What's up City Lifers? I wanted to share some important information for you to feed on during this rainy day. Are you familiar with redistricting? First, the City of Long Beach is divided up into nine council districts. So, every 10 years the City reshapes it's district boundaries based on the data provided by the census. In this case, the data is based on the 2010 Census stats. Higher levels of government such as congressional and assembly are doing the same.

It's time to make some changes. Each councilmember must adjust their population level to meet the minimum requirements. Everyone's goal is be within the 48,794 - 53,930 range. So what does this mean for you? Here are a few things:

• You might have a new Council representative depending on where the district lines put you in. Example: You are in the First District and you end up in the Second District.
• You may experience a change in the allocation of public funds.
• If you live on the boarder of your district, you may be caught up in a fight because representatives are trying to figure what the heck to do with you. This is because they are trying to come within a certain population number.
• You will probably be in the middle of a redistricting fight. For example, according to this map the Sixth District has a battle on four different fronts with the surrounding council areas.

Have a look at these maps below and let me know what information stands out to you the most. Here is what I thought was interesting/cool:

• The First and Ninth Districts have the two largest Hispanic populations
• Surprised that the Seventh District has a high Asian population than the Sixth. The Sixth is known for it's largest Cambodian population outside of Cambodia, my theory is that the Seventh has an even larger Philipino population...
• Looking at the map, it was interesting to see how big the Fifth District really is. I believe it's mostly because of El Dorado Park which take up a lot of space.
• The district that has the largest Black population is the Eighth District. I thought it would've been the Sixth, but it seems the Black population is moving into the Bixby Knolls area. My guess would be in the "Banner Drive" area...

**Click on the images below to enlarge.

There you have it. Let us know what you think of this whole redistricting process? How else do you think it might affect you and your neighborhood. Do district boundaries matter to you? What is your list of interesting things that stand out to you?

This blog is in part sponsored by the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra