I start this post knowing that no one's gonna like it. But before you post, try to think of the overall, long-term affect of the idea ....
Please, allow me be the first to suggest that the districts should come with a price. Perhaps a penalty to owning different ones.
Yes, the University does give you +50 IQ. But it also has a daily upkeep of (toss variable integer here). Or it gives you a -3% to your Hard Drive. Spending a lot of time studying can lead to improper exercise, right all you out of shape cybergeeks? Or maybe the Downtown district gives you a firewall bonus, but it also gives you a -3% to your CPU. Tougher, but just a tad slower for it.
Can you see where I'm going with this?
Or maybe creating new districts later on. With a little shifting and rearranging of different links in the city, you could create more districts, in a sense, creating a larger "city. The only thing that would really need to change would be the arrangement and position on the screen of the links. With more gangs, eventually there may be a desire for more districts .....
Just tossing it out there before it swims away into my swiss-cheese memory ....