The Minden City Council met Friday morning to draw up the lines that make up the border of each one of Minden’s five districts. This process takes place once every 10 years after updated census data becomes available.
Over the course of ten years, districts tend to fluctuate in population and demographic makeup. Redistricting takes place to ensure that districts remain relatively the same in regards to these statistics.
Over the past decade, 2010 to 2020, the total population of Minden changed from 13082 to 11928, a difference of 1154. In District A, the population changed from 2645 to 2409, District B changed from 2575 to 2148, District C changed from 2502 to 2107, District D changed from 2614 to 2533, and District E changed from 2746 to 2731.
To summarize, districts B and C lost the most population while A remained largely the same, with Districts D and E seeing the most gain.
To offset these imbalances and make sure that the populations of each district largely remain the same, the changes can be summarized as District C receiving census blocks from Districts B and C, District C receiving Census Blocks from District D, and District D receiving census blocks from District E.
To be more specific District C gained the blocks from District D extending from the right side of Constable Street, starting at the intersection of Goodwill Road and Constable down to the intersection of Constable Street and South Ash Street, ending along the left side of Goodwill Street. District C also gained blocks from District B extending from the left side of High Street from the intersection of Bayou Avenue and high Street down to the intersection of High Street and Reynolds Street, ending along the right side of Morrow Street.
District B gained blocks from District B extending from the intersection of Birdwell Street and Park Highway, down to Good Ave until it intersects with Elm Street. It follows Elm Street until it intersects with Ferguson Street, and follows Ferguson Street until it intersects with Webb Ct, and follows along Webb Ct until it meets East and West Street. It follows East and West Street until it intersects with Fort Ave, and then continues up along the right side of Fort Ave until it meets Back Street, at which point it continues along the south side of Beck Street until it meets Lewisville Road. Finally, it continues up along the left side of Lewisville Road until it intersects with Chandler Street, and continues along Chandler Street until it transitions back to Birdwell Street.
District D gained blocks from District E extending from the intersection of Emerald Drive and Lewisville Road, continuing along the left side of Lewisville Road until it intersects Lakeshore Drive, and follows along the north side of Lakeshore Drive until it meets North Elm Street. It continues along the right side of N Elm Street down until it intersects with W Todd Street, and follows along the northside of W Todd until it intersects with Gladney Street. It follows along the left side of Gladney until it intersects with Berry Drive, following along the south side of Berry Drive until it intersects with Park Highway, and then continues along the left side of Park Highway until it intersects with Emerald Drive. It continues along the south side of Emerald Drive until it circles back around to Lewisville Road.
So what does this change? As mentioned prior, these changes were enacted in order to bring each District more in line with its overall population and demographic makeup from the previous decade.
With the implementation of these changes, the change from each district is as follows.
District A saw none of it’s borders moved, so it remained the same, seeing a small decrease in population from 2645 to 2409. District B now sees a shift in population from 2575 to 2278. District C now sees a shift in population from 2502 to 2300. District D now sees its population shift from 2614 to 2433. Finally, District E now sees its population shift from 2746 to 2508.
In line with the goals of redistricting, the demographic makeup of each district remained in line with where they were a decade ago, with District D seeing the most notable change out of the districts.
Districts A, B, and C remain with an overall higher percentage of African-American residents, the specifics being 82%, 69%, and 77% respectively. District C saw a slight increase from 74% in 2010, with Districts A and B seeing a decrease from 86% and 74% in 2010 respectively.
As mentioned, District D saw the most notable shift in demographic makeup, with the overall percentage of Caucasion residents decreasing from 76% in 2010 to 63% in 2020 and the percentage of the African-Americans population increasing from 21% in 2010 to 31%.
District E also saw a statistically significant decrease in its overall Caucasion population, decreasing from 92% to 82% with the African-American population increasing from 5% in 2010 to 12%.
These changes will be implemented before the City Council Elections taking place later this year, so residents should be sure to check if they remain within their districts or have been moved into another.