Proposed District Changes for the City of Fresno

City Manager Mark Scott pointing out some changes.

When the Census data is taken every decade, it is the City of Fresno's policy to use the updated information to change the City Council district line boundaries to reflect these updates.  City Council and City Manager Mark Scott used the changes in population density and the movement of specific types of ethnicity to help make their decisions.  What they saw when they looked at the data was that districts did indeed change in size.  They did however express at their Proposed District Changes Meeting today at The Painted Table (formerly Samba) in the Tower District that that they wanted to change as little as possible.  The changes they did make were guided by Municipal Code criteria that explains census tracks should not be broken up, arterial roads, bodies of water and railways should be used as boundaries and similar community interest should be kept intact.  They also sought to keep each district within about 2% of difference of each other, attepmting to have as close to the same number of people in each district as possible.  The biggest change to the boundaries was made in District 6 in Northeast Fresno where the lowest density of population was.  The last time boundaries were drawn up, it was expected that this area would show an increase in population when it in fact did not, and that contributed to this change.  District 5 in Southeast Fresno grew the most looking at the census information.  When the meeting opened up to the public, it was voiced that the Tower District should remain intact, but the opinion of where the Tower District ends is up for debate.  The proposed district changes (http://allhappenings.com/resources/Proposed%20Council%20Districts.pdf) will be decided on at next week's council meeting July 28th. It is highly advised this document is looked over so input can be provided to City Council as soon as possible.  Call your council member at (559) 621-8000 and share with them where you feel community interest boundaries are.