Return GeoJSON from a Census Tract

Question

I am working on a new project where I need to highlight census tracts by boundaries. Google Maps can do this as long as I give it GeoJSON (data layers).

I did some research and it seemed like Tiger is a good solution. I was able to install and setup PostGIs and a Tiger Geocoder database (125 gigabytes!) https://postgis.net/docs/Extras.html

After going through this incredibly long process, I could finally geocode an address using the built-in function geocode. I could even return back GeoJSON from an address:

SELECT ST_AsGeoJSON(geomout) 
FROM geocode('8615 Chestnut Oak Rd, Baltimore, MD 21234', 1)

and it spits out GeoJSON:

{"type":"Point","coordinates":[-76.5617440647409,39.3951950048467]}

Finally, using the get_tract function, I can get back a census tract like this:

SELECT get_tract(geomout, 'tract_id') As tract_id 
FROM geocode('8615 Chestnut Oak Rd, Baltimore, MD 21234', 1) 
As g;` 

Which returns a tract.

The Question:

Now that I've shown what I've been able to do, what I can't do is get the GeoJSON for this tract. Would anyone be able to nudge me in the right direction?

I am wondering if maybe there is a function to return back a geometry object from a census tract (which I can then pass into the ST_AsGeoJSON function, or some other solution).

Answer 1

You could use GeoServer to handle the conversion of PostGIS results to GeoJSON for you. A simple WFS request like this would return the geometry (and optionally the attributes associated with it).

http://astun-desktop:8080/geoserver/wfs?request=GetFeature&typeName=topp:states&propertyName=STATE_NAME,LAND_KM,the_geom&CQL_FILTER=contains(the_geom, POINT(-76.5617440647409 39.3951950048467)&version=1.0.0&outputformat=json

Answer 2

So it appears there is a 'tract' table that has a column called the_geom. You can simply pass this value into ST_AsGeoJSON() and it will work, giving you the polygon represented as GeoJSON. That's all there was to it. Not sure how I missed this!

Answer 3

I've translated most of Census' Cartography files to GeoJSON and made them available here:

https://github.com/loganpowell/census-geojson