Don't forget to tell your representatives!

Besides Red Sox scandal-mongering, one of Boston's main pastimes is griping about the T. The MBTA is seeing record ridership but is burdened by a long history of mismanagement, neglect, and debt. Every time there's another breakdown, another fare hike, or another rider-punishing initiative, people post comments and complaints online, but I wonder how many of them take the extra step of sending their thoughts to their elected officials? I understand that it can be disheartening after watching the charade leading up to the July 2012 fare hike, or after dealing with a non-responsive official. But every little bit does help remind them about what's important to their constituents. If we don't tell them, who will?

So, with that in mind, I present a map which shows the upcoming 2012 Senatorial districts and the incumbent State Senators who are running for re-election in those districts. There are also two challengers, for those interested in checking them out. Find your candidate(s) for State Senator (and other elected officials) and contact them -- let them know that you want the funding for the MBTA fixed, that you want safe walkable neighborhoods, policies that help increase availability of housing, better use of land, or whatever else you want to write about.

Political "geography" of the T

I tried to minimize the number of labels, so there's just enough to see which stations are in which district, and the general shapes in relation to each other. The information contained in the diagram can also be viewed on this geographic map and it contains the following list of State Senate candidates:

• Anthony Petruccelli: Official Website, Anthony.Petruccelli@masenate.gov
• Cynthia Creem: Official Website, Other Website, Cynthia.Creem@masenate.gov, cindycreem@cindycreem.com
• Jack Hart: Official Website, Jack.Hart@masenate.gov
• John Keenan: Official Website, Other Website, John.Keenan@masenate.gov
• Katherine Clark: Official Website, Other Website, Katherine.Clark@masenate.gov
• Michael Rush: Official Website, Mike.Rush@masenate.gov
• Patricia Jehlen: Official Website, Other Website, patricia.jehlen@masenate.gov
• Sal DiDomenico: Official Website, Other Website, Sal.DiDomenico@masenate.gov
• Sonia Chang-Diaz : Official Website, Other Website, Sonia.Chang-Diaz@masenate.gov
• Steven Aylward: Web Info Page, running against Brownsberger
• Thomas Dooley: Website, running against Petruccelli
• William Brownsberger: Official Website, Other Website, William.Brownsberger@masenate.gov, willbrownsberger@gmail.com

I'm still working on a map of State House candidates. But remember, you can always get the full details of your representation from WhereDoIVoteMa.com.