City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, the ousted chair of Boston’s redistricting committee, has filed a map proposing new boundaries for the city’s nine voting districts. While it is unclear how the council will greet his proposal, sources familiar with redistricting say the map seems to generally conform to population shifts that have taken place over the last 10 years.
Arroyo said the map “unites more neighborhoods” along racial and ethnic lines, makes clearer lines in the currently splintered South End and Mattapan neighborhoods, and increases diversity within the Dorchester district currently represented by Frank Baker, the dean of the Boston City Council and Arroyo's political rival.
The proposal, which was co-sponsored by Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, comes more than a month after a tense City Council meeting exposed a deep divide over the intersecting issues of redistricting, race and Arroyo’s removal from chairmanship of the powerful redistricting committee in the wake of The Boston Globe’s reporting on a pair of sexual assault investigations.
The proposed map physically shrinks Flynn’s 2nd District, which, according to unofficial council working documents, saw an explosion of growth of more than 13,000 people in the Seaport since the 2010 Census. The change in Arroyo's plan would alter the boundaries of the 2nd District to take that growth into account. Under Arroyo's plan, Flynn's district would lose some of the South End and include all of Chinatown, instead of the neighborhood being split into different districts.
The map also expands the physical footprint and diversifies Baker’s 3rd District, which saw a population loss of about 6,500 people — the largest among the city’s nine districts. Baker, who was first elected in 2011, has been supported by Dorchester’s whiter and more conservative communities.
Under the proposal, his district would extend northward into the city’s South End while losing several key Cape Verdean community precincts unified as part of the neighboring 7th District, which is currently represented by Fernandes Anderson.
Fernandes Anderson is the council’s first Muslim member, as well as the first who was formerly undocumented and the first African immigrant member.
A digital cartography program used by Arroyo shows that none of the proposed districts deviate by more than 2.55% from the council’s professed ideal number of residents in each district. The ideal number — about 75,000 — comes from dividing Boston’s 2020 Census population by the nine, the number of city council districts.
The map, Arroyo said, places most of the area near the intersection at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard into one district rather than splitting it across a several, a move some familiar with council work have suggested could increase accountability for the city’s visible struggle with caring for those who are homeless, have substance use disorder or mental illness, and handling the crime that occurs in that area.
Arroyo said his proposal does not knock out any of his incumbent colleagues. The 5th District he represents would shift under the proposed map by picking up precincts in Roslindale, Jamaica Plain and Mattapan, where he performed strongly earlier this month against his former opponent in Suffolk County district attorney primary race.
The council is imposing its own deadline of approving a map proposal to submit to Mayor Michelle Wu by Oct. 19.
Council President Ed Flynn suspended Arroyo from his committee chairmanships for 60 days after The Boston Globe sexual assault reports. Several councilors have spoken in support of restoring Arroyo’s chairmanships as a gesture of goodwill to unite the divided council.
The issue could potentially be discussed at a yet-to-be scheduled hearing to review the council’s rules. Despite the temporary demotion, Arroyo has not halted committee work.
“I told people, even when they took me from the chairmanship that I had a map,” Arroyo said, adding that an earlier introduction would give the council, and the public more time to weigh the proposal.
“This is that map I would have presented as chair," he said.
The deadline for completing the redistricting process is Nov. 7.
