Progressive Liz Breadon Eyes Fourth Term as Allston-Brighton Councilor

Liz Breadon became a politician because she was a physical therapist.

“I think it wasn’t really a switch,” she said.

While treating patients in their homes, Breadon saw firsthand how older Bostonians were being displaced from their buildings to build new condominiums. As the cost of living and raising a family in the city skyrocketed, she became involved in community organizing around housing issues. Working on political campaigns motivated her to run for office herself, which is exactly what she did in 2019 when she was elected to the Boston City Council.

Breadon represents District 9, which covers Allston and Brighton. She has been a progressive mainstay on the council for the past five years, working to make affordable housing more accessible for lower-income residents and improving early education across the city. She is running for a fourth term as councilor, facing Pilar Ortiz, CSOM ’12.

Breadon is the first openly LGBTQIA+ member of the council, something she wouldn’t have fathomed doing in her home country of Northern Ireland, which she immigrated from in 1995. “I wasn’t able to be out in pride in Northern Ireland. Back then, it was quite a conservative place and you could risk losing your job or whatever. But when I came to Boston, it felt really liberating to be more out about my identity,” she said.

In March, Breadon co-led the effort to officially declare Boston a sanctuary city for transgender people. She said this resolution set a strong foundation for protecting the civil rights of transgender people, especially at a time when states like Tennessee and Texas have passed laws removing protections for transgender youth. “We need to enforce these rules vigorously and send a message that these folks are part of our community,” she said. “They live here, they contribute to our society here in Boston, and they deserve to have their civil rights respected.”

The strong sectarianism of Northern Ireland prevented people from speaking about what they actually believe. Breadon said that growing up, she often heard the phrase, “Whatever you say, say nothing.” She took the opposite message from that phrase: You need to have tough conversations to create change.

Breadon had many tough conversations when redrawing Boston’s political map in 2022. As chair of the Committee on Redistricting, which redraws the city’s map every 10 years, Breadon and other councilors changed the borders around District 4 in a plan dubbed “the unity map.” She said many Black voters had been “packed” into District 4—which spans Mattapan, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, and Roslindale—leading to a higher Black population in the district and a lower one outside of it. The decision was intended to give communities of color more agency and representation in choosing a councilor.

The “unity map” passed 9-4 in November 2022, but not without staunch opposition. Former District 3 Councilor Frank Baker, who lost part of his Irish Catholic voter base to District 4, accused Breadon of leading an “all-out assault on Catholic life in Boston,” and attacked her Protestant upbringing, stirring up images of The Troubles. Breadon, along with other councilors and residents, found the comments offensive and uncalled for, leading to Baker apologizing.

District 9 itself is very diverse, with a high population of immigrants and international students. Breadon understands that these two groups have been targeted by the federal government in recent months. At a time when ICE has arrested and deported immigrants across Boston and made its presence known near Allston-Brighton, Breadon believes the community needs to work together to protect its international residents.

“We’ve been working with the community to try and do lots of ‘know your rights’ trainings. We’ve also organized bystander training, so that if they see ICE, they know what to do and what not to do” she said. Allston-Brighton has a response network where community members report ICE agents’ location when they’re spotted, but Braedon said that it needs to be strengthened.

Ortiz, her challenger, claimed that the Boston City Council has continually forgotten about the community. Breadon acknowledges that Allston-Brighton’s geographically removed location from the city center leads to its chronic underfunding in the budget. To redress this, she has pushed for more capital investment to bring money into the area.

“There’s this notion that, ‘We’ll let Harvard pay for it, or [Boston University] will pay for it or [Boston College] will pay for it,’” she said. “But ultimately, we are still a neighborhood of this city and we pay taxes, so the city has to support us, especially in capital investment.”

Breadon’s first five years in office have been defined by the COVID-19 pandemic and the city’s recovery from it, which have slowed progress. But she is pushing for change. She is actively working with the Public Facilities Department to plan a new community center in Allston’s Union Square, which she hopes will serve as a third space for all of her constituents.

Local politics are slow, but Breadon knows that the work she does on the council makes a direct impact on the over 70,000 residents in her district. Her goal is the same as it was when she first entered politics in community organizing: to improve the community she lives in. “It’s an ongoing process of just building relationships and making the community stronger going forward,” she said.

Polls are open for Boston’s general municipal election on Tuesday, Nov. 4, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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