history for the ZIP and the nearest permitted sludge generator are added. The section 208 plan's facility planning areas say which agency is allowed to sewer the ZIP. A stormwater line says whether the ZIP sits inside an Ohio EPA regulated MS4 area, where storm sewers carry a permit.", "unit": "quarters", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "EPA ECHO Clean Water Act facilities, Ohio NPDES permits with a publicly owned treatment works component, plants of 0.1 MGD or more or designated major: nearest plant, design flow, significant-noncompliance status, quarters in noncompliance, combined-sewer overflow flag; EPA ECHO combined sewer overflow inventory (1,426 Ohio outfalls) for the overflows within 3 miles; ECHO Clean Water Act permit holders other than sewage plants inside the ZIP (NPDES individual and general permits, pretreatment permits counted separately); Ohio EPA biosolids application fields (SurfaceWater/Biosolids) and MS4 regulated stormwater areas 2020 to 2030; Ohio EPA state revolving fund loans (DEFA project funding layer, awards through September 2026) and permitted biosolids generators; Ohio EPA section 208 facility planning areas and management agency prescriptions (Areawide_201_208); Ohio EPA SurfaceWater/MS4_RegulatedAreas layer 4 (2020-2030 municipal separate storm sewer areas), share of the ZIP inside; EPA Facility Finder state industrial stormwater permittees (Ohio, points inside the ZIP)", "links": [ [ "EPA ECHO", "https://echo.epa.gov/" ], [ "EPA CSO inventory", "https://echo.epa.gov/tools/data-downloads" ], [ "Ohio EPA GIS services", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services" ], [ "EPA Facility Finder", "https://services.arcgis.com/cJ9YHowT8TU7DUyn/arcgis/rest/services/Facility_Finder_State_Storm_Water/FeatureServer/0" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "sw1", "label": "Nearest plant: no violations in 3 years", "sub": "Every quarter of the last twelve in compliance", "max": 1 }, { "key": "sw2", "label": "1 to 3 quarters with a violation", "sub": "", "max": 4 }, { "key": "sw3", "label": "4 to 7 quarters", "sub": "", "max": 8 }, { "key": "sw4", "label": "8 to 11 quarters", "sub": "Chronic trouble", "max": 12 }, { "key": "sw5", "label": "Every quarter in violation", "sub": "Plants that never meet their permit", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/sewage/" }, { "id": "streams", "label": "Stream health", "chapter": "water", "question": "Are the local streams healthy?", "blurb": "Ohio EPA's 2024 Integrated Report as published in EPA's ATTAINS database: Ohio judges its rivers and streams watershed by watershed (1,545 assessment units) against the uses the Clean Water Act protects. The map shows the share of each ZIP's land in watersheds whose streams fail the aquatic-life standard, the one that says whether fish and insects can live there; the card adds recreation (bacteria), fish consumption and, where a stream is a drinking-water source, that use, plus the listed causes. Nearly every Ohio watershed fails the recreation standard because of bacteria, so aquatic life is the better yardstick. The card also carries Ohio EPA's fish consumption advisories for the rivers and lakes that touch the ZIP: which species to limit to a meal a month or six a year, and whether PCBs or mercury are the reason. The card also carries the USGS estimate of farm pesticide use in the county for 2018, with atrazine, the herbicide most often found in Ohio tap water, called out. Below that sits the county's 2022 Census of Agriculture profile: farms, acres, cropland share, livestock and crop acreage. The nearest Ohio EPA assessment station gives the actual fish, bug and habitat scores behind those verdicts. The nearest station of Ohio EPA's large river PFAS survey gives PFAS in the water and in fish. Ohio EPA's use designations give the miles of exceptional, warmwater, coldwater and modified streams in the ZIP and the nearest superior or outstanding water. Federal critical habitat for endangered mussels and fish is flagged where it crosses the ZIP. Reaches proposed for new antidegradation protection in the 2026 rules are noted.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "EPA ATTAINS, Ohio 2024 Integrated Report assessment units (1,545 watershed polygons) overlaid on ZCTAs in Albers equal-area with the Lake Erie units clipped out: share of land in units not supporting aquatic life, recreation, fish consumption and drinking-water uses, with causes; Ohio EPA sport fish consumption advisories (SurfaceWater/DSW_FA_Consumption_SPS_Public) for water bodies touching the ZIP; USGS preliminary county agricultural pesticide use estimates for 2018 (high estimate) for the county; USDA 2022 Census of Agriculture county totals (NASS Quick Stats bulk file); Ohio EPA aquatic life use assessments (Monitoring_EA3 layer 1: IBI, ICI, QHEI and attainment by station); Ohio EPA aquatic life use designations and antidegradation tiers (SurfaceWater/Beneficial_Uses); U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service final critical habitat polygons intersecting the ZIP; Ohio EPA proposed 2026 antidegradation tiers (SurfaceWater/Antideg_Proposed_2026)", "links": [ [ "EPA ATTAINS", "https://www.epa.gov/waterdata/attains" ], [ "Ohio integrated report", "https://epa.ohio.gov/divisions-and-offices/surface-water/reports-data/ohio-integrated-water-quality-monitoring-and-assessment-report" ], [ "Ohio sport fish advisory", "https://odh.ohio.gov/know-our-programs/ohio-sport-fish-consumption-advisory" ], [ "Ohio EPA advisory map", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/portal/apps/experiencebuilder/experience/?id=a4f8cf7e1a294951995f3f15df5978f1" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "at1", "label": "Streams support aquatic life throughout", "sub": "Or the watershed is not yet assessed", "max": 0.005 }, { "key": "at2", "label": "Under a quarter of the land drains to impaired streams", "sub": "", "max": 0.25 }, { "key": "at3", "label": "A quarter to a half", "sub": "", "max": 0.5 }, { "key": "at4", "label": "Half to three quarters", "sub": "", "max": 0.75 }, { "key": "at5", "label": "Three quarters or more", "sub": "Farm-country ditches and urban creeks", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/streams/" }, { "id": "watershed", "label": "Watershed", "chapter": "water", "question": "Which watershed does this ZIP drain to?", "blurb": "Every drop of rain that falls in Ohio ends up in Lake Erie or the Ohio River, and the divide runs across the state's middle. This layer uses the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset: each ZIP takes the 8-digit subbasin where most of its residents live (44 touch Ohio, from the Maumee to the Little Scioto), colored blue for the Lake Erie side and purple for the Ohio River side with shades separating neighbours, and the card names the small 12-digit subwatershed under the ZIP's population center and the creeks and rivers the water passes through on its way out. Watersheds, not city limits, are how Ohio EPA assesses streams and how a spill upstream reaches a water intake. The card ends with the county's water budget from the USGS 2015 water-use census: how much is pumped each day, how much of it goes to public supply, power plants, industry and irrigation, and how many residents draw their own wells. The card also lists nearby H2Ohio water-quality projects and, along Lake Erie, whether the ZIP falls in the Coastal Management Area. Approved nine-element nonpoint source plans (and the acid mine drainage and EPA Region 5 plans Ohio EPA lists with them) are noted for the subwatershed at the ZIP's center. H2Ohio road-salt grants near the ZIP are listed. Ohio EPA's surface water protection areas show which downstream intakes the ZIP drains to and whether it sits in an emergency zone. Section 319, GLRI and SWIF runoff projects near the ZIP are listed. NOAA's Lake Erie gauges give the current lake level against the 1991 to 2020 average for coastal ZIPs. An EnviroAtlas line gives the subwatershed's Conservation Reserve acres, grain cropland, stream miles, water use, precipitation and nitrogen deposition from EPA's national metrics. A stream-permits line reads Ohio EPA's 401 certification map: whether stream work in the ZIP can use the Army Corps' blanket nationwide permits or needs an individual review because the water drains to high-quality streams.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "categorical", "source": "USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset: HUC-8 subbasins by resident share (2020 census blocks) and the HUC-12 subwatershed at each ZIP's population-weighted center with its downstream chain; USGS county water use 2015 (Dieter and others 2018) for the county water budget; ODNR H2Ohio project points (Office of Coastal Management service, 246 projects) and the Lake Erie Coastal Management Area boundary; Ohio EPA nine-element nonpoint source implementation plans by HUC12; Ohio EPA chloride reduction grant projects (H2Ohio and OWDA); Ohio EPA surface water source protection areas, emergency and corridor management zones, Lake Erie and Ohio River intake zones; Ohio EPA Section 319, GLRI and SWIF nonpoint source project points (Section 319 and GLRI through fiscal 2023, SWIF through 2017); NOAA CO-OPS monthly mean Lake Erie water levels at Toledo, Marblehead, Cleveland and Fairport Harbor (IGLD 1985, 1990 to 2026); EPA EnviroAtlas HUC12 metrics (Conservation Reserve acres, precipitation, water use, stream length, grain hectares, nitrogen deposition) for the population center's subwatershed; Ohio EPA 401 water quality certification map of nationwide permit eligibility (SurfaceWater/WQ_Cert_NationwidePermits_401, clipped to the ZIP)", "links": [ [ "USGS watershed boundaries", "https://www.usgs.gov/national-hydrography/watershed-boundary-dataset" ], [ "EPA EnviroAtlas", "https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas" ], [ "Ohio EPA 401 map", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services/SurfaceWater/WQ_Cert_NationwidePermits_401/MapServer" ], [ "USGS county water use 2015", "https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5af3311be4b0da30c1b245d8" ], [ "ODNR H2Ohio projects", "https://gis.ohiodnr.gov/arcgis/rest/services/OCM_Services/H2Ohio_Projects/MapServer/0" ], [ "ODNR Lake Erie Coastal Management Area", "https://gis.ohiodnr.gov/arcgis/rest/services/OCM_Services/LakeErie_CMA/MapServer/0" ], [ "Ohio EPA source water protection (SWAP)", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services/DrinkingWater/SWAP/MapServer" ], [ "Ohio EPA nine-element plans", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services/SurfaceWater/NonPoint_Strategies/MapServer" ], [ "Ohio EPA 319, GLRI and SWIF project lists", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services/Hosted/DSW_319_Projects_(View)/FeatureServer/0" ], [ "Ohio EPA chloride reduction grants", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services/SurfaceWater/Chloride_Reduction_Projects/MapServer/0" ], [ "NOAA Lake Erie water levels", "https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/stations.html?type=Water+Levels®ion=Great+Lakes" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/watershed/" }, { "id": "housing", "label": "Homes and income", "chapter": "home", "question": "What are homes and incomes like here?", "blurb": "Census American Community Survey five-year estimates by ZIP Code Tabulation Area: median owner-estimated home value on the map, with median gross rent, median household income, owner-occupied share, and the median year homes were built on the card. The card also gives the Eviction Lab's estimate of eviction filings per 100 renter households for 2016 to 2018, the last years its tract series covers. HUD's fair market rent for the ZIP and the IRS's summary of its 2022 tax returns, average income and the shares at the top and bottom, complete the card. Where the Home Owners' Loan Corporation drew its 1930s security maps, the card gives the share of the ZIP's area in each grade, D being the redlined hazardous zones. HUD's property files add the public housing, tax-credit and HUD-assisted apartments inside the ZIP, and the FDIC's branch list the bank branches or the distance to the nearest one. Vacancy (for rent, for sale, seasonal, other) and the share of owners spending 30 percent or more of income on housing come from the same survey. The card also gives the income spread, the share of owners with a mortgage and crowding. Rows for the spread of home values, income per person, when owners and renters moved in, the median rent and mortgage cost burdens and long commutes come from the same survey.", "unit": "$", "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year by ZCTA: median home value, median gross rent, median household income, owner share, median year built; Eviction Lab tract estimates 2016 to 2018 (Gromis and others 2022), population-weighted to ZIPs; HUD fiscal 2026 Small Area Fair Market Rents by ZIP; IRS Statistics of Income ZIP data, tax year 2022; Mapping Inequality (University of Richmond) HOLC residential security maps 1935 to 1940, area shares by grade; HUD eGIS open data (LIHTC properties, HUD-assisted multifamily properties, public housing developments; September 2026) and FDIC BankFind branch locations, placed by coordinates; NCUA call report branch table (March 2026) by postal code; B25002 and B25004 vacancy, B25091 owner housing costs; B25034 year built, B25081 mortgages, B25014 crowding, B19001 income bins; B25075 value distribution, B19301 per capita income, B25039 year moved in, B25071 and B25092 housing cost shares, B08303 travel time", "links": [ [ "Census ACS", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs" ], [ "Eviction Lab", "https://evictionlab.org/" ], [ "HUD data", "https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdrdatas_landing.html" ], [ "IRS ZIP statistics", "https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-income-tax-statistics-zip-code-data-soi" ], [ "Mapping Inequality", "https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/" ], [ "HUD eGIS open data", "https://hudgis-hud.opendata.arcgis.com/" ], [ "FDIC BankFind", "https://banks.data.fdic.gov/bankfind-suite/" ], [ "NCUA call report data", "https://ncua.gov/analysis/credit-union-corporate-call-report-data" ] ], "coverage": 1161, "bins": [ { "key": "k1", "label": "Median home under $100,000", "sub": "Older mill towns and rural counties", "max": 100000 }, { "key": "k2", "label": "$100,000 to $175,000", "sub": "", "max": 175000 }, { "key": "k3", "label": "$175,000 to $250,000", "sub": "", "max": 250000 }, { "key": "k4", "label": "$250,000 to $350,000", "sub": "", "max": 350000 }, { "key": "k5", "label": "$350,000 and up", "sub": "The priciest suburbs", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/housing/" }, { "id": "houses", "label": "House by house", "chapter": "home", "question": "What do the houses here look like, one by one?", "blurb": "House by house, from county parcel records, starting in central Ohio and working outward from Franklin County. Where a county auditor's own appraisal records are in, the map colors each ZIP by the median year its homes were built, and the card gives the homes by kind, their age (with the share built before 1978, the year lead paint was banned for housing), median living area, lot and appraised value, sales over the last year and five years, owner-occupancy and company ownership, then the ZIP's neighborhoods and subdivisions with their own medians and every house with its record: year built, living area, rooms, construction, appraised value and tax, sales since 1990, the building permits on file for its address and a link to its page at the county auditor. In counties whose appraisal records are not in yet, the ZIPs stay grey and carry only the parcel list from OGRIP's Ohio Statewide Parcels (address, land-use class, lot size and the auditor's parcel link, in county uploads of varying age). Zoomed in on a selected ZIP whose houses are loaded, each house draws as a dot colored by year built, following the card's search and filters. Appraised values are the auditor's market value for property tax, not sale prices; sale medians count single-parcel sales of homes, one per house, and only the sales the auditor marks valid where the county marks them (otherwise every sale of $10,000 or more). Neighborhoods are the boundaries cities publish (official neighborhoods first, then planning areas and civic associations); subdivisions are the auditor's plat names. Owner names, mailing addresses and exemptions that reveal a person's circumstances are never carried; an owner is described only as a person or family, a company, a government body, or a church or nonprofit.", "unit": "year", "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "Residential parcels (Ohio land-use classes 500 to 599, apartments 401 to 403, farmhouses) placed in ZIPs by scripts/join_parcels.py on 2026-09-15, the houses loading on demand; county auditors' appraisal records, house by house (year built, living area, rooms, construction, values, sales and tax): Allen County Auditor (as of 2026-09-14); Ashland County Auditor (as of 2026-09-14); Auglaize County Auditor (as of 2026-01-28); Butler County Auditor (as of 2026-09-14); Champaign County Auditor (as of 2026-09-13); Clark County Auditor (as of 2026-09-12); Clinton County Auditor (as of 2026-09-14); Coshocton County Auditor (as of 2026-09-13); Crawford County Auditor (as of 2026-09-15); Fairfield County Auditor (as of 2026-08-20); Fayette County Auditor (as of 2026-09-13); Franklin County Auditor (as of 2026-08-15); Greene County Auditor (as of 2026-09-13); Guernsey County Auditor (as of 2026-09-12); Hardin County Auditor (as of 2026-09-14); Highland County Auditor (as of 2026-09-15); Hocking County Auditor (as of 2026-09-12); Holmes County Auditor (as of 2026-09-13); Jackson County Auditor (as of 2026-07-30); Knox County Auditor (as of 2026-09-12); Licking County Auditor (as of 2026-09-14); Logan County Auditor (as of 2026-09-13); Lorain County Auditor (as of 2026-09-13); Madison County Auditor (as of 2026-09-13); Marion County Auditor (as of 2026-09-12); Miami County Auditor (as of 2026-09-12); Montgomery County Auditor (as of 2026-08-31); Morrow County Auditor (as of 2026-09-12); Muskingum County Auditor (as of 2026-09-09); Perry County Auditor (as of 2026-09-10); Pickaway County Auditor (as of 2026-09-13); Richland County Auditor (as of 2021-02-08); Ross County Auditor (as of 2026-02-06); Stark County Auditor (as of 2026-09-14); Tuscarawas County Auditor (as of 2026-09-13); Union County Auditor (as of 2026-09-10); Wyandot County Auditor (as of 2023-08-09); OGRIP Ohio Statewide Parcels (Ohio Department of Administrative Services) for the 51 counties whose appraisal records are not in yet (Adams, Ashtabula, Athens, Belmont, Brown, Carroll, Clermont, Columbiana, Cuyahoga, Darke, Defiance, Delaware, Erie, Fulton, Gallia, Geauga, Hamilton, Hancock, Harrison, Henry, Huron, Jefferson, Lake, Lawrence, Lucas, Mahoning, Medina, Meigs, Mercer, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Ottawa, Paulding, Pike, Portage, Preble, Putnam, Sandusky, Scioto, Seneca, Shelby, Summit, Trumbull, Van Wert, Vinton, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Williams, Wood; county uploads 2023-05-08 to 2023-12-14): address, land-use class, lot size and parcel link; neighborhood boundaries: Allen County subdivision plats (county GIS \"Subdivision Book & Page\" polygons named from the auditor's legal descriptions); Athens County subdivisions, town plats and additions (Athens County Auditor GIS); Cincinnati Community Council Boundaries; Cincinnati Statistical Neighborhood Approximations (SNA), 2020; Clark County recorded subdivision plats; Clermont County recorded subdivision plats; Cleveland Heights neighborhoods; Cleveland Statistical Planning Areas (SPAs) / neighborhoods; Columbus Communities; Columbus Community Planning Areas; Coshocton County subdivisions (recorded plats and town additions); Dayton neighborhoods; Dublin Civic Associations; Dublin Neighborhoods (neighborhoods, HOAs and condominium associations); Fairfield County recorded subdivisions (plats); Franklin County recorded subdivision and condominium plats; Greene County recorded subdivision plats; Hamilton (Ohio) 17Strong neighborhoods; Lima neighborhood associations; Logan County subdivision and condominium plats; Lorain County recorded subdivision and condominium plats (Lorain County Auditor GIS); Madison County subdivisions (recorded plats); Morgan County subdivision, addition and town plats; Muskingum County subdivision plats; Perry County subdivisions and town additions (recorded plat names on the county engineer's parcels); Pickaway County subdivisions (parcel-based); Richland County subdivisions and condominiums (recorded plats, county GIS); Sandusky neighborhoods; Stark County recorded allotment (subdivision) and condominium plats; Toledo neighborhood associations; Toledo neighborhoods; Union County subdivision plats", "links": [ [ "Allen County Auditor", "https://gis.allencountyohio.com/GIS/downloads.html" ], [ "Ashland County Auditor", "https://auditor.ashlandcountyoh.us/" ], [ "Auglaize County Auditor", "https://auditoraccess.auglaizecounty.org/" ], [ "Butler County Auditor", "https://propertysearch.bcohio.gov/forms/htmlframe.aspx?mode=content/home.htm" ], [ "Champaign County Auditor", "https://auditor.co.champaign.oh.us/Posts?category=CAMA%20Data" ], [ "Clark County Auditor", "https://clarkcountyauditor.org/" ], [ "Clinton County Auditor", "https://clintoncountyauditor.org/property-data-download" ], [ "Coshocton County Auditor", "https://www.coshcoauditor.org/property-data-downloads" ], [ "Crawford County Auditor", "https://ccauditor.crawford-co.org/real-estate/" ], [ "Fairfield County Auditor", "https://www.co.fairfield.oh.us/gis/" ], [ "Fayette County Auditor", "https://www.fayettecountyauditor.org/data-download" ], [ "Franklin County Auditor", "https://auditor.franklincountyohio.gov/Auditor/FTP" ], [ "Greene County Auditor", "https://www.greenecountyohio.gov/366/Auditor" ], [ "Guernsey County Auditor", "https://guernseycounty.gov/geographic-information-system-gis/" ], [ "Hardin County Auditor", "https://hardincountyohio.gov/auditor-real-estate/" ], [ "Highland County Auditor", "https://highlandcountyauditor.org/" ], [ "Hocking County Auditor", "https://auditor.hocking.oh.gov/" ], [ "Holmes County Auditor", "https://www.holmescountyauditor.org/" ], [ "Jackson County Auditor", "https://jacksoncountyauditor.org/" ], [ "Knox County Auditor", "https://www.knoxcountyauditor.org/" ], [ "Licking County Auditor", "https://lickingcounty.gov/depts/auditor/default.htm" ], [ "Logan County Auditor", "https://realestate.logancountyohio.gov/additional-links-cama-and-tax-files" ], [ "Lorain County Auditor", "https://loraincountyauditor.gov/gis-tax-map" ], [ "Madison County Auditor", "https://auditor.co.madison.oh.us/Posts?category=Data%20Downloads" ], [ "Marion County Auditor", "https://co.marion.oh.us/elected_offices/auditor/index.php" ], [ "Miami County Auditor", "https://www.miamicountyohioauditor.gov/" ], [ "Montgomery County Auditor", "https://go.mcohio.org/applications/treasurer/search/filedownloads.cfm" ], [ "Morrow County Auditor", "https://morrowcountyohio.gov/gis/" ], [ "Muskingum County Auditor", "https://muskingum-county-gis-muskcogis.hub.arcgis.com" ], [ "Perry County Auditor", "https://auditor.perrycountyohio.gov/" ], [ "Pickaway County Auditor", "https://pickawayopendata-pickaway-gis.opendata.arcgis.com/" ], [ "Richland County Auditor", "https://www.richlandcountyoh.gov/departments/auditor/camadata" ], [ "Ross County Auditor", "https://auditor.rosscountyohio.gov/" ], [ "Stark County Auditor", "https://www.starkcountyohio.gov/government/offices/auditor/index.php" ], [ "Tuscarawas County Auditor", "https://auditor.co.tuscarawas.oh.us/" ], [ "Union County Auditor", "https://www.unioncountyohio.gov/property-search-tools" ], [ "Wyandot County Auditor", "https://www.co.wyandot.oh.us/224/Tax-Map-Department" ], [ "OGRIP Ohio Statewide Parcels", "https://gis1.oit.ohio.gov/geodatadownload/" ], [ "Athens County subdivisions, town plats and additions (Athens County Auditor GIS)", "https://gis.data.athensoh.org/" ], [ "Cincinnati Community Council Boundaries", "https://data.cagis.org/datasets/cagis::cincinnati-community-council-boundaries-open-data" ], [ "Cincinnati Statistical Neighborhood Approximations (SNA), 2020", "https://data.cagis.org/datasets/cagis::cincinnati-statistical-neighborhood-approximations-2020-open-data" ], [ "Clark County recorded subdivision plats", "https://clarkcounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/AttachmentViewer/index.html?appid=a6145fce90d94a19ae577cae94531d9c" ], [ "Clermont County recorded subdivision plats", "https://clermontauditor.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=1d44214914864f66a3d48ce5809f539f" ], [ "Cleveland Heights neighborhoods", "https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=e575f0b74e654cf5b6783ab10ab3e686" ], [ "Cleveland Statistical Planning Areas (SPAs) / neighborhoods", "https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=f5f33bd5b74849798ea6a7bca6d1a5f9" ], [ "Columbus Communities", "https://opendata.columbus.gov/datasets/columbus::columbus-communities" ], [ "Columbus Community Planning Areas", "https://opendata.columbus.gov/datasets/columbus::community-planning-areas" ], [ "Coshocton County subdivisions (recorded plats and town additions)", "https://www.coshoctoncounty.net/taxmap/gis-downloads/" ], [ "Dayton neighborhoods", "https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=fd3ba401ab5b4a7faa5d4ac5d68c6055" ], [ "Dublin Civic Associations", "https://data-dublinohio.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/neighborhoods-1" ], [ "Franklin County recorded subdivision and condominium plats", "https://apps.franklincountyauditor.com/GIS_Shapefiles/CurrentExtracts/" ], [ "Hamilton (Ohio) 17Strong neighborhoods", "https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=d2b014949c734df7bb7a0aee68536985" ], [ "Lima neighborhood associations", "https://www.limaohio.gov/304/View-City-Maps" ], [ "Logan County subdivision and condominium plats", "https://loganco.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=1ad72f1f6ccf4be1964f278ee37f741a" ], [ "Madison County subdivisions (recorded plats)", "https://madison-county-gis-data-download-madcoengineer.hub.arcgis.com/" ], [ "Morgan County subdivision, addition and town plats", "https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/fc61d1b0683f4a0b8ada90a208846c24" ], [ "Muskingum County subdivision plats", "https://muskingum-county-gis-muskcogis.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/muskcogis::subdivisions" ], [ "Perry County subdivisions and town additions (recorded plat names on the county engineer's parcels)", "https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/b72fa3d00bd443608b6c9f2e44404e56/" ], [ "Richland County subdivisions and condominiums (recorded plats, county GIS)", "https://rcengineer.com/tax-map-office/" ], [ "Sandusky neighborhoods", "https://ecgisab.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=8dbecfaf0fc84c45bef97819fab2ca6b" ], [ "Stark County recorded allotment (subdivision) and condominium plats", "https://abstractorresources-starkcountyohio.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/starkcountyohio::plat-index-1" ], [ "Toledo neighborhood associations", "https://data.toledo.gov/" ], [ "Union County subdivision plats", "https://www8.co.union.oh.us/mapunionoh/home/index.html" ] ], "coverage": 1179, "bins": [ { "key": "yb1", "label": "Before 1940", "sub": "Median year the homes were built, from the county auditor's records", "max": 1940 }, { "key": "yb2", "label": "1940 to 1959", "sub": "", "max": 1960 }, { "key": "yb3", "label": "1960 to 1979", "sub": "", "max": 1980 }, { "key": "yb4", "label": "1980 to 1999", "sub": "", "max": 2000 }, { "key": "yb5", "label": "2000 or later", "sub": "Half the homes or more built since 2000", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/houses/" }, { "id": "permits", "label": "Building permits", "chapter": "home", "question": "How much new housing has been built?", "blurb": "The Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey collects, from every permit office in Ohio, the new privately owned housing units it authorized each year: single-family houses, duplexes, small buildings and apartment buildings of five or more units, with the construction value the applicant declared. The map shows units authorized from 2016 through 2025 per 1,000 residents of the city, village, township or county building department that covers most of each ZIP, and the card gives the yearly counts, the mix and the dollar value. Columbus alone permitted 52,000 units in the decade, most of them apartments; the county building departments of Union, Delaware and Warren counties lead per head. Remodels and commercial work are not in the survey, and in the 39 counties whose county office reports only buildings of four or more units, houses in the townships are not counted at all. For Columbus and Westerville the card can list every permit on every house in the ZIP since 2016, loaded only when asked for: house numbers, dates, the work, the declared value and the contractor, from the cities' own permit records.", "unit": "per 1,000 residents", "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, annual place files 2016 to 2025: new privately owned housing units, buildings and construction value authorized by each Ohio permit office, given to each ZIP through the jurisdiction where most of its residents live; every permit on every house, house by house, from 20 open sources (306 ZIPs; the ledgers load on demand): Columbus (2016 to 2026-09, ArcGIS FeatureServer / opendata.columbus.gov); Cleveland (2016 to 2026-09, ArcGIS FeatureServer); Cincinnati (2016 to 2026-09, Socrata open data); Dayton (2016 to 2026-09, Accela Citizen Access (General Search, no login) plus, where fetched, the per-permit CapDetail.aspx page); Clermont County (EnerGov) (2016 to 2026-09, Tyler EnerGov Citizen Self Service (CSS) search API); Summit County Fiscal Office CAMA permit table (2016 to 2026-08, file (Drupal \"Data Downloads\" library, CAMA table export set shared with Richland County)); Kettering (regional building department) (2016 to 2026-09, Accela Citizen Access, unauthenticated General Search (HTML grid, no API/export) plus, where fetched, the per-permit CapDetail.aspx page); Delaware County (2022 to 2026-08, Yearly XLSX reports); Medina County (2016 to 2026-09, Own PHP permit-search website (form POST + session-cookie GET, no CSV/export)); Worthington (EnerGov) (2016 to 2026-09, Tyler EnerGov Citizen Self Service (CSS) search API); Xenia (2016 to 2026-09, ArcGIS Enterprise FeatureServer -- the city's own permit-application system of record, not a GIS export of a separate permitting system); Union County (2024 to 2026-08, Monthly XLSX reports); Richland County Auditor (2016 to 2026-08, flat-file CAMA table export on a public Google Drive folder (no API, no login)); Westerville (2016 to 2026-09, ArcGIS FeatureServer (Cityworks transparency layers)); Champaign County (2025 to 2026-08, Monthly PDF reports on the county's own website (an old fixed-width mainframe report, one file per month, indexed at .../Building-Regulations/Permits/permits.html)); Fulton County (2016 to 2026-09, ArcGIS FeatureServer (Fulton County Engineer's office ArcGIS Online org, public, no login)); Springboro (2025 to 2026-07, CivicPlus Archive Center (monthly PDF reports)); Mansfield, Accela Citizen Access (2025 to 2026-09, Accela Citizen Access (ASP.NET WebForms General Search; no login, no published API)); Oxford (2024 to 2026-07, Monthly XLSX reports); Pickaway County (2026 to 2026-08, Monthly report PDF, self-overwriting (no year anywhere in the filename or URL))", "links": [ [ "Census building permits", "https://www.census.gov/construction/bps/" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "bp1", "label": "Under 5 units per 1,000 residents", "sub": "Almost no new housing in ten years", "max": 5 }, { "key": "bp2", "label": "5 to 15", "sub": "", "max": 15 }, { "key": "bp3", "label": "15 to 30", "sub": "Around the Ohio average of 23", "max": 30 }, { "key": "bp4", "label": "30 to 60", "sub": "", "max": 60 }, { "key": "bp5", "label": "60 or more", "sub": "The growth belt around Columbus and Cincinnati", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/permits/" }, { "id": "homeprices", "label": "Home prices", "chapter": "home", "question": "How much have home prices changed?", "blurb": "The Federal Housing Finance Agency's house price index follows the same houses through repeat sales and refinance appraisals on conforming mortgages, ZIP by ZIP, back to the 1980s in most of Ohio; FHFA calls the ZIP series developmental. The map shows the change over the latest ten years of each ZIP's index (2015 to 2025 for most), and the card adds the five-year and one-year changes and how far prices stand above their 2000 level. The median Ohio ZIP gained 92% in the decade, against inflation of roughly a third; inner-city Columbus and Cincinnati neighbourhoods more than tripled, a few small-town ZIPs barely moved, and rural ZIPs with too few sales have no index at all. Realtor.com's monthly listing metrics and Zillow's rent index show what the market is asking right now.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "FHFA House Price Index, annual five-digit ZIP all-transactions series (repeat sales and refinance appraisals of conforming-mortgage homes, developmental, not seasonally adjusted): ten-, five- and one-year changes and the level against 2000; Zillow Home Value Index and Observed Rent Index by ZIP (Zillow Research), latest month; Realtor.com residential listing metrics by ZIP (latest month)", "links": [ [ "FHFA house price index", "https://www.fhfa.gov/data/hpi" ], [ "Zillow research data", "https://www.zillow.com/research/data/" ], [ "Realtor.com data", "https://www.realtor.com/research/data/" ] ], "coverage": 862, "bins": [ { "key": "hv1", "label": "Under 50% in ten years", "sub": "Flat or falling once inflation is counted", "max": 50 }, { "key": "hv2", "label": "50 to 75%", "sub": "", "max": 75 }, { "key": "hv3", "label": "75 to 100%", "sub": "Around the Ohio median of 92%", "max": 100 }, { "key": "hv4", "label": "100 to 150%", "sub": "Prices doubled", "max": 150 }, { "key": "hv5", "label": "150% or more", "sub": "City neighbourhoods that turned over", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/homeprices/" }, { "id": "tax", "label": "School tax", "chapter": "home", "question": "How high is the school property tax?", "blurb": "The Ohio Department of Taxation's aggregate property tax rates by school district for tax year 2025: the effective Class I (residential and agricultural) millage each district collects after the reduction factors that hold voted levies to the dollars first approved, weighted across the districts a ZIP's residents live in. School levies are usually the largest share of an Ohio property tax bill but not all of it; county, city or township, library, park and vocational-school millage are collected in the same bill and are not in this table, and the 10 percent and owner-occupancy credits, homestead exemption and any new levies since 2025 change what a household pays. The card now also lists the municipal income tax, school district income tax and combined sales tax rate for the ZIP from the Department of Taxation's Finder tables.", "unit": "mills", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "Ohio Department of Taxation, Aggregate Property Tax Rates by School District, tax year 2025 (DTE 515), joined by IRN and weighted by each ZIP's residents in every district; school levies only; Ohio Department of Taxation The Finder rate tables (municipal income tax by place code, school district income tax by IRN, combined sales tax by ZIP), September 2026", "links": [ [ "Ohio tax data series", "https://tax.ohio.gov/researcher/tax-analysis/tax-data-series" ], [ "The Finder", "https://thefinder.tax.ohio.gov/" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "x1", "label": "Under 22 mills", "sub": "Districts at or near the 20-mill floor", "max": 22 }, { "key": "x2", "label": "22 to 25 mills", "sub": "", "max": 25 }, { "key": "x3", "label": "25 to 30 mills", "sub": "", "max": 30 }, { "key": "x4", "label": "30 to 40 mills", "sub": "Suburbs with many voted levies", "max": 40 }, { "key": "x5", "label": "40 mills or more", "sub": "Cincinnati, Akron and the Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights and Oakwood suburbs", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/tax/" }, { "id": "electric", "label": "Electric", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "Which company supplies the electricity?", "blurb": "Outage figures are the utility's 2024 report to the Energy Information Administration (Form 861), or 2023 where the utility did not file: SAIDI, the minutes the average customer was without power over the year, with and without the major storm days utilities are allowed to set aside, and SAIFI, the number of sustained interruptions per customer. Ohio's rural co-ops and the FirstEnergy companies report the longest outages; small municipal systems the shortest. PUCO certified electric territories (investor-owned utilities and cooperatives, annual, via ODOT) and the municipal electric systems from the federal HIFLD retail service territory inventory (EIA Form 861), each drawn with its corporate limits. A ZIP takes the utility that delivers power to the most of its residents, by the same census-block method as the water layer. Cleveland Public Power and Columbus Division of Power serve parts of their cities alongside the investor-owned utility and are noted rather than colored. The same EIA filing gives each utility's net-metered solar customers and its share of smart meters. An energy-burden note gives the share of income households spend on electricity, gas and other fuels, from the Department of Energy's LEAD Tool, with the figure for lower-income households and the share of households above the 6 percent line.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "categorical", "source": "PUCO certified electric territories via ODOT plus HIFLD municipal systems (EIA-861) with ODOT corporate limits; EIA-861 reliability (outages), sales to ultimate customers (residential prices and bills), net metering and advanced meters by utility, 2024 with 2023 where a utility skipped a year; DOE LEAD Tool 2022 household energy burden by tract, apportioned into ZIPs by block population", "links": [ [ "PUCO electricity", "https://puco.ohio.gov/utilities/electricity" ], [ "ODOT territories service", "https://tims.dot.state.oh.us/ags/rest/services/Boundaries/PUCO_Electric_Service_Areas/MapServer/0" ], [ "EIA-861", "https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia861/" ], [ "DOE LEAD Tool", "https://data.openei.org/submissions/6219" ], [ "HIFLD retail service territories", "https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=597555ce8e4a4892a030784a7c657fdd" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/electric/" }, { "id": "gas", "label": "Gas", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "Which company supplies the natural gas?", "blurb": "Ohio publishes no gas territory boundaries, so this layer combines three sources: PUCO's April 2026 map of the gas distribution companies operating in each county (from its pipeline-safety database), the federal HIFLD territory polygons (EIA Form 176, 2016 vintage, the newest public boundaries), and the Census Bureau's count of how homes heat (ACS 2020 to 2024). A ZIP takes the company whose territory covers the most residents among the companies PUCO lists for that county; municipal limits win, then the four large utilities, then small companies and cooperatives, whose polygons cover far more ground than their mains. A ZIP where under a fifth of homes heat with utility gas is drawn faded.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "categorical", "source": "PUCO 2026 county map of gas distribution companies, HIFLD/EIA-176 territory polygons, ACS 2020-2024 heating fuel", "links": [ [ "PUCO natural gas", "https://puco.ohio.gov/utilities/natural-gas" ], [ "HIFLD", "https://hifld-geoplatform.hub.arcgis.com/" ] ], "coverage": 1224, "bins": [], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/gas/" }, { "id": "power", "label": "Power plants", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "How close is the nearest power plant?", "blurb": "Every generating plant in the Energy Information Administration's Form 860 inventory: the nearest plant of 100 megawatts or more, the plants within 10 miles by fuel, the nearest wind farm and utility-scale solar farm from the USGS databases, and, for ZIPs within 50 miles of the Perry or Davis-Besse nuclear plants, which emergency planning zone they fall in.", "unit": "mi", "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "EIA-860 power plant inventory via HIFLD (202 Ohio plants, February 2025): nearest plant, nearest plant of 100 MW or more, plants and capacity by fuel within 10 miles; USGS U.S. Wind Turbine Database (June 2026) and U.S. Large-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Database (April 2026) for wind and solar farms within 15 miles; NRC emergency planning zones (10-mile plume exposure, 50-mile ingestion pathway) around Perry and Davis-Besse", "links": [ [ "EIA-860", "https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia860/" ], [ "HIFLD", "https://hifld-geoplatform.hub.arcgis.com/" ], [ "USGS wind turbines", "https://energy.usgs.gov/uswtdb/" ], [ "USGS solar", "https://energy.usgs.gov/uspvdb/" ], [ "NRC emergency planning zones", "https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/emerg-preparedness/about-emerg-preparedness/planning-zones.html" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "pw1", "label": "A 100 MW+ plant under 5 miles", "sub": "", "max": 5 }, { "key": "pw2", "label": "5 to 10 miles", "sub": "", "max": 10 }, { "key": "pw3", "label": "10 to 20 miles", "sub": "", "max": 20 }, { "key": "pw4", "label": "20 to 35 miles", "sub": "", "max": 35 }, { "key": "pw5", "label": "35 miles or more", "sub": "Farthest from a large power plant", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/power/" }, { "id": "pipelines", "label": "Pipelines", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "How close is the nearest gas pipeline?", "blurb": "The Energy Information Administration's map of natural gas transmission pipelines, the large interstate and intrastate lines that move gas between states and to city gates, republished on ArcGIS Online by Esri's Federal User Community. The map shows the distance from each ZIP's population center to the nearest operating line; the card gives the miles of transmission pipe inside the ZIP by operator. Local distribution mains under the streets, gathering lines from wells and liquids pipelines are not included, and the federal map is generalized, so a line can be a few hundred yards off.", "unit": "mi", "polarity": "higher_better", "kind": "metric", "source": "EIA natural gas interstate and intrastate transmission pipelines via Esri's Federal User Community copy on ArcGIS Online (data last updated July 2025; 1,239 segments in and around Ohio): miles inside each ZIP by operator, distance from the population-weighted center to the nearest operating line", "links": [ [ "EIA U.S. Energy Atlas", "https://atlas.eia.gov/datasets/eia::natural-gas-interstate-and-intrastate-pipelines" ], [ "ArcGIS Online item", "https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=9833ca6c8103490b8ad145a30f0522ee" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "pl1", "label": "Transmission line under half a mile", "sub": "Inside the typical evacuation distance for a major rupture", "max": 0.5 }, { "key": "pl2", "label": "Half a mile to 1 mile", "sub": "", "max": 1 }, { "key": "pl3", "label": "1 to 3 miles", "sub": "", "max": 3 }, { "key": "pl4", "label": "3 to 10 miles", "sub": "", "max": 10 }, { "key": "pl5", "label": "10 miles or more", "sub": "No transmission line nearby", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/pipelines/" }, { "id": "phone", "label": "Phone", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "Which company holds the phone exchange?", "blurb": "Incumbent local telephone company territories from PUCO, the exchange areas the legacy landline carrier holds. Cable, fiber and wireless providers compete inside them and are not mapped.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "categorical", "source": "PUCO Telecom map service, layer 7 ILEC Company Service Area (incumbent local exchange carriers, fetched 2026-09-08) by resident share of 2020 census blocks", "links": [ [ "PUCO telephone", "https://puco.ohio.gov/utilities/telephone" ] ], "coverage": 1227, "bins": [], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/phone/" }, { "id": "broadband", "label": "Internet", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "Can homes here get fast internet?", "blurb": "The FCC's Broadband Data Collection for June 2024, summed from hexagons to ZIPs, giving the share of homes and businesses that can get 100/20 Mbps fixed service and the reach of fiber and cable, beside the Census count of households that actually subscribe.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "FCC Broadband Data Collection, June 2024, fixed availability by H3 hexagon (Esri Living Atlas, Ohio subset); Census ACS 2020-2024 table B28002 internet subscriptions; Ookla Open Data fixed speed tests 2025 Q2 by tile, averaged inside the ZIP", "links": [ [ "FCC broadband map", "https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/" ], [ "Ookla open data", "https://github.com/teamookla/ookla-open-data" ], [ "Census ACS", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs" ] ], "coverage": 1181, "bins": [ { "key": "b1", "label": "Under 2% lack 100/20 service", "sub": "Effectively fully served", "max": 0.02 }, { "key": "b2", "label": "2 to 5% lack it", "sub": "", "max": 0.05 }, { "key": "b3", "label": "5 to 10%", "sub": "", "max": 0.1 }, { "key": "b4", "label": "10 to 25%", "sub": "Rural edges without cable or fiber", "max": 0.25 }, { "key": "b5", "label": "25% or more lack it", "sub": "Largely unserved", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/broadband/" }, { "id": "mobile", "label": "Cell signal", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "How good is cell coverage here?", "blurb": "The FCC's Mobile Broadband Data Collection: AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon report where their 4G LTE and 5G networks reach outdoors at a stationary spot, on a grid of hexagons about a tenth of a square kilometre each. A ZIP is scored by the share of its land with 5G from any of the three; the card gives each carrier. Coverage is the carriers' own claim, by area rather than by people. The card also counts the antenna structures registered with the FCC inside the ZIP and within 3 miles, with the tallest. Ookla's crowd-sourced speed tests give the measured mobile download, upload and latency for the ZIP.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_better", "kind": "metric", "source": "FCC Mobile Broadband Data Collection, carrier-reported 4G LTE and 5G coverage by H3 hexagon (Esri Living Atlas layer last updated 24 November 2025, June 30, 2025 filing round), fetched 2026-09-08; FCC Antenna Structure Registration database (September 2026), Ohio structures with granted or constructed status, placed by their registered coordinates; Ookla open data mobile speed-test tiles, April to June 2026, averaged over the ZIP weighted by tests", "links": [ [ "FCC broadband map", "https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/" ], [ "FCC antenna registration", "https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/support/antenna-structure-registration-asr-resources" ], [ "Ookla open data", "https://github.com/teamookla/ookla-open-data" ] ], "coverage": 1220, "bins": [ { "key": "m1", "label": "5G on under a quarter of the land", "sub": "4G LTE at best across most of the ZIP", "max": 0.25 }, { "key": "m2", "label": "5G on 25 to 50%", "sub": "", "max": 0.5 }, { "key": "m3", "label": "5G on 50 to 75%", "sub": "", "max": 0.75 }, { "key": "m4", "label": "5G on 75 to 95%", "sub": "", "max": 0.95 }, { "key": "m5", "label": "5G nearly everywhere", "sub": "From at least one of AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/mobile/" }, { "id": "chargers", "label": "EV chargers", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "How far is the nearest EV charger?", "blurb": "The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Alternative Fuels Data Center station list, through the Department of Transportation's copy (station list as of May 29, 2026): public, open electric stations only (private fleet, workplace-only, planned and NREL restricted-access sites, such as dealer-service and hotel-guest chargers, dropped). NREL lists every post at a site as its own record, so the posts of one network at one address are merged into a single site before anything is counted. The map shows the straight-line distance from the ZIP's population-weighted center to the nearest public DC fast charger, counting chargers across the state line in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan as well; the card counts the Ohio stations and Level 2 and DC fast ports inside the ZIP, the stations within 5 miles of that center, and the networks. Tesla Superchargers open to other makes appear as they are listed by NREL.", "unit": "mi", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "NREL Alternative Fuels Data Center station list as of May 29, 2026 (USDOT BTS copy: 2,136 Ohio electric stations, of which the 1,850 public and open are used, NREL restricted-access records such as dealer-service and hotel-guest chargers excluded, merged into 1,395 sites because NREL lists each post at a site as its own record; the distances and the 5-mile counts also see 1,566 public open stations in PA, WV, KY, IN and MI near the border); straight-line miles from each ZIP's population-weighted center", "links": [ [ "Alternative Fuels Data Center", "https://afdc.energy.gov/stations" ], [ "BTS Alternative Fueling Stations (NTAD)", "https://geodata.bts.gov/datasets/usdot::alternative-fueling-stations" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "q1", "label": "DC fast charger under 2 miles", "sub": "City centers, malls and highway exits", "max": 2 }, { "key": "q2", "label": "2 to 5 miles", "sub": "", "max": 5 }, { "key": "q3", "label": "5 to 10 miles", "sub": "", "max": 10 }, { "key": "q4", "label": "10 to 20 miles", "sub": "A drive to the next town", "max": 20 }, { "key": "q5", "label": "20 miles or more", "sub": "Farthest from a fast charger", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/chargers/" }, { "id": "transit", "label": "Transit", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "Is there a transit stop nearby?", "blurb": "Transit stops are the GTFS feeds every agency reporting to the National Transit Database publishes, as gathered by the National Transit Map, plus five Ohio systems' feeds taken from the agencies themselves (Springfield, Lancaster-Fairfield, Knox County Transit, WayGo in Wooster and the BGSU Shuttle). A ZIP is scored by the share of residents whose census block center is within half a mile of any stop; dial-a-ride services and the few fixed-route systems that publish no feed at all are missing.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_better", "kind": "metric", "source": "USDOT BTS National Transit Map stops (National Transportation Atlas Database, 2025 vintage, fetched September 2026), plus the Springfield, Lancaster-Fairfield, Knox County Transit, WayGo and BGSU Shuttle GTFS feeds: share of residents whose census block center is within half a mile of a stop", "links": [ [ "BTS National Transit Map", "https://www.bts.gov/national-transit-map" ], [ "BTS transportation atlas", "https://www.bts.gov/ntad" ], [ "Springfield City Area Transit GTFS feed", "https://rapid.nationalrtap.org/GTFSFileManagement/UserUploadFiles/11869/SCAT_GTFS.zip" ], [ "Lancaster-Fairfield Public Transit GTFS feed", "https://www.co.fairfield.oh.us/transit/FCT-oh-us.zip" ], [ "Knox County Transit GTFS feed", "https://knoxcountytransit.com/content/uploads/2026/02/kct-gtfs.zip" ], [ "WayGo GTFS feed", "https://rapid.nationalrtap.org/GTFSFileManagement/UserUploadFiles/13597/WayGo_OH_GTFS.zip" ], [ "BGSU Shuttle GTFS feed", "https://bgsu.tripshot.com/v1/gtfs.zip" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "tt2", "label": "Under 10% of residents", "sub": "A single route through town", "max": 0.1 }, { "key": "tt3", "label": "10 to 40%", "sub": "", "max": 0.4 }, { "key": "tt4", "label": "40 to 75%", "sub": "", "max": 0.75 }, { "key": "tt5", "label": "75% or more live within half a mile of a stop", "sub": "City bus grids", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/transit/" }, { "id": "walk", "label": "Walkability", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "How walkable is this ZIP?", "blurb": "The EPA's National Walkability Index scores every census block group from 1 to 20 on three things that make walking practical: intersection density, distance to the nearest transit stop, and how mixed the jobs and homes are. The map shows each ZIP's population-weighted score in the EPA's four bands, from least walkable to most; the card breaks out the parts and adds the share of households with no car.", "unit": "score", "polarity": "higher_better", "kind": "metric", "source": "EPA National Walkability Index (Smart Location Database 3.0, 2021) by block group, population-weighted to ZIPs through 2020 census block points", "links": [ [ "EPA walkability index", "https://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/national-walkability-index-user-guide-and-methodology" ], [ "Smart Location Database", "https://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/smart-location-mapping" ], [ "Census ACS", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "wk1", "label": "Least walkable (1 to 5.75)", "sub": "A car for nearly every trip", "max": 5.76 }, { "key": "wk2", "label": "Below average (5.76 to 10.5)", "sub": "Small towns, older suburbs", "max": 10.51 }, { "key": "wk3", "label": "Above average (10.51 to 15.25)", "sub": "City neighbourhoods on a grid", "max": 15.26 }, { "key": "wk4", "label": "Most walkable (15.26 to 20)", "sub": "Downtowns and streetcar suburbs", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/walk/" }, { "id": "rail", "label": "Rail crossings", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "How many rail crossings are here?", "blurb": "The Federal Railroad Administration's crossing inventory, the record every railroad and state must keep of each place a road, path or station platform crosses a track: the map counts the open public at-grade crossings inside each ZIP, and the card gives the railroads, how many have gates, the trains a day reported at the busiest crossing, the fastest timetable speed, and the private crossings. Train counts are what the railroad last reported and can be years old; a crossing with 80 trains a day on a 79 mph main line is a different neighbour from a switching spur. FRA incident reports count the collisions at the ZIP's crossings since 2010. FRA accident reports add derailments and hazmat releases in the ZIP and county since 2010.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "FRA Grade Crossing Inventory (current records, Ohio): open at-grade crossings inside each ZIP, gates, trains a day at the busiest, timetable speed, railroads; nearest crossing to the population-weighted center; FRA highway-rail grade crossing incident reports (Form 57) since 2010, placed by crossing id; FRA rail equipment accident reports (Form 54) since 2010 by coordinates", "links": [ [ "FRA crossing inventory (Form 71, current)", "https://data.transportation.gov/Railroads/Crossing-Inventory-Data-Form-71-Current/m2f8-22s6" ], [ "FRA crossing incidents (Form 57)", "https://data.transportation.gov/Railroads/Highway-Rail-Grade-Crossing-Accident-Data/7wn6-i5b9" ], [ "FRA rail equipment accidents (Form 54)", "https://data.transportation.gov/Railroads/Rail-Equipment-Accident-Incident-Data/85tf-25kj" ], [ "FRA safety data", "https://railroads.dot.gov/safety-data" ], [ "DOT open data", "https://data.transportation.gov/" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "rx1", "label": "No public rail crossing in the ZIP", "sub": "", "max": 1 }, { "key": "rx2", "label": "1 to 3 crossings", "sub": "", "max": 4 }, { "key": "rx3", "label": "4 to 10", "sub": "", "max": 11 }, { "key": "rx4", "label": "11 to 25", "sub": "Rail towns and junctions", "max": 26 }, { "key": "rx5", "label": "26 or more", "sub": "Findlay, Marion, Lima: the railroad crossroads", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/rail/" }, { "id": "bridges", "label": "Bridges", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "Are the local bridges in good repair?", "blurb": "The Federal Highway Administration's National Bridge Inventory for 2025, every public road bridge and large culvert in Ohio with its inspection ratings: the map shows the share of a ZIP's bridges rated poor (a deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert scored 4 or lower on the 0 to 9 scale), and the card gives the count, the typical and oldest build years, the busiest bridge by traffic and the poor-rated ones by name. Poor does not mean unsafe to cross; it means repair or replacement is due, and a bridge judged unsafe is closed or load-posted. ZIPs with fewer than three bridges are left grey because one bridge would swing the share.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "FHWA National Bridge Inventory 2025 (26,713 Ohio structures): bridges inside each ZIP, poor-condition ratings, ages, traffic", "links": [ [ "FHWA bridge inventory", "https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/nbi/ascii.cfm" ], [ "ODOT TIMS bridge inventory (live)", "https://tims.dot.state.oh.us/ags/rest/services/Assets/Bridge_Inventory/MapServer/0" ] ], "coverage": 1057, "bins": [ { "key": "br1", "label": "No bridge rated poor", "sub": "", "max": 0.5 }, { "key": "br2", "label": "Under 5% of bridges poor", "sub": "Around the Ohio average (4.7%)", "max": 5 }, { "key": "br3", "label": "5 to 10%", "sub": "", "max": 10 }, { "key": "br4", "label": "10 to 20%", "sub": "", "max": 20 }, { "key": "br5", "label": "20% or more rated poor", "sub": "Township roads over small creeks", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/bridges/" }, { "id": "traffic", "label": "Traffic", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "How busy are the roads here?", "blurb": "ODOT publishes annual average daily traffic, the number of vehicles passing a point on an ordinary day, for its state, US and interstate routes and for about 46,000 miles of county, township and city roads. That is 68,000 miles in all, a little over half of Ohio's 123,000 miles of public road, so most city streets have no count at all. The map shows the busiest counted segment inside each ZIP, from a few hundred vehicles on a township road to about 195,000 on I-270 in Franklin County; the card adds the trucks on it, the total vehicle-miles driven inside the ZIP each day, the busiest counted county, township or city road, and how many segments carry freeway volumes. Counts are the 2025 set from ODOT's Transportation Information Mapping System. The card closes with the fatal crashes NHTSA recorded inside the ZIP from 2020 to 2024: deaths, pedestrians and cyclists, drinking drivers, and the road carrying the most where one road stands out.", "unit": "vehicles/day", "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "ODOT traffic count segments (2025 annual average daily traffic by road segment, ODOT Transportation Information Mapping System): segments assigned to the ZIP holding their midpoint; NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System 2020 to 2024, crashes placed in the ZCTA holding their coordinates", "links": [ [ "ODOT TIMS traffic count segments", "https://tims.dot.state.oh.us/ags/rest/services/Roadway_Information/Traffic_Count_Segments/MapServer/0" ], [ "NHTSA FARS", "https://www.nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars" ] ], "coverage": 1214, "bins": [ { "key": "tf1", "label": "Under 5,000 vehicles a day", "sub": "No busy road inside the ZIP", "max": 5000 }, { "key": "tf2", "label": "5,000 to 20,000", "sub": "A state route or main street", "max": 20000 }, { "key": "tf3", "label": "20,000 to 50,000", "sub": "A busy highway or arterial", "max": 50000 }, { "key": "tf4", "label": "50,000 to 100,000", "sub": "An interstate or expressway", "max": 100000 }, { "key": "tf5", "label": "100,000 or more", "sub": "The big-city freeways", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/traffic/" }, { "id": "travel", "label": "Airports and Amtrak", "chapter": "utilities", "question": "How far is the nearest airport?", "blurb": "Airports are FAA facilities with scheduled airline service under Part 139, including the out-of-state airports that serve Ohio's edges, with the nearest public-use airfield and Amtrak station on the card.", "unit": "mi", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "FAA airport facilities and Amtrak stations via USDOT BTS: nearest airport with scheduled airline service (Part 139 class I), nearest public-use airport, nearest Amtrak station, including out-of-state ones near the border", "links": [ [ "BTS transportation atlas", "https://www.bts.gov/ntad" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "av1", "label": "Airline airport under 15 miles", "sub": "", "max": 15 }, { "key": "av2", "label": "15 to 30 miles", "sub": "", "max": 30 }, { "key": "av3", "label": "30 to 50 miles", "sub": "", "max": 50 }, { "key": "av4", "label": "50 to 60 miles", "sub": "An hour and a half to the gate", "max": 60 }, { "key": "av5", "label": "60 miles or more", "sub": "Farthest from a scheduled flight", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/travel/" }, { "id": "radon", "label": "Radon", "chapter": "land", "question": "How much radon shows up in home tests?", "blurb": "Ohio Department of Health, radon levels by ZIP code: every test reported by Ohio-licensed radon professionals since 2010, before any mitigation, updated monthly. The map shows the ZIP's average; ZIPs with fewer than five tests are left grey. A ZIP average says nothing about one house, and EPA's advice is the same everywhere: test, and fix at 4 pCi/L or more.", "unit": "pCi/L", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "Ohio Department of Health radon test results by ZIP code since 2010 (pre-mitigation), ZIPs with five or more tests", "links": [ [ "ODH radon program", "https://odh.ohio.gov/know-our-programs/radon-education-and-licensing-program" ] ], "coverage": 937, "bins": [ { "key": "r1", "label": "Under 2 pCi/L", "sub": "Below the level EPA says to consider fixing", "max": 2 }, { "key": "r2", "label": "2 to 4 pCi/L", "sub": "EPA says consider fixing", "max": 4 }, { "key": "r3", "label": "4 to 8 pCi/L", "sub": "Above the 4 pCi/L action level", "max": 8 }, { "key": "r4", "label": "8 to 12 pCi/L", "sub": "Two to three times the action level", "max": 12 }, { "key": "r5", "label": "12 pCi/L and up", "sub": "Three times the action level or more", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/radon/" }, { "id": "flood", "label": "Flood", "chapter": "land", "question": "How much of this ZIP floods?", "blurb": "FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer, the effective flood insurance rate maps, downloaded county by county. A ZIP is scored by the share of its residents whose 2020 census block center falls inside the 1% annual chance floodplain, with the land share and the 0.2% zone on the card.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, flood hazard zones, fetched 2026-09-08; OpenFEMA NFIP redacted claims for Ohio (frozen June 2026), by reported ZIP; USGS NWIS annual peak flows for the nearest active stream gauge; NOAA Atlas 14 precipitation frequency estimates (partial duration series) at the ZIP center; OpenFEMA NFIP policies in force by reported ZIP (OpenFEMA NfipPolicies v3, policies in force as of September 2026); FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer levee centerlines and floodwalls; FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer flood hazard zone boundaries, generalized to about 44 m, drawn as a map overlay; OpenFEMA NFIP Community Status Book (participation, sanctions, Community Rating System class)", "links": [ [ "FEMA flood hazard layer", "https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps/national-flood-hazard-layer" ], [ "FEMA Map Service Center", "https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home" ], [ "OpenFEMA", "https://www.fema.gov/about/openfema/data-sets" ], [ "NOAA Atlas 14", "https://hdsc.nws.noaa.gov/pfds/" ], [ "USGS stream gauges", "https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis" ] ], "coverage": 1189, "bins": [ { "key": "f0", "label": "No residents in the floodplain", "sub": "No populated block center inside a mapped 1% zone", "max": 0.0005 }, { "key": "f1", "label": "Under 2% of residents", "sub": "A few blocks along a creek or river", "max": 0.02 }, { "key": "f2", "label": "2 to 5%", "sub": "", "max": 0.05 }, { "key": "f3", "label": "5 to 10%", "sub": "", "max": 0.1 }, { "key": "f4", "label": "10 to 20%", "sub": "Whole neighbourhoods in the floodplain", "max": 0.2 }, { "key": "f5", "label": "20% or more", "sub": "River towns and low ground", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/flood/" }, { "id": "hazards", "label": "Hazard risk", "chapter": "land", "question": "How much natural-hazard risk does this ZIP carry?", "blurb": "FEMA's National Risk Index, which scores every census tract against the nation on 18 natural hazards, weighted here to ZIPs by block population.", "unit": "percentile", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "FEMA National Risk Index, census tracts, December 2025 release, population-weighted to ZIPs", "links": [ [ "FEMA National Risk Index", "https://www.fema.gov/flood-maps/products-tools/national-risk-index" ], [ "NRI census tract layer (ArcGIS)", "https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=9da4eeb936544335a6db0cd7a8448a51" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "z1", "label": "Under 20 (lowest fifth of US tracts)", "sub": "FEMA risk index score, a national percentile", "max": 20 }, { "key": "z2", "label": "20 to 40", "sub": "", "max": 40 }, { "key": "z3", "label": "40 to 60", "sub": "", "max": 60 }, { "key": "z4", "label": "60 to 80", "sub": "", "max": 80 }, { "key": "z5", "label": "80 and up (top fifth of US tracts)", "sub": "Residents' tracts average in the riskiest fifth nationally", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/hazards/" }, { "id": "climate", "label": "Climate", "chapter": "land", "question": "What is the climate like here?", "blurb": "NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals, the thirty-year averages weather forecasters mean by \"normal\": annual snowfall on the map, with mean temperature, January lows and July highs, days at 90°F or above and below freezing, rainfall, and heating and cooling degree days on the card. Ohio has 130 stations with temperature normals, 252 with precipitation and only 93 with snowfall, so each ZIP borrows from the nearest station reporting each element and names it. The Lake Erie snowbelt east of Cleveland gets four to five times the snow of the Ohio River counties. The card also carries the county's drought history from the U.S. Drought Monitor: weeks in drought since 2020, the worst spell since 2000 and the current status. NOAA's county series since 1895 gives the long-run warming and the change in yearly rainfall.", "unit": "in", "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals, annual and monthly, 261 Ohio stations; each ZIP takes the nearest station reporting each element from its population-weighted center; U.S. Drought Monitor weekly county statistics 2000 to 2026 (usdmdataservices.unl.edu); NOAA nClimDiv county monthly temperature and precipitation 1895 to 2026 (climdiv-tmpccy and climdiv-pcpncy, September 2026 release)", "links": [ [ "NOAA climate normals", "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/land-based-station/us-climate-normals" ], [ "NOAA climate at a glance", "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/" ], [ "U.S. Drought Monitor", "https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "c1", "label": "Under 20 inches of snow a year", "sub": "Southern Ohio and the Miami valley", "max": 20 }, { "key": "c2", "label": "20 to 30 inches", "sub": "Central Ohio and the west", "max": 30 }, { "key": "c3", "label": "30 to 45 inches", "sub": "The north and west", "max": 45 }, { "key": "c4", "label": "45 to 70 inches", "sub": "Lakeshore and the secondary snowbelt", "max": 70 }, { "key": "c5", "label": "70 inches or more", "sub": "The Lake Erie snowbelt", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/climate/" }, { "id": "air", "label": "Air", "chapter": "land", "question": "How clean is the air?", "blurb": "EPA's Air Quality System annual summaries for 2025: the map shows the annual average of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) at the monitor nearest each ZIP's population-weighted center, against the 9 µg/m³ national standard adopted in 2024. Ohio has only 38 PM2.5 monitors, so a reading can come from a city 30 miles away; the card gives the distance, the nearest ozone monitor's fourth-highest daily reading (the design-value ingredient, 70 ppb standard), and the county's Air Quality Index day counts where the county has a monitor of its own. EPA's ECHO adds the permitted air sources inside the ZIP, their classification and their recent violations. EPA's Green Book says whether the county is in nonattainment or under a maintenance plan for any standard. A second county row counts the good, moderate and worse days indexed so far in 2026, as far as EPA's daily file runs.", "unit": "µg/m³", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "EPA Air Quality System 2025 annual summaries: nearest PM2.5 and ozone monitors from each ZIP's population-weighted center, county AQI day counts; EPA ECHO Clean Air Act permitted sources in Ohio (air_rest_services, September 2026); EPA Green Book county nonattainment and maintenance status (nayro.xls, September 2026); EPA daily county AQI file for 2026 (January to 2026-05-31)", "links": [ [ "EPA air data files", "https://aqs.epa.gov/aqsweb/airdata/download_files.html" ], [ "EPA AirToxScreen", "https://www.epa.gov/AirToxScreen" ], [ "EPA Green Book", "https://www.epa.gov/green-book" ], [ "EPA ECHO", "https://echo.epa.gov/" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "a1", "label": "Under 7.5 µg/m³ PM2.5", "sub": "Cleanest monitors, well under the 9 µg/m³ standard", "max": 7.5 }, { "key": "a2", "label": "7.5 to 8.5", "sub": "", "max": 8.5 }, { "key": "a3", "label": "8.5 to 9", "sub": "At or just under the standard", "max": 9.05 }, { "key": "a4", "label": "9 to 10", "sub": "Above the 2024 annual standard", "max": 10 }, { "key": "a5", "label": "10 µg/m³ and up", "sub": "Industrial corridors and city centers", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/air/" }, { "id": "env", "label": "Toxic sites", "chapter": "land", "question": "Is there a toxic site nearby?", "blurb": "EPA's Facility Registry Service: Superfund National Priorities List sites (on, proposed, or deleted after cleanup), the wider Superfund program list of sites ever assessed, and facilities that have reported to the Toxics Release Inventory. A ZIP is colored by whether an NPL site lies inside it, otherwise by the distance to the nearest one, including sites just across the state line in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan. Reporting to the inventory records chemical use and release, not a measured exposure. Ohio EPA's Voluntary Action Program covenants mark former industrial sites certified clean. Ohio EPA's licensed landfills, transfer stations and compost sites round out the picture. ECHO's hazardous waste handler list adds violations, penalties and the nearest treatment, storage or disposal facility. The card ends with the nearest scrap tire and household battery drop-off sites from Ohio EPA's lists. EPA's UST Finder adds the gas-station-style underground storage tanks inside the ZIP and the leaking-tank releases reported there, with those inside a drinking-water source protection area called out.", "unit": "mi", "polarity": "higher_better", "kind": "metric", "source": "EPA Facility Registry Service: Superfund NPL and SEMS sites, Toxics Release Inventory reporters (EPA geoplatform), fetched 2026-09-08; the nearest NPL site also considers sites in PA, WV, KY, IN and MI within about 20 miles of the border (pulled 2026-09-11); FRS Ohio state file for brownfields (ACRES), hazardous-waste handlers (RCRAInfo), air and water discharge permits; Ohio EPA landfill inventory (Hosted/Landfills) and DERR cleanup sites for the nearest landfill and the state cleanup sites; Ohio EPA Voluntary Action Program covenants not to sue, environmental covenants and institutional controls (LandUse/DERR_CNS); Ohio EPA licensed solid waste facilities (WasteMgmt/DMWM layer 0); EPA ECHO RCRA hazardous waste handlers with compliance history (rcra_rest_services, September 2026); Ohio EPA hosted layers Scrap_Tire_Drop_Off_Sites (129) and Battery_Drop_off_Sites (275), nearest to the ZIP center; EPA UST Finder (state underground storage tank and leaking-tank release records as of 2018-2019), points inside the ZIP", "links": [ [ "EPA Facility Registry", "https://www.epa.gov/frs" ], [ "EPA Superfund sites", "https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live" ], [ "Ohio EPA cleanup sites", "https://epa.ohio.gov/divisions-and-offices/environmental-response-revitalization" ], [ "EPA UST Finder", "https://www.epa.gov/ust/ust-finder" ], [ "EPA ECHO", "https://echo.epa.gov/" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "v1", "label": "A Superfund NPL site inside the ZIP", "sub": "On, proposed for, or deleted from the National Priorities List", "max": 0.0001 }, { "key": "v2", "label": "Nearest NPL site under 3 miles", "sub": "", "max": 3 }, { "key": "v3", "label": "3 to 8 miles", "sub": "", "max": 8 }, { "key": "v4", "label": "8 to 15 miles", "sub": "", "max": 15 }, { "key": "v5", "label": "15 miles or more", "sub": "No Superfund site nearby", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/env/" }, { "id": "tri", "label": "Toxic releases", "chapter": "land", "question": "How much toxic release comes from local industry?", "blurb": "The Toxics Release Inventory is the yearly report that factories, power plants, mines and other facilities in listed industries must file when they handle more than a threshold of any of about 800 listed chemicals: how many pounds went to the air, to surface water, to land or down an injection well, and how much was shipped elsewhere. The map shows the pounds released on site in 2024 inside each ZIP; the card breaks them out by medium, names the chemicals and facilities, flags carcinogens and PFAS, lists direct discharges to water, and compares with 2020.", "unit": "lb", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "EPA Toxics Release Inventory basic data files, Ohio, reporting years 2020 to 2024 (2024 shown, 2020 for the trend); facilities placed in the ZCTA holding their coordinates; dioxin rows reported in grams left out of pound totals", "links": [ [ "EPA TRI data files", "https://www.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program/tri-basic-data-files-calendar-years-1987-present" ] ], "coverage": 411, "bins": [ { "key": "tr1", "label": "Reports, but no on-site release", "sub": "Chemicals handled, sent off site", "max": 1 }, { "key": "tr2", "label": "Under 1,000 lb a year", "sub": "", "max": 1000 }, { "key": "tr3", "label": "1,000 to 10,000 lb", "sub": "", "max": 10000 }, { "key": "tr4", "label": "10,000 to 100,000 lb", "sub": "A sizeable plant", "max": 100000 }, { "key": "tr5", "label": "100,000 to 1 million lb", "sub": "", "max": 1000000 }, { "key": "tr6", "label": "1 million lb or more", "sub": "Steel, chemicals, power", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/tri/" }, { "id": "dams", "label": "Dams", "chapter": "land", "question": "How many high-hazard dams are nearby?", "blurb": "Dams from the Army Corps of Engineers' National Inventory of Dams: \"high hazard\" is the consequence if a dam failed (people downstream would probably die), not its state of repair. The condition assessment on the card is the separate inspection verdict, and Ohio rates more than a third of its dams poor.", "unit": null, "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams (1,376 Ohio dams, August 2026; 26 Corps levees and dikes counted with their parent dam): high-hazard dams near each ZIP's population-weighted center, with the state's condition assessment", "links": [ [ "National Inventory of Dams", "https://nid.sec.usace.army.mil/" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "da1", "label": "No high-hazard dam within 10 miles", "sub": "", "max": 1 }, { "key": "da2", "label": "1 or 2", "sub": "", "max": 3 }, { "key": "da3", "label": "3 to 5", "sub": "", "max": 6 }, { "key": "da4", "label": "6 to 10", "sub": "Reservoir and lake country", "max": 11 }, { "key": "da5", "label": "11 or more high-hazard dams", "sub": "Akron and the Portage Lakes, then the Columbus and Cincinnati suburbs and hill-country lakes", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/dams/" }, { "id": "disasters", "label": "Disasters", "chapter": "land", "question": "What disasters have hit this ZIP?", "blurb": "Three records of what has actually happened: every tornado track in the Storm Prediction Center's database since 1950 that passes within 5 miles of the ZIP's population center (a track is the straight line from touchdown to lift-off, so a tornado that lifted a mile away counts), every federal disaster or emergency declaration FEMA has issued for the ZIP's county, from Ohio's first in 1956, including statewide ones, and every earthquake of magnitude 2 or more the USGS has cataloged within 25 miles since 1970. Tornado ratings are the Fujita scale before 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after. The card also totals NOAA's Storm Events log for the county since 2016: hail, damaging wind, flash floods, lightning and the rest, with the largest hail, the strongest measured gust and the costliest single event. A county line tallies every tornado, severe thunderstorm, flood, winter storm and heat warning the National Weather Service has issued since 2015. FEMA's mitigation grant history for the county and the properties bought out, elevated or given safe rooms in the ZIP are listed. FEMA's household registrations after each declared disaster show who actually applied for help.", "unit": null, "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database 1950-2025 (tracks within 5 miles of each ZIP's population-weighted center), OpenFEMA disaster declarations by county since 1956, USGS earthquake catalog M2+ since 1970 within 25 miles; NOAA Storm Events database 2016 to 2026, county-based reports (hail, wind, flooding, lightning) by county; National Weather Service watches, warnings and advisories by county since 2015 from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet VTEC archive; OpenFEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance projects and mitigated properties (v4 API, September 2026); OpenFEMA housing assistance registrations by ZIP (owners and renters, v2)", "links": [ [ "NOAA SPC tornado data", "https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/" ], [ "OpenFEMA", "https://www.fema.gov/about/openfema/data-sets" ], [ "USGS earthquakes", "https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/search/" ], [ "NOAA storm events", "https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/" ], [ "IEM warning archive", "https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/vtec/" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "ds1", "label": "No tornado track within 5 miles since 1950", "sub": "", "max": 1 }, { "key": "ds2", "label": "1 or 2 tracks", "sub": "", "max": 3 }, { "key": "ds3", "label": "3 to 5", "sub": "", "max": 6 }, { "key": "ds4", "label": "6 to 10", "sub": "Big-city suburbs and the Dayton area", "max": 11 }, { "key": "ds5", "label": "11 or more", "sub": "The Miami Valley, plus Van Wert and Wapakoneta", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/disasters/" }, { "id": "spills", "label": "Spills", "chapter": "land", "question": "How many spills have been reported here?", "blurb": "Ohio EPA's emergency response office logs every reported release, from diesel out of a wrecked truck and transformer oil off a pole to brine from a well pad and sewage from a broken main, most of them with a location. The map counts the reports inside each ZIP since 2021, about 2,400 a year statewide; the card sorts them by what spilled, names the largest by volume and says how many reached a creek, ditch or storm drain (about one in six). Interstates, rail yards, refineries and the shale counties dominate, and many reports turn out to be a sheen or a few gallons, so the count measures activity and traffic as much as hazard.", "unit": null, "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "Ohio EPA emergency response spill reports (geo.epa.ohio.gov EmergResponse/Spills2_OpenData): cases with a location inside each ZIP, 2021 to date", "links": [ [ "Ohio EPA spills data", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services/EmergResponse/Spills2_OpenData/MapServer" ], [ "Ohio EPA Office of Emergency Response", "https://epa.ohio.gov/divisions-and-offices/emergency-response/office-of-emergency-response" ] ], "coverage": 1055, "bins": [ { "key": "sl1", "label": "No spill reported since 2021", "sub": "No report placed inside this ZIP", "max": 1 }, { "key": "sl2", "label": "1 to 4 reports", "sub": "", "max": 5 }, { "key": "sl3", "label": "5 to 14", "sub": "A town with a highway or a rail line", "max": 15 }, { "key": "sl4", "label": "15 to 39", "sub": "", "max": 40 }, { "key": "sl5", "label": "40 or more", "sub": "Interchanges, refineries, rail yards, well pads", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/spills/" }, { "id": "ogwells", "label": "Oil and gas wells", "chapter": "land", "question": "How many oil and gas wells are here?", "blurb": "Wells from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' public inventory of the 242,000 wells in its database (records before permitting began are incomplete, and estimates of wells ever drilled in Ohio run to 275,000). The map counts wells inside the ZIP; the card splits them into producing, plugged, horizontal shale (Utica and Marcellus), injection and orphan-program wells, and names the largest active operators.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "ODNR Division of Oil and Gas Resources public well inventory (242,324 well heads, fetched 2026-09-08): wells inside each ZIP by status, horizontal shale wells, injection wells, orphan-program wells", "links": [ [ "ODNR oil and gas", "https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/safety-conservation/about-odnr/oil-gas" ], [ "ODNR GIS services", "https://gis.ohiodnr.gov/arcgis/rest/services" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "og1", "label": "No oil or gas well in the ZIP", "sub": "Southwest Ohio and the big-city cores", "max": 1 }, { "key": "og2", "label": "1 to 10 wells", "sub": "", "max": 11 }, { "key": "og3", "label": "11 to 50", "sub": "", "max": 51 }, { "key": "og4", "label": "51 to 200", "sub": "The old Clinton sandstone fields", "max": 201 }, { "key": "og5", "label": "More than 200 wells", "sub": "Eastern Ohio oil and gas country", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/ogwells/" }, { "id": "mines", "label": "Abandoned mines", "chapter": "land", "question": "Is this ZIP undermined by old mining?", "blurb": "Mines are ODNR's maps of underground coal and mineral mines abandoned before 1977, the ones that can subside or leak acid water. The map shows the share of a ZIP's land above one, and \"partly mapped\" means the extent is inferred.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "ODNR Mines of Ohio: abandoned underground coal and industrial-mineral mines mapped before 1977 (5,116 polygons), overlaid on ZCTA land in Albers equal-area; ODNR Division of Geological Survey industrial minerals locations, 2015 (active quarries, sand and gravel pits, clay and salt operations, and surface and underground coal mines)", "links": [ [ "ODNR mines of Ohio", "https://gis.ohiodnr.gov/arcgis/rest/services/MRM_Services/MinesOfOhio/MapServer" ], [ "ODNR Geological Survey", "https://ohiodnr.gov/discover-and-learn/safety-conservation/about-odnr/geologic-survey" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "mn1", "label": "No mapped underground mine", "sub": "Most of Ohio", "max": 5e-05 }, { "key": "mn2", "label": "Under 1% of the land undermined", "sub": "", "max": 0.01 }, { "key": "mn3", "label": "1 to 5%", "sub": "", "max": 0.05 }, { "key": "mn4", "label": "5 to 15%", "sub": "Old coal towns", "max": 0.15 }, { "key": "mn5", "label": "15% or more of the land", "sub": "The Hocking Valley and Tuscarawas coalfields", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/mines/" }, { "id": "soils", "label": "Soils", "chapter": "land", "question": "How suitable is the soil for a septic system?", "blurb": "The USDA soil survey (SSURGO) map unit under each ZIP's population-weighted center, fetched from Soil Data Access: its dominant soil, drainage class, whether it is hydric (wet enough to have formed under water), farmland class, flooding and ponding frequency, and two engineering ratings that decide what a rural lot can do: Ohio's own rating for septic leach fields and the national rating for houses with basements. A single point stands for the whole ZIP, so treat it as the typical soil, not the soil under any one lot; Ohio's clay till plains rate \"very limited\" for septic almost everywhere, which is why county health departments require engineered systems. The card ends with the elevation of the ZIP's population center from the Copernicus global elevation model.", "unit": null, "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access: the soil map unit under each ZIP's population-weighted center with its dominant component, drainage, hydric and farmland class, flooding, and the Ohio septic and basement interpretation ratings; Copernicus GLO-90 elevation model via Open-Meteo at the ZIP center", "links": [ [ "USDA Soil Data Access", "https://sdmdataaccess.sc.egov.usda.gov/" ], [ "Web Soil Survey", "https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/" ], [ "Open-Meteo elevation", "https://open-meteo.com/en/docs/elevation-api" ] ], "coverage": 1228, "bins": [ { "key": "so1", "label": "Septic: not limited", "sub": "Well-drained loams; a conventional leach field works", "max": 0.01 }, { "key": "so2", "label": "Somewhat limited", "sub": "Slow water or a seasonal water table; needs design", "max": 1 }, { "key": "so3", "label": "Very limited", "sub": "Clay till or shallow bedrock; engineered systems", "max": 1.5 }, { "key": "so4", "label": "Very limited and hydric", "sub": "Wet soils that formed under water; drainage tile country", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/soils/" }, { "id": "parks", "label": "Parks", "chapter": "land", "question": "How much parkland is here?", "blurb": "The USGS Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, Ohio package): every park, forest, wildlife area, reservoir recreation area and preserve whose owner reports open public access, from city parks to Wayne National Forest, with proclamation boundaries, closed easements, farmland easements and military land left out. The map shows the share of each ZIP's land inside those areas; the card lists the largest units by acres inside the ZIP and the straight-line distance to the nearest state park run by the Department of Natural Resources. PAD-US inherits local inventories of uneven quality, so a golf course or a school field can appear as a park and a new metropark can be missing. ODNR's facility layers add the nearest boat ramp, fishing access, swim area and campground on state lands. ODNR's statewide trails inventory lists the named trails and state bike routes crossing the ZIP. The USGS Protected Areas Database gives the share of the ZIP that is public or permanently protected land, by manager.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_better", "kind": "metric", "source": "USGS Protected Areas Database 4.1 (Ohio state package, flattened combined layer, open-access fee, designation and easement polygons plus the six ODNR state parks PAD-US codes closed by default: Buckeye Lake, Forked Run, Hueston Woods, Lake Hope, Lake Logan, Tar Hollow); overlay on ZCTA polygons in Albers equal-area; nearest ODNR state park (state-park polygons of 50 acres or more, or an ODNR facility point where PAD-US lacks the park) from each ZIP's population-weighted center; ODNR facility point layers (boat ramps, fishing access, swim areas and campgrounds on state parks, wildlife areas and forests); ODNR Office of Coastal Management Lake Erie public access inventory (616 sites, swim-beach flag); ODNR statewide trails and state bike routes (OIT_Services/ODNR_Trails); USGS Protected Areas Database 4.1 fee-managed lands (Fee_Managers_PADUS) by ZIP overlay", "links": [ [ "USGS PAD-US", "https://www.usgs.gov/programs/gap-analysis-project/science/pad-us-data-overview" ], [ "ODNR GIS services", "https://gis.ohiodnr.gov/arcgis/rest/services" ] ], "coverage": 1233, "bins": [ { "key": "n1", "label": "Under 0.5% of the land", "sub": "No park of any size, or only a pocket park", "max": 0.005 }, { "key": "n2", "label": "0.5 to 2%", "sub": "A few neighbourhood parks", "max": 0.02 }, { "key": "n3", "label": "2 to 5%", "sub": "", "max": 0.05 }, { "key": "n4", "label": "5 to 15%", "sub": "A metropark or reservoir nearby", "max": 0.15 }, { "key": "n5", "label": "15% or more public land", "sub": "State forests, wildlife areas and Wayne National Forest", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/parks/" }, { "id": "wetlands", "label": "Wetlands", "chapter": "land", "question": "How much wetland is left?", "blurb": "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wetlands Inventory for Ohio, mapped from aerial photographs: freshwater marshes (emergent), swamps (forested and shrub) and ponds, clipped to each ZIP, with open lakes and river channels left out. Ohio drained about 90 percent of its original wetlands, so what remains is concentrated in the northwest's Great Black Swamp remnants, the Lake Erie marshes and the glacial kettles of the northeast. Mapped wetlands carry federal and state permit requirements for filling, and they are where the water table sits at the surface. Ohio EPA's vernal pool screening, high-quality wetland list and mitigation sites are noted. Ohio EPA's own wetland assessments add the nearest studied wetland with its ORAM and plant community scores. Where USGS topographic maps marked marsh or swamp, the card gives those acres too.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_better", "kind": "metric", "source": "USFWS National Wetlands Inventory, Ohio geodatabase (imagery mostly 2004 to 2007, Lake Erie basin 2021), freshwater wetlands and ponds clipped to each ZIP (lakes and rivers excluded); Ohio EPA potential high-quality vernal pools, high-quality wetland sites and stream and wetland mitigation sites; Ohio EPA Wetland Ecology Group sampling sites with ORAM and VIBI scores; Ohio EPA hydro/Wetlands_USGSTopoMaps (wetland symbols digitized from USGS 7.5-minute topographic maps), clipped to the ZIP", "links": [ [ "USFWS wetlands inventory", "https://www.fws.gov/program/national-wetlands-inventory" ], [ "Ohio EPA GIS services", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services" ] ], "coverage": 1233, "bins": [ { "key": "wl1", "label": "Under 1% of the land", "sub": "Drained farmland and built-up ground", "max": 0.01 }, { "key": "wl2", "label": "1 to 3%", "sub": "", "max": 0.03 }, { "key": "wl3", "label": "3 to 7%", "sub": "", "max": 0.07 }, { "key": "wl4", "label": "7 to 15%", "sub": "Kettle country and river bottoms", "max": 0.15 }, { "key": "wl5", "label": "15% or more wetland", "sub": "The Lake Erie marshes and the Black Swamp remnants", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/wetlands/" }, { "id": "landcover", "label": "Land cover", "chapter": "land", "question": "How developed is the land?", "blurb": "The National Land Cover Database classifies every 30 metre pixel of the country from Landsat imagery: four intensities of developed land, forest, cropland, pasture, grass and shrub, water, wetland and barren ground, with companion layers for percent impervious surface and tree canopy. The map shows the developed share of each ZIP's land; the card gives the full breakdown, the impervious share (roofs and pavement that shed rain straight into storm drains and streams) and the tree canopy. The USDA Cropland Data Layer splits the cropland into corn, soybeans, wheat and hay. A last row reaches back before settlement: what the original land surveys of the early 1800s recorded on the same ground, from ODNR's mapping of the surveyors' notes, including how much was swamp, marsh or prairie.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "National Land Cover Database 2021 (USGS and the MRLC consortium): land cover, percent impervious surface and tree canopy at 30 m, pulled as WCS tiles from mrlc.gov and summarised over each ZCTA boundary; USDA NASS Cropland Data Layer 2025 (30 m) summarised over the ZIP; ODNR Division of Natural Areas and Preserves pre-settlement vegetation mapping from the original land surveys (DNAP_Services/Pre_Settlement_Vegetation_Mapping layer 4), clipped to the ZIP", "links": [ [ "NLCD", "https://www.mrlc.gov/" ], [ "USDA Cropland Data Layer", "https://www.nass.usda.gov/Research_and_Science/Cropland/SARS1a.php" ], [ "ODNR pre-settlement vegetation", "https://gis.ohiodnr.gov/arcgis/rest/services/DNAP_Services/Pre_Settlement_Vegetation_Mapping/MapServer" ] ], "coverage": 1233, "bins": [ { "key": "lc1", "label": "Under 5% developed", "sub": "Farm and forest country", "max": 5 }, { "key": "lc2", "label": "5% to 15%", "sub": "Villages and crossroads", "max": 15 }, { "key": "lc3", "label": "15% to 40%", "sub": "Small towns and the suburban edge", "max": 40 }, { "key": "lc4", "label": "40% to 75%", "sub": "Suburbs", "max": 75 }, { "key": "lc5", "label": "75% or more", "sub": "Cities and inner suburbs", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/landcover/" }, { "id": "people", "label": "People", "chapter": "people", "question": "What is the education level here?", "blurb": "Census American Community Survey five-year estimates by ZIP Code Tabulation Area: the share of adults 25 and over with a bachelor's degree or higher on the map, with graduate degrees, high school or less, race and Hispanic origin, the foreign-born share and veterans on the card. Five-year survey averages centered on 2022; small ZIPs carry wide margins of error. The card ends with the county's migration from IRS address changes: how many people moved in and out between returns filed in 2022 and 2023 (tax years 2021 and 2022) and where they came from and went. The county growth row gives the Census Bureau's 2025 estimate against the 2020 count, with births, deaths and migration. A second row traces the county's population back to 1900 through the decennial censuses and names its peak. Two more rows give the county's USDA rural-urban classification and the tax-exempt organizations registered in the ZIP. USDA's rural-urban commuting area code says whether the ZIP is a metro core, a commuter suburb, a small town or open country. The 2020 Census count of people living in group quarters (college housing, nursing facilities, prisons and jails, shelters) is summed from blocks to the ZIP. Household size, people living alone, married couples, poverty by age and the Gini index come from the same survey. The most often reported ancestries, who moved in the past year and households with limited English come from the same survey. The largest countries of birth among the foreign-born come from the same survey. The poverty row closes with the county's 2024 small-area estimate and median household income. A household-mix row gives homes with children, homes with seniors, seniors living alone and marital status.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_better", "kind": "metric", "source": "Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year by ZCTA: educational attainment (B15003), race and Hispanic origin (B03002), nativity (B05002), veterans (B21001); IRS Statistics of Income county migration flows 2022 to 2023 for the county; Census Bureau county population estimates, vintage 2025 (components of change); decennial county counts 1900 to 1990 from the Census Bureau report Population of States and Counties of the United States 1790 to 1990, 2000 and 2010 counts from the intercensal estimates file; IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File for Ohio (active organizations by ZIP); USDA ERS Rural-Urban Continuum Codes 2023 for the county; USDA ERS rural-urban commuting area codes by ZIP, 2020 edition; 2020 Census PL 94-171 group quarters population by block (table P5), summed to the ZIP; B25010 household size, B11001 household type, B17001 poverty by age, B19083 Gini index; B04006 ancestry, B07003 residence a year earlier, C16002 limited English households; B05006 place of birth of the foreign-born; Census SAIPE 2024 county poverty and median household income; B11005 and B11007 households with children or seniors, B12001 marital status", "links": [ [ "Census ACS", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs" ], [ "Census population estimates", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest.html" ], [ "IRS migration data", "https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-migration-data" ], [ "USDA ERS county codes", "https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/rural-urban-continuum-codes" ], [ "USDA ERS commuting area codes", "https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/rural-urban-commuting-area-codes" ], [ "2020 Census redistricting data", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/about/rdo/summary-files.html" ], [ "Census SAIPE", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/saipe.html" ], [ "IRS exempt organizations", "https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organizations-business-master-file-extract-eo-bmf" ] ], "coverage": 1213, "bins": [ { "key": "pe1", "label": "Under 15% with a bachelor's degree", "sub": "Rural and mill-town Ohio", "max": 15 }, { "key": "pe2", "label": "15 to 25%", "sub": "", "max": 25 }, { "key": "pe3", "label": "25 to 40%", "sub": "Around the state average of 31%", "max": 40 }, { "key": "pe4", "label": "40 to 55%", "sub": "", "max": 55 }, { "key": "pe5", "label": "55% or more", "sub": "University towns and the best-off suburbs", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/people/" }, { "id": "jobs", "label": "Jobs", "chapter": "people", "question": "Are there jobs located here?", "blurb": "The Census Bureau's LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics for 2023, built from state unemployment-insurance records: every job is tied to a workplace block and a home block. The map shows jobs located in the ZIP per employed resident, so a downtown or an industrial park reads high and a bedroom suburb low; the card lists the largest industries, the share of jobs paying over $3,333 a month, and where the ZIP's residents actually work. The self-employed, the military, the Postal Service and most farm work are not covered, and federal civilian jobs, added from OPM records, are only partly counted. ZIP Business Patterns adds the count of business establishments, their employees and payroll, and the most common sectors. OSHA's enforcement records add the workplace inspections in the ZIP since 2020, what triggered them, and the worker deaths and hospitalisations its investigators looked into since 2015. A county line gives the BLS unemployment rate for the latest month and the average weekly wage and largest private sectors from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. USDA's county typology says whether the county leans on manufacturing, government or mining and which distress flags it carries. Opportunity Zone tracts are noted. Labor force participation and the unemployment rate of residents 16 and over come from the Census American Community Survey, averaged over 2020 to 2024. Residents' most common occupations and the self-employed and government shares are Census survey figures.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "Census LEHD LODES 8, 2023, all jobs: workplace and residence counts by census block summed into ZCTAs (workplace-only blocks by block-group or tract majority), origin-destination flows for where residents work; Census ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023 (establishments, employees, payroll, sectors); OSHA enforcement data (inspections since 2020, accident investigations since 2015) from the Labor Department open data catalog, September 2026, by site ZIP; BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics (county, latest month) and Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (county, 2026 Q1) through the BLS public API and open data files; USAspending federal awards by county of performance, fiscal 2025 (contracts, grants, loans, direct payments); BEA regional accounts, county GDP (CAGDP1) and per capita personal income (CAINC1), 2024; USDA ERS county typology codes, 2015 edition; CDFI Fund list of designated Qualified Opportunity Zones (2018), carried from 2010 to 2020 tracts with the Census relationship file; Census ACS 2020-2024 B23025 labor force by ZCTA; C24010 occupations and B24080 class of worker", "links": [ [ "Census LEHD", "https://lehd.ces.census.gov/data/" ], [ "BLS local unemployment", "https://www.bls.gov/lau/" ], [ "BLS QCEW", "https://www.bls.gov/cew/" ], [ "BEA county GDP", "https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gdp-county-metro-and-other-areas" ], [ "USAspending", "https://www.usaspending.gov/" ], [ "OSHA enforcement data", "https://enforcedata.dol.gov/" ], [ "Census ZIP Business Patterns", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html" ], [ "Census ACS", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs" ], [ "USDA ERS county typology", "https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/county-typology-codes" ], [ "CDFI Fund Opportunity Zones", "https://www.cdfifund.gov/opportunity-zones" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "jb1", "label": "Under 0.25 jobs per employed resident", "sub": "Bedroom communities and farm townships", "max": 0.25 }, { "key": "jb2", "label": "0.25 to 0.6", "sub": "", "max": 0.6 }, { "key": "jb3", "label": "0.6 to 1", "sub": "Roughly as many jobs as workers", "max": 1 }, { "key": "jb4", "label": "1 to 2", "sub": "Town centers and office corridors", "max": 2 }, { "key": "jb5", "label": "2 or more", "sub": "Downtowns, hospitals, plants and warehouses", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/jobs/" }, { "id": "mobility", "label": "Upward mobility", "chapter": "people", "question": "How far can a child born poor here rise?", "blurb": "The Opportunity Atlas followed twenty million Americans born between 1978 and 1983 from the neighbourhood they grew up in to their tax returns in their mid-thirties. For each census tract it reports the average income rank reached by children whose parents were at the 25th percentile, roughly a household making $27,000 in today's money. The map shows that rank, population-weighted to each ZIP: 50 means those children reached the national middle, 30 that they stayed near the bottom. The card adds the share of those children who were in jail or prison on census day 2010. Outcomes are for the people who grew up there thirty years ago, not for today's children, and tracts that split since 2010 are left out.", "unit": "percentile", "polarity": "higher_better", "kind": "metric", "source": "Opportunity Atlas (Chetty, Friedman, Hendren, Jones and Porter, Census Bureau): tract outcomes for children born 1978 to 1983, population-weighted to ZIPs through 2020 census blocks", "links": [ [ "Opportunity Atlas", "https://www.opportunityatlas.org/" ], [ "Opportunity Insights data", "https://opportunityinsights.org/data/" ] ], "coverage": 1128, "bins": [ { "key": "mo1", "label": "Below the 35th percentile", "sub": "Children from low-income families stayed near the bottom", "max": 35 }, { "key": "mo2", "label": "35th to 40th", "sub": "", "max": 40 }, { "key": "mo3", "label": "40th to 45th", "sub": "Around the Ohio median of 42", "max": 45 }, { "key": "mo4", "label": "45th to 50th", "sub": "", "max": 50 }, { "key": "mo5", "label": "50th percentile or higher", "sub": "Low-income children reached the national middle", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/mobility/" }, { "id": "svi", "label": "Social vulnerability", "chapter": "people", "question": "How socially vulnerable is this ZIP?", "blurb": "The CDC's Social Vulnerability Index scores every census tract on sixteen Census measures of how hard a disaster or an outbreak would hit its people: poverty, unemployment, housing cost burden, education and health insurance; age, disability and single-parent households; language and minority status; and crowded housing, mobile homes, group quarters and households without a vehicle. The map shows each ZIP's population-weighted percentile among Ohio tracts, from the least vulnerable fifth to the most; the card breaks the score into its four themes. Emergency planners use it to decide where to send help first; it says nothing about the water.", "unit": "percentile", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index 2022 by census tract (percentile ranks among Ohio tracts), population-weighted to ZIPs through 2020 census blocks", "links": [ [ "CDC/ATSDR SVI", "https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/place-health/php/svi/index.html" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "sv1", "label": "Average tract rank in Ohio's least vulnerable fifth", "sub": "Well-off, insured, mobile", "max": 20 }, { "key": "sv2", "label": "20th to 40th percentile", "sub": "", "max": 40 }, { "key": "sv3", "label": "40th to 60th", "sub": "Around the Ohio middle", "max": 60 }, { "key": "sv4", "label": "60th to 80th", "sub": "", "max": 80 }, { "key": "sv5", "label": "Average tract rank in the most vulnerable fifth", "sub": "Poverty, disability, no car, crowded housing", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/svi/" }, { "id": "health", "label": "Health", "chapter": "people", "question": "How healthy are residents here?", "blurb": "CDC PLACES model-based estimates of adult health for every ZIP: self-rated health, obesity, diabetes, smoking, depression, insurance, disability and more. The county paragraph adds County Health Rankings 2025, which places every U.S. county in a health group and reports premature death, access to doctors, dentists and mental health providers, preventable hospital stays, injury, suicide and infant deaths, teen births, child poverty, air quality and whether a water system in the county had a health-based violation, plus the CDC's provisional count of drug overdose deaths for the latest 12 months. NCI State Cancer Profiles add the county's cancer incidence and death rates against Ohio and the nation. Further PLACES measures cover asthma, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, blood pressure control and the social needs the survey now asks about. Census survey rows give the uninsured, Medicaid and employer-coverage shares and the share of residents with a disability. A county line gives Medicare enrollment, the Medicare Advantage share and dual Medicaid enrollment from CMS. The Nearest hospital card counts the physicians, dentists, pharmacies, mental health professionals and facilities registered to practice addresses in the ZIP (NPPES).", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "CDC PLACES 2025 release, ZCTA model-based estimates of adult health (BRFSS 2023, ACS): fair or poor health, obesity, diabetes, smoking, depression, uninsured and more; County Health Rankings 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute) county measures; CDC NCHS provisional county drug overdose deaths, 12-month ending counts, and the CDC VSRR provisional state count for the statewide figure; HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area designations (primary care, dental, mental health; tract and county components weighted by 2020 block population); NCI State Cancer Profiles county incidence 2018-2022 and mortality 2019-2023; PLACES 2025 ZCTA measures for asthma, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, blood pressure medication, cholesterol screening, housing insecurity, transportation, emotional support and utility shut-off threats; Census ACS 2020-2024 B27010 health insurance and B18101 disability; CMS Medicare Monthly Enrollment by county, 2025", "links": [ [ "CDC PLACES", "https://www.cdc.gov/places/" ], [ "County Health Rankings", "https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/" ], [ "CDC overdose data", "https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm" ], [ "NCI cancer profiles", "https://statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov/" ], [ "HRSA data", "https://data.hrsa.gov/" ] ], "coverage": 1204, "bins": [ { "key": "hh1", "label": "Under 12% in fair or poor health", "sub": "Healthiest suburbs", "max": 12 }, { "key": "hh2", "label": "12 to 16%", "sub": "", "max": 16 }, { "key": "hh3", "label": "16 to 20%", "sub": "", "max": 20 }, { "key": "hh4", "label": "20 to 25%", "sub": "", "max": 25 }, { "key": "hh5", "label": "25% or more", "sub": "Appalachian counties and inner-city neighbourhoods", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/health/" }, { "id": "lifeexp", "label": "Life expectancy", "chapter": "people", "question": "How long do residents here live?", "blurb": "The CDC's small-area life expectancy project estimated life expectancy at birth for every census tract from deaths in 2010 to 2015 and the 2010 census; the map weights the 2010 tracts into each ZIP by its 2020 block population and the card shows the spread across the ZIP's tracts. It is the average number of years a newborn would live if the tract's death rates of that period held for life, so a poor inner-city ZIP and a wealthy suburb ten miles apart can differ by fifteen years. The estimates are a decade old and carry standard errors of one to two years in small tracts.", "unit": "years", "polarity": "higher_better", "kind": "metric", "source": "CDC/NCHS U.S. Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP, deaths 2010-2015, 2010 census tracts) weighted into ZIPs by 2020 block population", "links": [ [ "CDC USALEEP", "https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/usaleep/usaleep.html" ] ], "coverage": 1214, "bins": [ { "key": "le1", "label": "Under 73 years", "sub": "The lowest in Ohio: Appalachian towns and inner-city neighbourhoods", "max": 73 }, { "key": "le2", "label": "73 to 76", "sub": "", "max": 76 }, { "key": "le3", "label": "76 to 79", "sub": "Around the Ohio average", "max": 79 }, { "key": "le4", "label": "79 to 82", "sub": "", "max": 82 }, { "key": "le5", "label": "82 years or more", "sub": "The best-off suburbs", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/lifeexp/" }, { "id": "hospital", "label": "Hospitals", "chapter": "people", "question": "How far is the nearest hospital?", "blurb": "Hospitals from the federal HIFLD inventory: the distance is a straight line from the ZIP's population-weighted center to the nearest open general or critical-access hospital, and the inventory can lag closures and mergers.", "unit": "mi", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "CMS Timely and Effective Care measure OP_18b (median emergency department time, October 2024 to September 2025); Veterans Health Administration medical facilities (HIFLD copy of the VA station list, S_STATE OH); HRSA health center service delivery sites (federally qualified health centers and look-alikes, active Ohio sites, September 2026); CMS dialysis facility list (September 2026) geocoded with the Census batch geocoder; HIFLD hospitals inventory via FEMA, open general and critical-access hospitals, with Medicare Care Compare overall star ratings and emergency-service flags matched by name and address (closed hospitals the inventory still lists, and freestanding emergency and long-term care sites, left out); CMS HCAHPS patient survey (October 2024 to September 2025) and Complications and Deaths (30-day death rates July 2022 to June 2025, patient-safety composite July 2022 to June 2024), joined by Medicare facility ID; NPPES NPI registry, August 2026 monthly file, active providers by practice ZIP; distance from each ZIP's population-weighted center", "links": [ [ "CMS Care Compare data", "https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/" ], [ "HIFLD", "https://hifld-geoplatform.hub.arcgis.com/" ], [ "HRSA data", "https://data.hrsa.gov/" ], [ "CMS NPI files", "https://download.cms.gov/nppes/NPI_Files.html" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "h1", "label": "Under 3 miles", "sub": "A general hospital in the neighbourhood", "max": 3 }, { "key": "h2", "label": "3 to 6 miles", "sub": "", "max": 6 }, { "key": "h3", "label": "6 to 10 miles", "sub": "", "max": 10 }, { "key": "h4", "label": "10 to 20 miles", "sub": "A drive across the county", "max": 20 }, { "key": "h5", "label": "20 miles or more", "sub": "Farthest from emergency care", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/hospital/" }, { "id": "nursing", "label": "Nursing homes", "chapter": "people", "question": "How far is the nearest nursing home?", "blurb": "Nursing homes from Medicare's Care Compare provider file (every Medicare- or Medicaid-certified home, with its overall, health-inspection and staffing star ratings), geocoded with the Census Bureau's address geocoder; the 67 addresses it could not place sit at their ZIP's center and are marked approximate. Distance is straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center.", "unit": "mi", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "CMS Care Compare nursing home provider file (922 Ohio homes), addresses geocoded with the Census Bureau batch geocoder (67 unmatched placed at their ZIP center); CMS penalties file (fines and payment denials since 2023, matched by name and ZIP); straight-line miles from each ZIP's population-weighted center", "links": [ [ "CMS Care Compare data", "https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "j1", "label": "Under 1 mile", "sub": "A certified nursing home in the neighbourhood", "max": 1 }, { "key": "j2", "label": "1 to 3 miles", "sub": "", "max": 3 }, { "key": "j3", "label": "3 to 6 miles", "sub": "", "max": 6 }, { "key": "j4", "label": "6 to 12 miles", "sub": "A drive to the county seat", "max": 12 }, { "key": "j5", "label": "12 miles or more", "sub": "Farthest from skilled nursing care", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/nursing/" }, { "id": "crime", "label": "Crime", "chapter": "people", "question": "How much crime is reported here?", "blurb": "The FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System collects every offense Ohio police agencies record. The map shows violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) per 1,000 residents in 2024 for the police department of each ZIP's largest local government (city, village or township), or the county sheriff where that government has no police of its own; a ZIP whose department sent the FBI less than six months of 2024 stays grey. The card adds property crime, drugs, weapons and vandalism, how many months the agency reported, and the statewide rates for comparison. A rate belongs to the whole agency's territory, so a big city's number covers its calm neighbourhoods and its rough ones alike.", "unit": "per 1,000 residents", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "FBI Crime Data Explorer NIBRS incident files for Ohio, 2024 (2023 file for the trend): Group A offenses counted per reporting agency, offenses against persons counted per victim, with each ZIP assigned the police department of its largest local government (city, village or township) when that government has one of its own, a rate only where it has at least six months of 2024 on file (annualized from fewer than 12), otherwise the sheriff of the ZIP's county", "links": [ [ "FBI Crime Data Explorer", "https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/" ], [ "USGS structures service", "https://carto.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/structures/MapServer" ] ], "coverage": 1061, "bins": [ { "key": "cr1", "label": "Under 1 violent offense per 1,000", "sub": "Most sheriffs and suburbs", "max": 1 }, { "key": "cr2", "label": "1 to 2.5", "sub": "", "max": 2.5 }, { "key": "cr3", "label": "2.5 to 5", "sub": "Around the Ohio average of about 3", "max": 5 }, { "key": "cr4", "label": "5 to 10", "sub": "Cincinnati, Akron, Youngstown, Lima", "max": 10 }, { "key": "cr5", "label": "10 or more", "sub": "Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton, Canton, Springfield", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/crime/" }, { "id": "police", "label": "Police", "chapter": "people", "question": "How far is the nearest police station?", "blurb": "Police stations and post offices from the USGS National Map structures inventory, at straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center.", "unit": "mi", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "USGS National Map structures: police stations (773 Ohio points: the inventory's 731 less 3 closed or duplicate records, with 4 wrong names corrected, plus 45 departments and sheriff's offices it lacks, placed from OpenStreetMap or the Census Bureau geocoder in September 2026) and post offices (1,130 Ohio points); straight-line miles from each ZIP's population-weighted center", "links": [ [ "USGS structures service", "https://carto.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/structures/MapServer" ], [ "OpenStreetMap", "https://www.openstreetmap.org/" ], [ "Census Bureau geocoder", "https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "o1", "label": "Under 1 mile", "sub": "A police station in the neighbourhood", "max": 1 }, { "key": "o2", "label": "1 to 2 miles", "sub": "", "max": 2 }, { "key": "o3", "label": "2 to 4 miles", "sub": "", "max": 4 }, { "key": "o4", "label": "4 to 7 miles", "sub": "Sheriff country", "max": 7 }, { "key": "o5", "label": "7 miles or more", "sub": "Farthest from a station", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/police/" }, { "id": "fire", "label": "Fire and EMS", "chapter": "people", "question": "How far is the nearest fire station?", "blurb": "Fire and EMS stations from the USGS National Map structures inventory (1,772 Ohio stations after removing three duplicate records and checking Columbus- and Cleveland-area stations against the cities' own station lists, plus the Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania stations near the state line). Distance is straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center, so a station across a river may be nearer by air than by road.", "unit": "mi", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "USGS National Map structures inventory (fire and EMS stations; most Ohio records last updated 2019 to 2022): 1,772 Ohio stations after removing duplicate records and checking Columbus- and Cleveland-area stations against the cities' station lists (September 2026), plus 402 Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania stations near the state line; straight-line miles from each ZIP's population-weighted center", "links": [ [ "USGS structures service", "https://carto.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/structures/MapServer" ], [ "Columbus fire stations", "https://www.columbus.gov/Services/Public-Safety/Fire/Find-a-Fire-Station" ], [ "Cleveland fire stations", "https://www.clevelandohio.gov/city-hall/departments/public-safety/divisions/fire/fire-stations" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "i1", "label": "Under 1 mile", "sub": "A station in the neighbourhood", "max": 1 }, { "key": "i2", "label": "1 to 2 miles", "sub": "", "max": 2 }, { "key": "i3", "label": "2 to 3 miles", "sub": "", "max": 3 }, { "key": "i4", "label": "3 to 5 miles", "sub": "Volunteer-department country", "max": 5 }, { "key": "i5", "label": "5 miles or more", "sub": "Longest response distances", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/fire/" }, { "id": "library", "label": "Libraries", "chapter": "people", "question": "How far is the nearest library?", "blurb": "Public library buildings from the Institute of Museum and Library Services' Public Libraries Survey for fiscal 2024 (central libraries and branches, bookmobile stops and outreach units excluded), with each system's hours, visits and budget. Distance is straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center.", "unit": "mi", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "IMLS Public Libraries Survey FY2024 outlet and system files (720 open Ohio central libraries and branches of 251 systems, plus 62 bookmobiles); straight-line miles from each ZIP's population-weighted center; IMLS Museum Data Files 2018 (museums, historical societies, gardens, zoos with coordinates), 1,214 Ohio entries", "links": [ [ "IMLS Public Libraries Survey", "https://www.imls.gov/research-evaluation/surveys/public-libraries-survey-pls" ], [ "IMLS Museum Data Files", "https://www.imls.gov/research-evaluation/data-collection/museum-data-files" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "y1", "label": "Under 1 mile", "sub": "A library in walking distance", "max": 1 }, { "key": "y2", "label": "1 to 2 miles", "sub": "", "max": 2 }, { "key": "y3", "label": "2 to 4 miles", "sub": "", "max": 4 }, { "key": "y4", "label": "4 to 7 miles", "sub": "", "max": 7 }, { "key": "y5", "label": "7 miles or more", "sub": "Farthest from a public library", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/library/" }, { "id": "food", "label": "Groceries", "chapter": "people", "question": "Is this ZIP close to a grocery store?", "blurb": "USDA's Food Access Research Atlas 2019 Large Retailer Access Map (ERS's name for the file since July 2026; on 2010 census tracts, using a 2019 supermarket list). A tract is flagged low-income and low-access when its poverty rate is high or incomes low and a large share of residents live more than 1 mile from a supermarket in an urban area or 10 miles in a rural one; the map shows the share of a ZIP's residents in flagged tracts, weighted by 2020 census block population. Distance shares are on the card. Dollar stores and small groceries do not count as supermarkets. USDA's current SNAP retailer list counts the supermarkets, grocers and convenience stores inside the ZIP and finds the nearest supermarket, superstore or grocery store, including stores just across the state line. The shares of households without a vehicle and of households that received SNAP in the past year come from the Census survey.", "unit": "%", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "USDA Food Access Research Atlas 2019 Large Retailer Access Map (2010 tracts, ERS's name for the file since July 2026) weighted by 2020 block population: distance to the nearest supermarket and low-income low-access flags; Census ACS 2020-2024 B25044 households without a vehicle; USDA Food and Nutrition Service SNAP retailer locations, 2026, counting stores in PA, WV, KY, IN and MI within about 25 miles of Ohio for the nearest store and the 3-mile figure; Census ACS 2020-2024 B22003 SNAP households", "links": [ [ "USDA ERS Large Retailer Access Map", "https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas" ], [ "USDA SNAP retailers", "https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/retailer-locator" ], [ "Census ACS", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "d1", "label": "No residents in a flagged tract", "sub": "USDA low-income, low-access flag (1 mile urban, 10 rural)", "max": 0.05 }, { "key": "d2", "label": "Under 10% of residents", "sub": "", "max": 10 }, { "key": "d3", "label": "10 to 33%", "sub": "", "max": 33 }, { "key": "d4", "label": "33 to 66%", "sub": "", "max": 66 }, { "key": "d5", "label": "Two thirds or more", "sub": "Whole towns and neighbourhoods without a supermarket", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/food/" }, { "id": "history", "label": "Local history", "chapter": "civic", "question": "How did this place begin?", "blurb": "Colors each ZIP by the year the place most of its residents live in was first settled or platted, and the History card tells that place's story: the Native nations and sites recorded there and in its county, how the town began and got its name, a dated timeline, stories, photographs and the county's own history, with a statewide note on Ohio's peoples, earthworks and treaties. The research runs county by county outward from Franklin County; Sonnet and Opus research agents write one file per municipality and township from Wikipedia, the 1880s county histories on archive.org, Ohio History Connection, National Register listings, Ohio historical markers and local historical societies, and every claim carries the page it came from. Photographs are public domain or Creative Commons, each with its credit and licence. The files load on demand, so the card takes a moment the first time a county is opened.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "Local history researched from Wikipedia, the 1880 county histories on archive.org, Ohio History Connection, National Register listings, Ohio historical markers, local historical societies and Wikimedia Commons, one file per municipality and township, loaded on demand; Native American history per county and statewide from the same sources and the nations' own histories", "links": [ [ "Ohio History Connection", "https://www.ohiohistory.org/" ], [ "Internet Archive (county histories)", "https://archive.org/" ], [ "Wikimedia Commons", "https://commons.wikimedia.org/" ], [ "Remarkable Ohio (historical markers)", "https://remarkableohio.org/" ] ], "coverage": 45, "bins": [ { "key": "ht1", "label": "Settled before 1800", "sub": "Ohio Company, Virginia Military District and Refugee Tract pioneers", "max": 1800 }, { "key": "ht2", "label": "1800 to 1814", "sub": "", "max": 1815 }, { "key": "ht3", "label": "1815 to 1829", "sub": "Canal and National Road towns", "max": 1830 }, { "key": "ht4", "label": "1830 to 1849", "sub": "", "max": 1850 }, { "key": "ht5", "label": "1850 to 1879", "sub": "Railroad towns", "max": 1880 }, { "key": "ht6", "label": "1880 or later", "sub": "Streetcar and automobile suburbs", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/history/" }, { "id": "historic", "label": "Historic places", "chapter": "civic", "question": "How many historic places are listed here?", "blurb": "Every National Register of Historic Places listing that has a point in the National Park Service's file (about three quarters of Ohio's listings), counted inside each ZIP. A district counts once at its center point.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "metric", "source": "National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places point file (3,286 points for 3,232 of Ohio's roughly 4,200 listings; listings without a point are not counted, and a listing with several points is counted once); listings inside each ZIP and the nearest to its population-weighted center; USGS Geographic Names Information System domestic names for Ohio (feature points inside the ZIP)", "links": [ [ "National Register data", "https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/data-downloads.htm" ], [ "USGS GNIS", "https://www.usgs.gov/tools/geographic-names-information-system-gnis" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "hi1", "label": "No listed place in the ZIP", "sub": "", "max": 1 }, { "key": "hi2", "label": "1 or 2 listings", "sub": "A courthouse, a church, a farmhouse", "max": 3 }, { "key": "hi3", "label": "3 to 6", "sub": "", "max": 7 }, { "key": "hi4", "label": "7 to 15", "sub": "County seats and old river towns", "max": 16 }, { "key": "hi5", "label": "16 or more", "sub": "City centers and historic districts", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/historic/" }, { "id": "schools", "label": "Schools", "chapter": "civic", "question": "Which school district serves this ZIP?", "blurb": "Public school district boundaries from the state's OGRIP layer (2014 edition, via ODOT), colored by district type with shades separating neighbours. A ZIP takes the district where most of its residents live, and the card shows the split.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "categorical", "source": "Ohio school district boundaries (OGRIP 2014 via ODOT) by resident share; NCES EDGE 2024-25 school buildings; NCES Private School Survey 2023-24 public-use file (schools inside the ZIP by coordinates); Census ACS 2020-2024 B14002 school enrollment; Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) fiscal 2023 via NCES, matched by district name and county; Census SAIPE 2024 school district child poverty (matched through the F-33 district id); NCES Common Core of Data 2023-24 school directory, membership, teacher FTE, lunch program status and free or reduced-price lunch counts, summed over the public schools inside the ZIP", "links": [ [ "ODOT GIS", "https://tims.dot.state.oh.us/tims" ], [ "NCES EDGE", "https://nces.ed.gov/programs/edge/" ], [ "NCES Common Core of Data", "https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/" ], [ "NCES private schools", "https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/" ], [ "Census SAIPE", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/saipe.html" ], [ "Census school finances (F-33)", "https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/school-finances.html" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/schools/" }, { "id": "ratings", "label": "School ratings", "chapter": "civic", "question": "How does the school district rate?", "blurb": "Ohio's 2024-2025 School Report Cards give every district one to five stars overall, built from six components: achievement (the performance index on state tests), progress (value-added growth), gap closing, early literacy, graduation and college-career-workforce-military readiness. The map shows the overall stars of the district holding the largest share of each ZIP's residents (in 46 ZIPs that district holds under half of them, and the card names the others), and the Schools card adds each named school building's own stars; the card lists the components, the performance index, four- and five-year graduation rates, spending per pupil against the state figure and the teaching staff's pay, experience and credentials. Three stars means the district meets state standards, five that it significantly exceeds them and one that it needs significant support. Star ratings track family income closely, so a low rating says more about who a district serves than how well it teaches. NCES's private school survey adds the private schools inside the ZIP and their enrollment. The district card also carries the Census Bureau's school finance survey for fiscal 2023: revenue and where it came from, spending per pupil and the share going to instruction. The Census Bureau's 2024 small-area estimate of school-age children in poverty follows. Enrollment at the public schools inside the ZIP, the charter schools among them, students per teacher and the share qualifying for free or reduced-price meals come from the federal Common Core of Data; online schools are listed separately because their address is an office.", "unit": "stars", "polarity": "higher_better", "kind": "metric", "source": "Ohio School Report Cards 2024-2025 (Department of Education and Workforce): district overall and component star ratings, performance index, graduation rates, spending per pupil and teacher measures, for the district holding the largest share of each ZIP's residents", "links": [ [ "Ohio school report cards", "https://reportcard.education.ohio.gov/" ] ], "coverage": 1225, "bins": [ { "key": "sr1", "label": "2.5 stars or fewer", "sub": "Needs support to meet state standards", "max": 2.75 }, { "key": "sr2", "label": "3 stars", "sub": "Meets state standards", "max": 3.25 }, { "key": "sr3", "label": "3.5 stars", "sub": "", "max": 3.75 }, { "key": "sr4", "label": "4 stars", "sub": "Exceeds state standards", "max": 4.25 }, { "key": "sr5", "label": "4.5 and 5 stars", "sub": "Exceeds (4.5) or significantly exceeds (5) state standards", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/ratings/" }, { "id": "colleges", "label": "Colleges", "chapter": "civic", "question": "How far is the nearest college?", "blurb": "Colleges from the NCES IPEDS 2024 directory, with enrollment, tuition and graduation rates from the IPEDS survey files and closed institutions dropped. Distance is straight-line miles from the ZIP's population-weighted center.", "unit": "mi", "polarity": "higher_worse", "kind": "metric", "source": "NCES IPEDS: 2024 institutional directory (269 active Ohio institutions with coordinates, less the administrative units and the colleges in data/ipeds/closed.json that have closed since), 12-month enrollment 2023-24, published tuition and fees 2023-24, graduation rates for the 2017 (four-year) and 2020 (two-year) entering cohorts; straight-line miles from each ZIP's population-weighted center", "links": [ [ "NCES IPEDS", "https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [ { "key": "u1", "label": "Under 3 miles", "sub": "A campus in town", "max": 3 }, { "key": "u2", "label": "3 to 8 miles", "sub": "", "max": 8 }, { "key": "u3", "label": "8 to 15 miles", "sub": "", "max": 15 }, { "key": "u4", "label": "15 to 25 miles", "sub": "Commuting distance", "max": 25 }, { "key": "u5", "label": "25 miles or more", "sub": "Farthest from any college", "max": null } ], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/colleges/" }, { "id": "gov", "label": "Local government", "chapter": "civic", "question": "Which city, village or township is this?", "blurb": "ODOT's municipal corporation and township boundaries; a city or village takes precedence over the township it lies in, and a ZIP takes the government where most of its residents live. Townships are the unincorporated remainder, governed by elected trustees. Ohio EPA grants to local bodies and the Auditor of State's unauditable list are noted.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "categorical", "source": "ODOT municipal corporation and township boundaries by resident share of 2020 census blocks; Ohio EPA grants awarded in 2025 (OEPA_Achievements, MapServer layer 8); Auditor of State unauditable entities list", "links": [ [ "ODOT GIS", "https://tims.dot.state.oh.us/tims" ], [ "Auditor of State", "https://ohioauditor.gov/" ], [ "Ohio EPA grants (OEPA_Achievements)", "https://geo.epa.ohio.gov/arcgis/rest/services/OEPA/OEPA_Achievements/MapServer/8" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/gov/" }, { "id": "reps", "label": "Representatives", "chapter": "civic", "question": "Who represents this ZIP in government?", "blurb": "U.S. House, Ohio Senate and Ohio House district boundaries from ODOT, with members from the chambers' own directories. A ZIP cut by a district line shows every member who serves part of it.", "unit": null, "polarity": "neutral", "kind": "categorical", "source": "ODOT TIMS Boundaries US_House_District, Ohio_Senate_District and Ohio_House_District (fetched 2026-09-08) by resident share of 2020 census blocks; members from the U.S. House, Ohio Senate and Ohio House directories, September 2026", "links": [ [ "U.S. House", "https://www.house.gov/representatives" ], [ "Ohio Senate", "https://ohiosenate.gov/" ], [ "Ohio House", "https://ohiohouse.gov/" ], [ "ODOT GIS", "https://tims.dot.state.oh.us/tims" ] ], "coverage": 1229, "bins": [], "page": "https://crackedbuckeye.com/topics/reps/" } ]