Councilor LaMattina’s District Largely Intact After Redistricting

The Boston City Council voted 11-2 last week to support a third redistricting map that will most likely be signed by Mayor Thomas Menino in the next few days. The new map leaves City Councilor Sal LaMattina’s district largely intact.

The North End, East Boston and Charlestown will remain in LaMattina’s district after Menino vetoed two previous maps in September. However, LaMattina will lose precincts in Beacon Hill, Downtown Crossing and the Financial District to Councilor Bill Linehan.

The new map offered by City Councilor Tito Jackson focused mainly on precincts in Mattapan and other minority communities.

The last map offered by Jackson and City Councilor Matt O’Malley that was vetoed by the Mayor in September had LaMattina losing Beacon Hill Ward 3, Precincts 3 through 6. Under that plan Councilors Bill Linehan and Mike Ross would have shared Beacon Hill. This is what ultimately happened last week.

There was also talk of Charlestown precincts being moved to the Back Bay. LaMattina would then pick up precincts in the South End and Chinatown.

“In the end we voted on a fair redistricting plan,” said LaMattina.

Since the beginning of the process LaMattina didn’t hide his desire to keep his district intact.

“I’m glad we were able to keep a lot of districts the same while expanding voting districts for minority communities,” said LaMattina. “But I’m particularly happy District 1 remains mostly intact because I feel it is a very diverse district with neighborhoods like the North End, East Boston and Charlestown sharing the same issues from litter to crime to education. I feel lucky to be able to continue representing the people of these neighborhoods.”

Menino for his part agreed that the previous plans did not do enough to remove roadblocks for voters in minority neighborhoods and said the earlier maps limited minority groups from electing candidates of their choice.