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Boston carved up for new Congressional districts; Steve Lynch loses most minority districts
By adamg on Mon, 11/07/2011 - 2:19pm
The legislature is out with its proposed congressional redistricting map. In Boston, the big news is the new almost minority-majority District 7, which would snake down from north of the Charles River into Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, part of JP and Roslindale and then into Hyde Park, part of Milton and all of Randolph. The district would also include Allston/Brighton, the Fenway and the Back Bay, but not Beacon Hill and the North End.
Steve Lynch retains the white sections of his district, including West Roxbury, which would be cut off by what basically becomes Mike Capuano's district.
It's a bit hard to tell from the online maps, but it looks like Washington Street becomes the border between Capuano and Lynch once past Egleston - Lynch to the north, Capuano to the south.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
So does this mean....
... that Capuano is now OUR Congressman?
A little hard to tell
Which side of Washington are you on?
I am by the Rotary at Holy Name
It is very hard to tell by that map what district I am in. On that page I typed in my address and it came up with the 9th district, but according to that map there is no way I am in the 9th.
The find your district....
... function gives you your OLD district information (I think).
Check out the KML
You and almost everybody northwest of Washington in Roslindale are in the proposed 8th.
Between Washington and Hyde Park Ave
South of Roslindale Square.
North of Pleasant Pizza (albeit this is on the _other_ side of Washington.
Still Lynch territory?
Does KML (know my location?) give current or proposed info?
Right behind...
... the Conley School. ;~}
Hey neighbor!
Pretty sure you and I (and adam) are all in the new 7th.
A veritable hotbed...
... of UHubness.
Welcome, neighbors!
I'm a 7th District hipster, I guess. I've been in the 7th since it was called the 8th. But the more UHubsters, the better.
Yer Modern!
When I first voted in MA, Kenmore Square was in the 9th!
For our Roslindale friends
Wow, is Google Earth with this statewide map slow on my ancient six-month old laptop! In any case, here is a map showing where much of Roslindale is going. The stuff in the middle is in Capuano's district; the stuff on the outer sides of the orange lines is Lynch's district.
For our JP friends
JP gets carved up as well. Here is a map showing the lines. The stuff in the center is Capuano's district, the stuff outside the orange lines is either Lynch's or Frank's (i.e., Brookline).
I might . . .
. . . Care about this sort of thing if I voted in federal elections.
We might...
...care more about your opinion if you voted as well.
Truth
+5000, my friend.
Mr. Dowd, you are usually a reasonable fellow. Why the willful ignorance? Kinda saddens me.
Put 20 years in . . .
. . . Peering at the federal political landscape with a microscope and I reached my conclusions. All I really care to say about anything federal at this point- want nothing to do with it.
No one in power . . .
. . . In DC cares what I think or "we" think about anything.
Multivote power
That's fine with me. In an election with say 33% turnout, I feel like I vote with the power of three!
No one in power . . .
. . . In DC cares what I think or "we" think about anything.
Double post- sorry.
Actually it really does *not*
Actually it really does *not* look like a minority majority district.
By Jove, you are right
According to the legislature, the district breaks this way:
Total: 727514
White: 371646
Asian: 68758
Hispanic: 142361
Black: 315492
So that would be 51% white.
Hispanic is not separate from
Hispanic is not separate from White. In fact most Hispanics do check off White, at least I know my Puerto Rican bis abuela did.
Yes, I used shorthand
"Hispanic" was actually listed as something like "of Hispanic origin" and "Black" was actually listed as something like "Black, non-Hispanic."
Keating
Keating had to move out of my district in order to carpetbag The Delahunt Seat, but conveeeniently the new 9th includes the town where he already has a 2nd (3rd?) home. Today's headlines would have us believe it's Lynch vs. Keating for the 8th. Yeah, Right.
Meanwhile, Barney's intestine-looking gerrymandered district now looks like the Energizer Bunny with its 'ears' reaching up into Markey territory, so I guess they've given up pretending.
Keating didn't have to move.
There's no Constitutional requirement that a representative live in the district in which they represent, only that one lives in the state which the district is located. For example, I, as a resident of Boston who lives in the Seventh District, have every right to run for Congress in the first district, which covers most of Western Massachusetts.
And yet
He seemed to feel that he needed to move from Sharon to Quincy in order to win. Maybe in Bourne he'll feel safer leaving his car keys in his Lexus.
Ha
Is that corncob Perry guarding the Cape with his hack Sheriff job?
About those bunny ears...
do I get some kind of prize for being right in the cleft of the right ear? I'm feeling like I've got some fluid in there - and kind of clipped.
8 is the new 7?
So, Capuano is currently the 8th District congressman (mine, yay!). But the new 7th District is basically his old one without a bit of Cambridge and picking up areas further south. Is it still his district with the new number? Just trying to map the old to the new numbering to be sure.
yup
It does appear so. The numbering has been altered. It confused me as I was looking for McGovern's district and then realized it had been shifted about and renumbered. With the removal of a district out there it should be interesting as the changes for some of the incumbents' areas is enough to potentially give a challenger an opporutnity. For many folks in the Berkshires, Neal will be as "new" to them as a challenger...so who knows?
I like Frank's "bunny ears." (By the by, Barney Frank is through marriage related to Shemp Howard. Now howabout that?)
My only concern
Then my only concern would seem to be that if the new "minority majority" population in the district wanted to replace Capuano with someone who is non-white simply as a matter of racial politics, then I can simply hope that they are as strong a progressive as Capuano has been in the House.
Cappy
Cap's always voted the way I have wanted him to and yet he is so arrogant that it can be kind of painful. I'm not sure that arrogance has hurt him getting things done or bringing home the bacon/pork (I don't think so), but would be worried about sending in a junior rep that would be starting from 0 with seniority (especially after the delegation loses one seat).
For whatever reason I can never look at Capuano and not think of Rip Torn in Beastmaster. I'd rather think of Tanya Roberts, but there ya go.
More bacon - or fat drippings
John - question - do you think Capuano (or any Mass Democrat for that matter) - will continue to be able to bring home the bacon after the next elections?
The R's will still hold the house and with 23 of 33 Senate seats that are up for election currently held by Dems in continuing economically difficult times - it looks increasingly likely that the R's will take control of the Senate. At that point the presidency becomes almost irrelevant - Obama can be the obstructor in chief - but can't block everything or Romney/Cain/Gingrich et al can be the rubberstamp in chief (which is why I'll actually hope for an Obama second term if the R's take the Senate - one party rule sucks - always). If the R's hold all the cards, and especially if we send Warren to the Senate, with 11 D's in an R Washington, how relevant can Capuano and Mass. remain if we are that out of touch with the rest of the country?
Bacon vs. carrion
So we should become an ignorant Alabama backwater? We're losing a representative as it is, so yes, Massachusetts will have less clout, but this isn't the first time we've been out of step with the rest of the country (remember those "don't blame me..." bumper stickers?) and I'll still take our economy, infrastructure and educational systems (warty and in need of improvement as they are) over quite a number of States that "bleed red."
I almost always end up voting for the losers, so I'm the last one to prognosticate with any confidence, but I really wonder about who wins in this current climate. I suspect we'll have record ennui with the upcoming elections. I mean half the progressives feel like they've been kick in the balls, crotchety Yankee Republicans must feel completely mortified by the field of GOP candidates with the exception of Romney, but probably still feel he's a vacillating schmuck, born-agains and Tea Partiers are going to be disgusted by 'non-Christian' Romney, ... if a third party person jumps in there god only knows what happens. And of course the whole thing really hinges on what the economy does in the coming months. But really how many times can the electorate get all uppity and "vote dem bums out" only to end up with the same shit different suit, before they finally just don't vote at all?
Not bad
But district 7 (which I think I'm in - but now very close to Lynch's downtown parts of district 8) seems a bit contrived. Not sure it would have changed the racial mix they tried to achieve if Capuano gave up Milton and Randolph for West Roxbury and parts/all of Dedham or, perhaps better all of Boston. However, despite assertions to the contrary it looks like they tried to maintain a "Lynch District" by throwing Southie to his district -per Neal's comment I guess he could run -but good luck shaking the carpetbagger accusations. They make it look good by giving him downtown Boston but then wrap around to a lot of blue collar/union votes for the former steelworker in West Rox and Dedham.
I'm going to guess that District 9 may end up going Republican if they can field a decent candidate - the rest of the state will probably remain democratic unless there is a surprise on the North Shore.
Not sure it would have
You seem to know nothing about Milton, Randolph, West Roxbury or Dedham. They drew the map to get the minorities in Milton and Randolph. West Roxbury? Not so much. And you can't cut the minorities out of Dedham geographically like you can in Milton.
We are both half right
West Rox and Dedham I'm pretty familiar with. Milton a very little and I've literally only been to Randolph in the daytime I think once - in a very middle class white neighborhood - so yes - I'm not that familiar with Randolph and looking at the stats it has a higher percentage minority population than I thought.
They gain a grand total of about 15-20,000 minorities in those towns - 80%-90% of which are in Randolph - (these are 2000 census figures - went out to the census site and it looks like 2010 city/town data is not yet posted - only state level data-if you see the American Factfinder data for 2010 happy to update my numbers). I guess it's possible that if you looked at all the other bordering communities you couldn't find comparable density in Neponset, South Boston or that western corner of Cambridge - but that's an awful small number in a population of over 700,000 - which according to the post above isn't a minority majority district anyway. Again - looking strictly geographically, I find it odd that you take these tiny coastal urban slivers and hand them to a district that is otherwise disconnected from the rest of the heavily suburban district. From a needs/issues/demographic standpoint Southie is probably a lot more similar to Capuano's district than the rest of Lynch's. Like I said - it's not bad - but carving out that little sliver of coastal Boston seems a bit contrived and my bet is that if Lynch hailed from Quincy rather than Southie - that wouldn't have happened.
Randolph has had a
Randolph has had a substantial black population for years now, as has the section of Milton running out Blue Hill ave from Mattapan square. That's what they went after. Swapping either of those for West Roxbury or Dedham as a whole would dilute the minority numbers. To get any significant numbers out of Dedham, you'd have to take East Dedham as an island.
2010 Stats
Since someone asked, here is Randolph in 2010-
White (non-Hispanic)-12,553 (39.1%)
Black (NH)- 11,918 (37.1%)
Asian (NH)- 3.989 (12.4%)
Hispanic- 2,057 (6.4%)
The balance are Native Americans/Pacific Islanders/Mixed Race/Other.
I'm not a Randolpher, but I am sad to be moving from Lynch's district. I first voted for him on September 11th, and haven't stopped since.
Randolph has a very large
Randolph has a very large Haitian population. There is a substantial Haitian presence in a few of the Milton precincts in this new seat as well.
Why only define demographics
Why only define demographics by color? Religion and ethnicity are important too. Randolph has many Caribbean immigrants and Jewish-Americans as well. Please, there's more to a person than color. Let's look beyond the surface.
Can we...
...see the nostril size breakdown on that?
Actually
I can't tell for sure but it does look like the section of W. Roxbury in that district is the section with the highest nbr. of minorities.
Why Washington St.?
It really stinks that I'm going to be 50 yards away from Capuano's district yet stuck with Lynch.
Amen Brother.
Capuano but a few miles away on one side, and Frank but a few miles away on the other, and here I am ...stuck with Lynch.
as part of redistricting,
Voters should be able to rank in order a list of Congresspersons they'd like to be represented by.
Outside of 7, the rest
Outside of 7, the rest actually look fairly rational. Even Barney Frank's district has gone from grotesque to obviously playing games - a big improvement.
I'm Just Happy To Find Out...
... that I live in Watertown Town.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Does CD7 look like ....
... a hydra or not?
IUD?
And I don't mean Inter-Urban District ...
Squidistrict 7
The Gerrymander got its evolution on!
And is that just that odd bit of Somerville that pokes into Medford at the top there, or did the grab a couple of minority precincts of Medford to shove in there, too?
FYI: none of us will know who our congresscritter is until late in 2012 when these boundaries take effect (and after elections are held, of course).
That is indeed Somerville
Somerville, for some reason, gets the chunk of Boston Avenue from Mystic Valley Parkway to about 5 blocks from it, going towards Tufts. You can even see the Somerville blue street signs as compared to Medford's green ones. It's geographically insignificant, but Somerville is so small, it shows up rather obviously on maps.
Any mapping that shows the streets' names that border?...
Any mapping that shows the streets' names that border?... What streets are split down the middle?
Washington Street from Egleston south is split down the middle
The Google Earth KML file lets you zoom in for that amount of detail, if you have a strong enough computer, which apparently, I don't.
Re: Washington St from Egleston south is split down the middle
How do you set it up with districts overlaid?...
Should do it by itself
Download the KML file from the redistricting page, load it into Google Earth and then start zooming. At least, that's what I did.
It's a bit confusing because it has all these red and green lines, but the key thing is the orange lines - those mark off the proposed district lines.
Thanks, Adam.
We almost made it into Capuano-land.
Sample Ballots. Cambridge City Council. School Comm. Candidates
Sample Ballots. Cambridge City Council Candidates. School Committee Candidates.
http://cambridgema.gov/election.aspx
See also
http://vote.rwinters.com/
If I walk 5 minutes north,
If I walk 5 minutes north, east, or west I'm in a different district. If I drive an hour south to Fall River, I'm in my same Congressional district.
Makes sense to me!!!!
The gerrymander is all grown up.
Naturally, the word
Naturally, the word gerrymandering was coined in Massachusetts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Etymology