A contentious redistricting process ended with relatively little fuss Wednesday, when the Boston City Council passed a new map via a 10-2 vote.
A last-minute compromise over District 4 and 5 changes, the subject of a bitter exchange that saw councilors arguing for more than six hours on Tuesday, appeared to be a contributing factor to the final, lopsided vote.
Three councilors who voiced dissent Tuesday over a Mattapan precinct that would have been moved from District 5 to District 4 voted in favor of the amended map that Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune brought before the body Wednesday — which undid the change she had initially proposed for that precinct, 14-14.
Voting in opposition were Councilors Kendra Lara and Julia Mejia.
“This was obviously a very contentious process,” Louijeune said. “Whenever legislators are drawing lines there’s a lot at stake for people individually. And you always have to remember to center what’s most important to the voters.”
The City Council was able to reach consensus on a new redistricting map just in time to avoid a delay to the Sept. 12 preliminary election. Mayor Michelle Wu had informed the body that it had until May 30 to take action on a new map, and had even offered her own redistricting proposal to try to move the process forward.
Wu’s map, along with two other proposals put forward by Councilors Kendra Lara and Michael Flaherty, were dismissed by Louijeune, who chaired the civil rights committee meetings where the new district lines were drawn.
The final map was built from one that Louijeune had proposed and incorporated input from her colleagues.
Another notable change made to Louijeune’s map, brought forward as an amendment on Wednesday, including shifting precinct 17-13 from District 4 to District 3, thus keeping “the boot,” or the South Dorchester precincts of 16-8, 16-11, 16-12 and 17-13 in District 3.
The Council’s decision to move these four majority-white precincts from D3 to D4 last fall factored into the federal judge’s ruling earlier this month. The court threw out the map the Council approved last year, via a 9-4 vote, saying that the body had likely violated the Constitution by factoring race into how city lines were redrawn.
Plaintiffs had argued the changes to these four precincts would dilute the Black vote in D4, while advocates said the changes were made with the aim of not “packing” Black voters in D4.
It’s not a perfect map, said Councilor Michael Flaherty, and not everyone’s happy. But that’s not necessarily a poor outcome, he said.
“That tends to show that it’s a good map because not everybody got what they wanted,” Flaherty said. “Let’s put this in the rear-view mirror and move forward.”