A picture of the Long Beach Pike on a bright, sunny day fills the homepage for the new website for the city of Long Beach, which Mayor Robert Garcia debuted June 1 in a press conference at City Hall.
To remodel the website, Garcia said his team completely started over to create something new and fresh and the site features event and meeting calendars, bill payment and easy connection to city officials and media sites.
The original council item was approved $212 thousand in total, according to Garcia’s office.
Garcia said that he believes the city’s website is the most important way that residents can stay in touch with the city government. Eventually Garcia wants the website to have a 24/7 online City Hall.
“The idea was to create a site that is cutting edge, and provides a user-friendly experience for everyone in Long Beach,” Garcia said. “Building it from scratch was definitely labor intensive.”
According to the press release from Garcia’s office, the new website includes features such as an interactive map to allow visitors to search for different landmarks and simple access to various events in the city.
Website users can also set up alerts using LinkLB to receive information about new events or meetings around the city or stay up-to-date on local news in city departments, commissions and committees.
The websites features easy to access travel guides for visitors and portals to some of Long Beach’s most popular attractions and hang out spots.
Residents can set up special tabs with statistics regarding Long Beach demographics for the city or a specific district. Garcia said that with the OpenLB portal all of that data can be accessed and that the city is still in the process of uploading all of that information to the site.
“The Open Data initiative, which will make available to the public a huge amount of information and data that the city has,” Garcia said. “Everything from health and crime statistics to budget data and economic information.”
The updated website includes a user friendly navigation system, making it easier for Long beach residents to pay bills, apply for permits and report neighborhood issues with one simple click.
With many people using their phones to access the Internet, the design of the website was created so that it would look good on any mobile device and a computer screen.
Garcia has talked about turning Long Beach into the next tech hub, and with this new website, he said the city is one step closer to its goal.
“I want to make sure Long Beach is a leader in using technology to provide government services that are efficient, transparent, and easy to access,” Garcia said. “Our previous website served us well but it was time for a total refresh.”
City Hall has received a positive response from Long Beach residents about the new city website and Garcia said that there has been much excitement since its debut.
Garcia said he is looking to expand and continue to add on to the website in the years to come, but was not ready to give out specific details just yet.