Long Beach, California, has once again secured top placement as the nation's leading digital city in its population class. For three consecutive years, Long Beach has triumphed in the 250,000–499,999 population group. The city's persistent drive toward leveraging technology and data to address societal issues, improve service efficiency, and fortify cybersecurity continues to receive accolades. This reflects the city's commitment to a technologically advanced, inclusive society as reported by the 2023 Digital Cities Survey.
In the survey's 23rd year, Long Beach's consistent success was acknowledged by Mayor Rex Richardson. To emphasize, the city is now in its 13th consecutive year in the top 10. Mayor Richardson emphasized the pivotal role of technology and data in enhancing the city's efforts to close the digital divide and champion equity and inclusion. Notable amongst its initiatives leveraging technology is the Digital Inclusion Initiative, which addresses digital inequity through partnerships with community organizations and secures federal digital equity grants. A sum exceeding $2.7 million was obtained from the CARES Act and ARPA to facilitate this, which resulted in the allotment of over 2,400 hotspots and 2,900 free devices to those who needed them in Long Beach.
The city's considerable use of technology also plays a part in their endeavor to address homelessness. With the objective of providing vital infrastructure and data analysis, Long Beach has employed technological initiatives for its Tiny Homes project, Safe Parking Program sites, and Mobile Access Center. Additionally, a homeless services and information hub was created, complete with a digital dashboard, a progress map, and an AI-aided survey processing feedback from nearly 3,000 contributors. In collaboration with these digital tools, the weekly live community broadcasts are conducted by Mayor Rex Richardson and Long Beach Television.
Adding to their significant technologies to rapidly deploy, another significant initiative by Long Beach is the commencement of the Long Beach Collaboratory (LB Co-Lab), a pilot program involving local stakeholders from deprived neighborhoods in immersive tech education. This smart city approach makes certain that technological improvements are rooted in the community's specific needs while supplementing residents with essential skills. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Coding It Forward Civic Innovation Corps, the city was able to add 11 Summer Fellows in 2022 and 2023, amplifying its data analysis competencies.
The top-ranking cities in each of the five population demographics will be recognized at the Digital Cities Survey Awards on November 16. The survey is an annual event orchestrated by the Center for Digital Government (CDG), a research and advisory institute dedicated to exploring best practices in state and local information technology policies. CDG is a division of e.Republic, a nationally recognized entity engaged in media and research to facilitate public sector innovations.
