City of Greensboro meetings in 2020 so far have at least on thing in common – someone makes a plea for people to participate in the 2020 census.

The census every 10 years is mandated by the US Constitution. The first census was in 1790 and the federal government has held one every 10 years since.

However, this one has some additional importance for Greensboro and North Carolina. Greensboro, according to the Census Bureau estimate, had a population of 294,722 on July 1, 2019. So it appears the city will be close to 300,000 for 2020, and it’s a milestone to get over that 300,000 mark.

Also, election districts are drawn based on population, so more people in Greensboro could mean more state representatives and state senators.  Of course, that depends on how fast other areas of the state are growing.

And statewide the Census is a huge deal because North Carolina, if projections are correct, will receive another representative in Congress. North Carolina currently has 13 congressional representatives, and after the census that should become 14, which is mixed blessing considering how much controversy there has been about the congressional districts.

North Carolina is currently the ninth largest state, with a slightly smaller population than Georgia and slightly larger than Michigan.

The last time North Carolina gained a district was after the 2000 census when the state went from 12 to 13 seats. The 2020 election is the last one before in this 10 year cycle and for this election the congressional districts were redrawn one more time last November, which means the courts didn’t think in the preceding four elections the state legislature had gotten it right.

The mainstream media like to blame Republicans for all the redistricting problems, but it was the Democrats who drew the infamous 12th Congressional District that originally stretched from Durham down I-85 all the way to Charlotte. In some areas it was no wider than the interstate itself.

But if North Carolina does receive 14 congressional seats in the 2020 census, that means the map drawers will have to go back to the drawing board because dividing the state in 14 districts instead of 13 districts means that it is unlikely any congressional district in 2022 will be the same as it was in 2020.