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Tell us: What do you think of Boston’s new electoral map?
The new district boundaries will be in effect for the next decade.
After months of deliberation and a legal battle, the Boston City Council has finally approved a new electoral map days before their May 30 deadline.
New district lines must be drawn every 10 years to reflect U.S. Census data. The most recent data showed that the population of District 2, primarily in South Boston rose while District 3’s population, declined. The City Council attempted to introduce a map that would have redrawn much of District 3 to move conservative-leaning and majority-white precincts in Dorchester from District 3 to District 4 with Mattapan. Some of South Boston would also have moved to District 3.
A federal judge said the changes were motivated by race and forced the Council to go back to the drawing board.
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The new map keeps much of Dorchester’s majority-white precincts intact in District 3 and unifies Little Saigon is made whole in the same district. Chinatown was also kept together, but much of the map remains untouched.
“Is it a perfect map? Nope. There are no perfect maps. Is everybody happy? Nope. Not everyone’s happy. Did everybody get what they want? Nope. Not everyone got what they want,” Councilor Michael Flaherty said of the new map. “In my experience as the longest-serving member here and someone who has gone through redistricting, that tends to show that it’s a good map.”
The map initially proposed by the Council was the subject of much protest from conservative and moderate lawmakers. President Ed Flynn and Frank Baker helped fund the court challenge of the previous proposal. After Mayor Michelle Wu gave the Council a May 30 deadline to approve a new one, we asked Boston.com readers if the Council’s ability to develop a satisfactory map in time for fall elections and many said they didn’t have confidence in council members to get the job done.
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“The City Council has had over a year to complete this map, but decided to wait until the last minute to get it done and thus their map was thrown out by the court,” said Jessica G. from Mattapan. “There has been significant deliberation and most of the holdouts have very specific political interests that are for the purpose of making their districts less competitive for their reelections.”
To combat this kind of partisan fighting, some on the Council have called for an independent redistricting commission. Among the supporters of this idea is Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, who proposed the agreed-upon district map, and said a commission would offer a “level of independence.”
“We know that the mistrust that often can come from the process, or the wheeling and dealing, or self-interest or self-preservation, that at least the public can be assured that that’s not what’s happening,” she said.
The new district boundaries will be in effect for the next decade. Do you think the City Council got it right this time?
Tell us what you think of the new map and if you agree with the proposed independent redistricting commission by filling out the survey below or emailing us at [email protected] and we may feature your response in a future article or Boston.com social media channels.
What do you think of Boston's new electoral map?
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