GIS Homework #1: Erin Street Crime Watch
Updated 2013.09.02
This is the problem from pages 44-45 in your book. Read the problem description in the
book before continuing below. You may work on the assignment with one partner. If you
work with a partner, only submit one assignment with both of your names on it.
Create a new map document (file extension: mxd) with the following layers. The number of
points for each item is in square brackets.
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[1] Building. A polygon layer for buildings in the Middle Hill neighborhood of
Pittsburgh.
File: EsriPress\GIST1\Data\Pittsburgh\Midhill.gdb\Bldgs
[1] CADCalls. A point layer for 911 emergency calls for service in the Middle Hill
neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
File: EsriPress\GIST1\Data\Pittsburgh\Midhill.gdb\CADCalls
[1] Curbs. An arc layer for curbs in the Middle Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
File: EsriPress\GIST1\Data\Pittsburgh\Midhill.gdb\Curbs
[1] Street. An arc layer for street centerlines in the Middle Hill neighborhood of
Pittsburgh.
File: EsriPress\GIST1\Data\Pittsburgh\Midhill.gdb\Streets
[1] Save your map (from the menu: File, Save As) in the
EsirPress\GIST1\MyAssignments\Chapter1\Assignment1-2YourName folder as
Assignment1-2-FirstName LastName.mxd using your first and last name.
Do the following (note that these instructions override those given in the book):
 [1] Display streets with "Cherrywood Brown" lines (column 3 of color palette).
 [1] Set their size to 2.
 [1] Turn on labels for the streets layer. It's the FNAME field.
 [1] Set their font size to 12.
 [1] Display curbs with "Medium Apple" green lines (column 7 of color palette).
 [1] Set their size to 2.
 [1] Display buildings with the color "Gray 20%" (both fill color and border).
 [1] Display 911 calls with the color "Mars Red" (column 2 of color palette).
 [1] Set their size to 10.
 Erin Street:
 [1] Select the 911 calls on the 100 block of Erin Street. The 100 block is
bordered by Webster, Trent, Wylie, and Davenport. You can verify this by looking
in the attribute table for the Streets, you will find a row for Erin Street where the
LeftAdd1 is 101, LeftAdd2 is 199, RightAdd1 is 100, and RightAdd2 is 198. The
field names LeftAdd1 and LeftAdd2 refer to the lowest and highest numbered
street addresses on the left side of the street, and the field names RightAdd1 and
RightAdd2 refer to the lowest and highest numbered street addresses on the
right side of the street. That is how you will know you have the correct block of
Erin Street. If you select this block in the Attributes Table, it will turn light blue
on the map so you can easily locate it.
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[1] Change the color of this line segment to "Amethyst" (a shade of purple—
next-to-last column). (Note that if you want to change only the selected features
of a layer, you must go to the "Properties" for that layer and click on the
"Selection" tab.
 [1] Change the width of this line segment to 5.
911 calls
 [1] Use the Select Features tool of the 911 layer to locate all of the 911 calls in
the given area (the buildings on each side of the selected block of Erin Street).
Note that it appears that there are only 6 911 calls (6 red dots) but there are
actually 13 because there are multiple calls from the same address (some of
those red dots are actually stacks of red dots). You will be able to verify this if
you open the Attributes Table for the 911 calls. Note also that we are counting
911 calls that are technically not on Erin Street, but are on the two blocks that
border the 100 block of Erin Street (Trent and Davenport). Select all of the calls
on these two blocks.
 [1] Change the color of these 6 dots to "Amethyst" (next-to-last column).
 [1] Change the symbol for these 6 dots to a triangle of size 30.
[1] Create a zoomed view of just the Erin Street area (just big enough to include
both endpoints of the street—see the example at the end of the document).
[1] Make this zoomed view a spatial bookmark called Erin Street 100 Block.
Notes:
 Data can be exported from the attribute table. While in the CADCalls attribute table:
 Select the 13 records we want.
 Then click on the "Selected" button to display only those 13 records.
 Click on the "Options" button.
 From the popup menu, click on "Export."
 Click on the "Browse" button (see below).
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Navigate to the folder in which you want to save your data (the same folder as
your map file).
Enter an appropriate file name (I used Erin 100 Block 911 Calls).
To save the selected records, in the "Save as type" box, be sure that dBase Table
is selected.
Click on the "Save" button.
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When you return to the Export Data dialog box, click on the "OK" button.
You can then close the Attributes Table window.
Start Excel and navigate to the folder where you just saved your file. open the
file in Excel. Since it is a dBASE file, you may have to ask Excel to show you only
the dBase files:
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[1] Delete all except the three fields CallDate, Call Type, and Address. Note that
"Call Type" is listed as "Nature_Cod").
[1] Copy the table into Word and do any necessary formatting.
[1] Put your name in the header of the document.
[1] Save your document with the name Assignment1-2-FirstNameLastName.docx.
Deposit both the Word document and the mxd file in the drop box for this assignment no
later than 30 minutes before class time. This is what your map should look like:
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And your Word document should be similar to this (yours may be formatted differently):
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