diff --git a/build_neighborhood.sh b/build_neighborhood.sh
index f7a43b9..34e2201 100755
--- a/build_neighborhood.sh
+++ b/build_neighborhood.sh
@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@ DBPORT=5433
 GRASS_LOCATION=/mnt/places/melissa/grass/Global/PERMANENT
 export GRASS_BATCH_JOB=$GRASS_LOCATION/neighborhood.$$
 
+mkdir -p data
+if [ ! -r data/names.txt ]; then
+    echo "data/names.txt (tab separated file mapping woe_id to name) is missing"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
 if [ ! -r data/photos_$WOEID.txt ]; then
     grep ^$WOEID data/suburbs_wanted.csv | cut -f4 | xargs python geocrawlr.py >data/photos_$WOEID.txt
 fi