The Boston City Council finally emerged last week with a racially balanced and legally defensible redistricting map after 17 months of bickering over the lines of Boston’s nine council districts. The result is as satisfactory as one might hope, given the pressure on incumbents to protect their political bases.
Two councilors deserve special credit for their willingness to put the good of the city ahead of political self-preservation. District 5 city councilor Rob Consalvo, who is white, relinquished supportive precincts in Roslindale and adopted minority precincts in Mattapan to solidify a fourth minority district in the city. First-term councilor Frank Baker sacrificed several supportive precincts in the Lower Mills and Fields Corner sections of Dorchester to balance population figures in a nearby district.
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Roslindale loses in redistricting -- again. The neighborhood had one city councilor (District 5) but is now split three ways (Districts 4, 5, 7). Even worse, the new center of gravity in district 5 shifts so heavily towards Hyde Park/Mattapan that it virtually ensures no candidate from Roslindale will be able to mount a base of support to win this district in the future. Incumbent politicians from other neighborhoods have repeatedly carved up Roslindale in redistricting, disenfranchising a neighborhood. In the last round of redistricting on Beacon Hill, Roslindale was carved up among four state representatives from other communities (Coppinger from West Roxbury, Sanchez and Malia from Jamaica Plain, and Scaccia from Hyde Park). With a population of 34,000, Roslindale is the largest community in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts without a resident in any elected office. No other community in Boston is as splintered on electoral maps, and no other community has less of a voice when it comes to protecting its interests. Through redistricting at City Hall and Beacon Hill, Roslindale has been transformed into an afterthought for politicians who live in other places.
linehan, a conciliator? my squalid butt. this do nothing say even less hack is the epitome of whats wrong about the INEPT, COOPTED,CORRUPTED AND TOTALLY GUTLESS boston city council. ALL OF EM, NO EXCEPTIONS. MA