Date:         Wed, 2 Jan 2002 09:52:01 -0500
Reply-To:     Dianne Rhodes <RHODESD1@WESTAT.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Dianne Rhodes <RHODESD1@WESTAT.COM>
Subject:      zip codes
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Puddin' Man quoted John Blodgett's format

> VALUE $ZIPSTAB
>   OTHER='  '   '01000'-'02799'='MA'
>   '02800'-'02999'='RI'   '03000'-'03899'='NH'
>   '03900'-'04999'='ME'   '05000'-'05999'='VT'
>   '06000'-'06999'='CT'   '07000'-'08999'='NJ'
>   '09000'-'14999'='NY'   '15000'-'19699'='PA'
>   '19700'-'19999'='DE'   '20000'-'20330','20332'-'20599'='DC'
>   '20600'-'21999','20331'='MD'   '22000'-'24699'='VA'

Hmm.  Well I believe that would put Dulles airport (20101-04 & 99) and other
parts of suburban Virginia in DC and parts of DC (20331) in Maryland.
Actually I think 20331 is in Tacoma Park which used to span DC, Montgomery
and Prince George's County MD.

Can we start a campaign to abolish this type of abuse of zip codes?  I was
on a committee to assign neighborhoods based on zip codes and it was a
fiasco, and turned even more ridiculous with the idea that using the four
digit extension added meaning.  Did you know that, for example, the floors
in my apartment building each have two four digit zip extensions?  Zip codes
are rather arbitrary things, assigned according to the volume of mail an
individual carrier can tote.  In a dense urban area, they might represent a
block, while in a rural area they might be more like a county.

Dianne Louise Rhodes
Sr. Systems Analyst
Westat