Gov. Deval Patrick’s assessment of the state of the commonwealth clocked in at nearly 3,400 words. But there was little mention in Monday’s address of two topics now dominating kitchen tables and the halls of government: the MBTA and casinos.

The transit agency is seeking to close a $160 million budget gap this year by hiking fares, slashing bus routes, and reducing service. Public hearings are underway, with unsurprising headlines. String together the words “angry,” “T users,” “cuts,” and the name of the city or town in which a hearing took place, and you have a summation of the raw outrage pouring forth from tapped-out citizens.

The MBTA has scheduled hearings in Mattapan on Jan. 30 at the Mildred Avenue Community Center and in Dorchester on Feb. 2 at the Dorchester House.

As for casinos, Patrick signed the legislation allowing three of them in the Bay State and appointed the gaming commission’s chairman, but the implementation is just beginning, at state and local levels. And that bears close watching since the legislation was touted as providing construction jobs, but will also likely improve the employment rate in the law enforcement sector (and among investigative reporters.)

Patrick may want to be remembered as an education governor, but gambling and the state’s continued transportation troubles remain dominant threads in his gubernatorial narrative.

Much of the news that emerged from Patrick’s address, delivered to assorted dignitaries and the House and Senate, centered on his call for a unified community college system. (President Obama made a similar call for linking community colleges with workforce development in last night’s State of the Union address.)

“In a unified system, students would earn a certificate of workplace readiness that would open doors in their chosen field anywhere in the state,” Patrick said. “And as they near course completion, one-stop career centers right on campus would help them move into, or back into, the workplace.”

Patrick also called for a bill that lengthens the time before a violent three-time felon can apply for parole and loosens mandatory minimum sentencing laws for nonviolent drug offenders.

The House and Senate have each passed their own attempts at criminal justice reform, though critics say the House version is imbalanced, and focuses too much on a “three-strikes” proposal that would be harmful to communities of color.

“We must be smarter about how we protect public safety,” Patrick said. “That means targeting the most dangerous and damaging for the strictest sentences, and better preparing the non-dangerous for eventual release and reintegration. We don’t have to choose the one or the other, and emphasizing prison time without successful re-entry has failed.”

The next day, at a State House press conference, Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree slammed the legislation as “nonsensical,” as other advocates say it was driven by 2012 being an election year. “This is not a bill that is smart on crime. This is a bill that was thrown together in both the House and Senate to show they’re tough on crime,” Ogletree said, according to the State House News Service.

Voting rights coalition proposes own City Council redistricting map

A coalition of voting rights advocates is pushing a map redrawing the boundaries of City Council districts, which could result in revamped Dorchester districts and two incumbents pitted against one another.

A City Council committee, headed by District 2 Councillor Bill Linehan, is working on approving a map. Growing populations in downtown Boston and northern neighborhoods mean the lines have to be redrawn in order to equalize the population numbers. For example, Dorchester’s District 3 needs to pick up residents, while District 2 must shed voters.

Linehan’s first attempt split up Chinatown and Mission Hill, left Councillor Michael Ross outside of District 8 and matched Ross against fellow City Councillor Matt O’Malley. O’Malley and Ross, who this week abandoned consideration of a Congressional run outside of Boston, have put forward their own maps largely keeping Mission Hill intact.

Under the map the coalition is submitting to the committee, Ross would face off against District 7 Councillor Tito Jackson. The coalition includes MassVOTE, the NAACP Boston branch, the Chinese Progressive Association, Oiste, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, among others.

The group, arguing for more opportunities of proportional representation, said in its letter to the council that 53 percent of Bostonians are people of color, but only 4 out of the 13 city councillors are people of color.

“Clearly, we are prioritizing increasing opportunity, whereas the City Council discussion has prioritized the status quo,” said Lydia Lowe, the head of the Chinese Progressive Association, which has clashed with Linehan during redistricting discussions. (A group of association members delivered holiday cookies to Linehan just before Christmas, which he “reluctantly” accepted, the association said.)

The coalition’s map proposes the following changes, according to its letter:

• District 2 would include South Boston, Downtown, Beacon Hill, and the Back Bay.

• Districts 3 and 4, which currently are split north to south, would be split east to west, with District 4 picking up the southern part of Dorchester. “This change relieves the current “packing” of District 4, which consists of nearly 90 percent non-white residents and strengthens opportunities for influence in District 3,” according to the coalition.

• District 7 would include Roxbury, Lower Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mission Hill. “Mission Hill, historically considered a part of Roxbury, is a working class, racially mixed neighborhood that shares many common concerns with the rest of this district,” the coalition said.

• District 8 would include Chinatown, the South End, and the Fenway. Noted the coalition: “This reconfigured District 8 would become an incumbent-free, racially-mixed district with common interests and anchored by a growing Asian-American population, creating significant opportunities for historically under-represented communities.”