Boston city councilors have been working on new redistricting maps after two earlier plans were rejected by Mayor Menino. According to a voice in the elevator at City Hall, the haggling all comes down to about 20 of Boston 254 precincts.

With people of color accounting for more than half the city's residents, that should be reflected boundaries for the council's nine districts. Some argue that should mean five districts in which people of color have a strong chance of getting elected, while others might go along with four districts and something scarcely more definite than a broader sense of possibilities.

Charles Yancey, the district councillor who represents parts of Dorchester and Mattapan, says his map would create five "districts of opportunity" for people of color, a number supported by the head of the New Democracy Coalition, Kevin Peterson. In Yancey's map, his 4th district would contain all of Mattapan, some of which is currently combined with Hyde Park and part of Roslindale in Rob Consalvo's 5th district. And the Lower Mills area of Dorchester would remain which it is currently, Frank Baker's District 3. Whether in Yancey's map or Consalvo's District 5 would easily count as another "opportunity district."

In Yancey's newest map, the 4th district would absorb some of the white population from other parts of Dorchester, which would reduce the amount of racial packing in his earlier plans. But there would be more division of the South End (among in three districts), though the area around Villa Victoria would be combined with Chinatown and East Boston to create a "district of opportunity" that Yancey says other maps fail to provide. And there's no question that this is the only map that combines the growing Latino population in East Boston with a significant Latino base in another neighborhood.

It can be argued this still offers little improvement over a map drawn up by Consalvo, which is closer to the current configuration. Even with the current boundaries, a challenger from Chinatown running last year, Suzanne Lee, came very close to unseating the District 2 incumbent Bill Linehan. Carrying Chinatown and the South End, Lee also got close t 30% of the vote from the district's largest base, in South Boston.

By combining the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and North End Waterfront with Charlestown, Yancey's map would combine Mission Hill with most of the other sections of Roxbury in District 7, currently represented by Tito Jackson. The new district would also include the home of the current District 8 councilor, Mike Ross.

In strictly legal terms, there is no requirement for a map to protect incumbents. There is language about preserving adequate weight for communities of interest. That can sometimes be defined in terms of neighborhood boundaries. It could also end up that, in a map providing enough racial balance in political clout, the boundaries of Mattapan might not have any more weight than the boundaries of the South End or Jamaica Plain.

Other coverage: an update by Gintautas Dumcius in the Dorchester Reporter, along with the paper's editorial.