To the editor:
Over the weekend, while reading Ward 2 City Councilor Rick Starbard’s very informative monthly newsletter, I was shocked to read that the City of Lynn had approved new boundaries for the seven wards in the city.
This means that hundreds (maybe thousands) of Lynn residents will be shifted into new wards. I can’t tell you how many residents will be shifted or when this goes into effect because all of the planning was done behind closed doors. At the time of this writing, there is no mention of this on the city’s website and no public hearings were held.
(Editor’s note: Lynn City Clerk Janet Rowe told The Item that the state did not require a public hearing, only a vote by the City Council approving the ward boundaries map.)
I did some digging and found that many cities and towns across Massachusetts are also redrawing their ward boundaries.
Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, and Plymouth all have detailed plans, proposed ward maps and even videos on their respective websites. They all held public hearings within the past month or so and took public comments into consideration before making a final decision.
The Town of Arlington even made a point to state that they “sought to bring more equity to the process, considering factors such as race, ethnicity, age, income, home ownership, and equitable elections.”
You won’t find any equity in this city. The Lynn City Council decided to do things differently. They had a five-minute discussion at the very end of the Oct. 26 City Council meeting during a week where everyone was distracted with the upcoming election, and they approved it.
From watching the five-minute discussion at the council meeting, it seemed like City Attorney James Lamanna had done most of the work on this and just expected the City Council to sign off on it. The City Council was happy to do it.
They never gave a single thought to including the people of Lynn in this process as every other city had done. Of course, I’m just speculating. That’s all I can do since this was done in secret behind closed doors.
The last election showed that Lynn is still suffering from low voter turnout. People are not engaged. Perhaps it’s time that the City Council makes an effort to engage them.
Adam Wheeler
Lynn
