Boston City Council obscures the Redistricting process as it is by not making maps available on the web of the proposals that are labelled with the names of the Districts' BORDERING streets. The official Redistricting maps have no street names. That is, streets are shown, but are not labelled with their names. How can the public and City officials work efficiently with maps without street names? In particular all streets that are borders of present and proposed Districts must be clearly labelled with their names. We know it is possible to prepare and publish such maps. And today it is not only possible, but easy and inexpensive. Please prepare and publish proper Redistricting maps, with all important streets clearly labelled with their names.

Tito Jackson must miss Michael but at least he still has Marlon, Jackie and Jermaine.

the entire boston city council as it now stands, sits or squats out to be disbanded post haste and 4thwith. theres not a member of any size color gender or shape who stands for anything save reelection. there a 13 person group of do nothing, say even less, gutless people who represent only themselves not the people they are paid good money to look out for and are scared to death to say boo or anything else to the blithering wit(nit, half and dim)bagman mayor . the whole group is inept, gutless , coopted and corrupted beyond salvation and that my friends are only their good points. ma

I'd take it one step further and eliminate the Boston City Council. It is an archaic institution, a left-over from the colonial period. It's a haven for patronage and political shenanigans. Get rid of it!!!

actually Potlemac said it best. oh ya and this group as a whole is so useless that you got one member whose being paid to be a full time city council hack running for another office, probate something or other without the guts or decency to step aside. in other words sal lammarmmadingdong has nothing to lose other than the taxpayers hard earned gelt. this is an art form perfected by none other than steve the schmoo murphy who has run for everything over and under the sun without the guts to step down. ma

Adrian: Your column is, to say the least, insulting to blacks. You, and those like you, are quick to accuse whites of bigotry if they appear to choose color over ability. Yet, you assume and urge all blacks to choose color and that only those of color can be true unbiased candidates. Sounds like choosing bigotry to counter assumed bigotry.

I disagree with this suggestion. If the council had good, thoughtful members, it would serve as a valuable counterweight to the mayor. That might be beneficial given our strong-mayor form of government. (I'm referring to the structure of Boston's government here, not the temperament of the current incumbent.) My issue with the council is that some **current** members are very parochial in their interests. It would be nice to see them rotate out of office.

I feel this judgment is unduly harsh. The council has occasionally in recent years risen to the challenge, so to speak. (I was pleasantly surprised when it looked poised to turn down the pay package initially backed by the powerful fireman's union a while ago, for example.) Still, I concede the council hasn't exactly struck me as a profile in courage or competence.

This issue of finding the right model to produce a council reflective of the city's ethnic and cultural diversity strikes me as a bit of a red herring. Frankly, I don't think it makes much difference if the city sticks with the current district structure or reverts to the citywide paradigm. The key is a change in attitude on the part of the electorate. This city has a history of "tribalism" and politicians -- including some current ones? -- happy to play into that mindset. Maybe our time would be better spent identifying and encouraging a better group of candidates to run for council. That might do the trick for diversity -- and give us some good councilors to boot.

Perhaps a good model would be to choose the leaders from among those that pay the bills with their own money.