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Shortly after the City announced that she was Allston-Brighton’s Neighborhood Liaison, Jennifer and I meet at one of her first neighborhood office hours at Cafe Turco (483 Cambridge St). A few neighbors sit around her as she animatedly speaks to them, a legal notepad set before her.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
How did your relationship to Allston begin? I grew up in Chicago. I went to college at Mount Holyoke in Western Massachusetts. After briefly trying my hand at New York, I came to Boston to visit my friend. And I was like, “Yeah, I should be living here. This feels way more my character and my speed.” At the time, my friend was living in Allston, and a few months later, I found myself crashing on her couch until I was set up and established.
Allston-Brighton has really been my gateway to Boston. It was my first landing place. That was over a decade ago now. I look back at young Jennifer and think of all the life I’ve lived in Allston-Brighton — the times I struggled, the ways I grew up. A lot of that story has happened in Allston-Brighton, around the food places, art spaces, music venues. Boston has been a really great city for me to begin establishing myself, and Allston-Brighton in particular.
Boston exerted its pull on me, and a group of my friends all ended up here, even though we fully thought we were going to be West Coast arts folks. But we all settled here.
What has it been like building community in Allston? I had a lot of different jobs, Joanna — so many random jobs when I first came. It was maybe a little bit more spontaneous than I’ve ever been in my life, the decision that brought me to Boston. I’ve always had groups of professional friends, work friends, arts friends, dance friends. I found so many opportunities. I’m a house party girl too, so there was so much energy when I arrived here.
How did those jobs inform the role you’re taking now as a neighborhood liaison? Most of my career has been in higher education, working specifically with international students. I’ve always felt I benefited from a wide lens of the world, even while being a stationary person in Boston. My role in these institutions was to welcome people to Boston — newcomers, people just starting their Boston stories, people from different cultures — and introduce them to the culture of Boston: the history, the spaces. Working with a diverse community meant building community intentionally, introducing people to a space and to the people and stakes of that neighborhood. I also spent a lot of time cultivating welcoming spaces.
So this job at City Hall actually felt perfect. I could be a champion for Allston-Brighton, the place I made a home, connect people to resources, hold space for many differing opinions, cultures, and ideas. A friend of mine, really cheerleading for me, said, “Girl, it’s the perfect job for you. You do this all the time.” It was different because I had been working primarily with students, but the through-line was clear.
What approaches have you taken from your experience cultivating these welcoming spaces that you now apply in Allston? It’s always helpful to find everyone’s commonalities—what we share, the things that sometimes go overlooked. Everyone wants an affordable, vital, vibrant neighborhood with cultural life, places to go on a Friday night, safety, and streets people aren’t afraid to walk down.
So many different groups share these values. I’ve been joking with everyone: “Yes, Allston-Brighton, we can take multitudes.” My partner is a skater punk — always down at Smith Park (235 Western Ave) on his skateboard — while I’m doing something else entirely. There are so many contrasts, but also a ton of commonalities. I always want to highlight that when I’m in community.
I’m also not afraid of friction.
After working for a long time with people from many perspectives, I see friction as generative. If I’m doing my job right, I’m creating a space for conversations where different perspectives can lead to great ideas or creative solutions. My background with new arrivals and immigrants, plus the artistic side, has prepared me to handle consensus-building, navigate difficult conversations, and bring people into spaces they didn’t feel they had access to.
Could you talk about the role of a neighborhood liaison? What should neighbors know and what should they expect from a neighborhood liaison? I don’t think most people in Allston-Brighton have spent a lot of time going down to City Hall, so it’s a little bit of City Hall coming to the neighborhood. I see my role partially as another way of getting information to residents, getting resources to residents. A lot of people are not familiar with all that City Hall has to offer, and all that City Hall does.
My role can be like an implant — I live in the neighborhood, and I can help disperse and disseminate information from City Hall that maybe needs another push or another hand in the neighborhood, reaching different communities or reaching different people.
It goes the other way as well. I spend a lot of time in the community listening to neighbors’ concerns, listening to folks who are looking at their sphere of Allston-Brighton, their particular interest area, or what have you. I take that back to City Hall and highlight the things in Boston. The neighborhoods across Boston are all very different and to varying degrees have their specific issues. It’s my job to elevate those when I’m in City Hall.
From those listening sessions, what have been, or what will be, the higher priority items that you’re bringing to City Hall, or that you’ve started to hear people talk about?
When I meet with residents, business owners, people doing youth programming, or faith leaders, I ask them, what’s a top-line or a priority issue that you want to make sure I elevate in City Hall, even to the Mayor? Pretty unanimously across Allston-Brighton, folks tell me that our lack of a renovated, revitalized community center is their priority. The Jackson Mann (40 Armington St) has been something I’ve been in conversation about with colleagues at City Hall. I know there’s a lot of work being done on that, and it’s a matter of time, but it’s a longer process. I hear a lot of frustrations from people, but it continues to be elevated.
The other big one is the rats — the rodent problem. I hear from longtime residents, but also newly arrived residents, anyone throughout the neighborhood, saying they’re afraid of rats and that the rats are taking over. I know it’s an issue not just in Allston-Brighton, but across the city and in lots of large cities that produce lots of waste. The Boston Rodent Action Plan (BRAP) has been a huge step forward in educating residents, businesses, and homeowners about how we can make improvements together with proper trash storage and reducing sources for the rats. I’m actually really confident, because I think a lot of good work has been done as far as the rodent issue.
How will residents continue to be updated on progress with these issues? What should the neighborhood know about where they will be getting information, or how they can get in touch with you? How accessible will you be? Half of my job is being in community, going to community events and attending different gatherings. I also hold weekly office hours, and honestly, I’ve had amazing attendance. People come with their questions and issues, and I appreciate that it has unintentionally become a kind of second community space. Residents are learning from each other as much as they’re seeking answers from City Hall. I enjoy the community and all the new faces, people from different parts of the neighborhood. I’ll say, okay, I’ll go walk over there. So office hours will be number one, but I also have direct lines of contact — email (jennifer [dot] roberts [at] boston [dot] gov) or my cell phone.
There are a lot of projects going on in Allston-Brighton right now. It feels like such an interesting time for me to come on board, because the Allston-Brighton Neighborhood Plan is still shaping up and in progress. During this particular time, it’s good for me to be out flyering, door knocking, and connecting with residents as much as possible. Allston-Brighton is going through a really big process with city zoning, planning, and long-term development.
I’ll come to you — invite me to things. Residents, constituents, I’ll go to your barbecue, I’ll come sit in on youth athletics. The more information I have, the better. The more spaces I’m invited into, the more outreach I can be doing.
What steps are you thinking about when it comes to reaching communities that aren’t as loud or active in advocacy in Allston? This is always the challenge whenever you do community building. This was always my question in student services as well: how do I get to the students who aren’t connected? It’s the exact same thing with Allston-Brighton. Some spaces don’t have the same level of access to City Hall, and people in government have to make sure we’re connecting. I’ve already been out to a lot of spaces, and Allston-Brighton is scrappy. There are a lot of folks doing the work on the ground who may or may not have connections to City Hall. Identifying people who are already connectors or leaders in their community, formal or informal, is one strategy. The different organizations in Allston-Brighton already doing this work with immigrant communities, students, or others have created networks that don’t always have affiliations with City Hall but still have their own outlets and channels. Tapping into those is essential.
What does a day on the job look like for a neighborhood liaison? I be running around!
The job is 50/50, or pretty evenly split between City Hall, where I’m doing case work. I’m collaborating with different departments, whether it’s ISD (Inspectional Services Department), Parks and Rec., Transportation, Small Business and Economic Opportunity and Inclusion, what have you. In the course of trying to solve issues that are on the ground and that residents come to me for, I’m doing that case work, and I’m bringing in the specialists, the people who are overseeing those particular issues from City Hall.
Then I do the other half of my time in community — office hours, but also meeting with community members, walking the streets of Allston-Brighton. I’m a public transportation girly, so you will see me on the 57, 70 bus, walking Western Ave, whatever. A lot of that time too is just to go to the neighborhoods, to go to the communities, to go to the people who don’t necessarily have the same access to City Hall, and elevate their concerns as well.
Something that I hear is, Allston is the second largest neighborhood in Boston, but it’s often the most underfunded from the city. I’m curious about what challenges you see, having talked to people or being in this neighborhood liaison role, for Allston in terms of getting support from the city? What are ways that you’re thinking about navigating these challenges for the neighborhood in your capacity as a liaison? I think I work in the office, Joanna, with a number of other excellent neighborhood liaisons, who I’m also learning a ton from. And I can tell you that characterization is probably what most neighborhood liaisons hear from their constituents—that there’s not enough investment, that we’re the ones who are not being treated the same. I don’t have any numbers to call to you today, but I know that City Hall is holding so many different things. And maybe I don’t know how to tell someone who’s in Allston-Brighton otherwise. They know, they have their experiences, and I’m not going to tell anybody that I know better than what they’re seeing, or what they’ve long experienced in the city.
But I’ve been here, like I said, over ten years, and I feel like every year we trend up in Allston-Brighton. And that is despite having some real serious times when I thought I was not going to be able to afford to stay in Boston. There’s been so much affordable housing development that’s happened across the city, and Allston-Brighton has gotten a fair share of it. So I remain hopeful, but I also know there are a ton of my residents who are doing the same work every day and who are investing so much into our neighborhood and our communities. And so I just want to make sure that we are matching that — that I’m going to do as much at City Hall and try to push and get into the weeds of whatever issues constituents need me to. I’m willing to do that work, I’m happy to do that work. And everyone in Allston-Brighton knows that they’re already doing that work, so I just want to match their energy.
Finally, what do you want the neighborhood to know about you?
I just am excited to work really hard on behalf of the Allston-Brighton residents. Yeah, invite me to your things, and I will probably dance there.
