With the Nov. 4 municipal election swiftly approaching, Ward 6 City Councilor-at-Large candidate Lisa Gordon plans to leverage her history of community advocacy to help improve the working and living environment that Newton cultivates.
If elected, Gordon’s primary goal is to serve the community by ensuring all voices are heard, regardless of whether she shares their views.
“I really believe in a representative model of city government,” Gordon said. “I think that we are elected to represent our community, and that is vitally important. Whether I share the views or I don’t, I will listen and do the best job that I can to make sure that all voices are heard.”
Gordon models herself as a candidate for all voters, aiming to overcome political differences to support the widest range of residents within her district.
“I’m a candidate for all residents,” Gordon said. “I know what it’s like to give young people true agency, and I am a huge believer in that … One of the things I really would like to do if I get on the city council would be to work with our high school students, college students in the area to really show them how important it is that our young people are involved.”
Gordon is also cognizant that the needs of the elderly residents of Newton may be very different than those of the generation she has raised her kids alongside.
“My mother still lives here,” Gordon said. “I am extremely aware of what the experience is like, having invested in the Newton community and now being at the part where you’re not sending kids to school anymore, and what that does and what that feels like.”
A lifelong Newton resident, Gordon is an active volunteer in the community and believes that experience has given her the ability to communicate across differences.
“I learned very early on how to collaborate with all different types of people, and I’m a huge believer that true collaboration is the best way forward in almost all situations,” Gordon said.
When asked about the issues she found most pressing, Gordon pointed to school budgeting and supporting small businesses.
“I think we have real budgetary issues, and I would link that to supporting our schools,” Gordon said. “It’s really important as a community that our schools are supported. I feel that schools and local businesses are the two big pillars of our community, and they both really need to be supported.”
Gordon also finds it of the utmost importance to support environmental acts that affect many of Newton’s best-known natural resources, including Newton’s most famous bodies of water.
“Beloved landmarks like these do not exist for as long as they do without the tireless work of groups like Bullough’s Pond Association, Friends of Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake Conservancy, and it will be my chief priority that these constituents feel heard and are listened to,” wrote Gordon on her website.
Gordon is even interested in engaging with the Boston College community, from its Newton campus full of newly eligible voters to the wider Chestnut Hill community and its students who may be interested in politics and policy.
“I would love to say to the BC community that if you’re all interested in any kind of local politics or thinking about politics for the future, if I get on the council, reach out,” Gordon said. “I would love to speak with you and see what your interests are, and maybe there’s some opportunity for us to work together.”
To Gordon, representing all aspects of the Newton community—from its businesses to its residents, schools, and environment—is essential to a successful term. But most importantly, she hopes she can be seen as a trusted candidate for Ward 6.
“I would like to see that I help with transparency, that people at the end of the two years know how I voted, and know where I stand,” Gordon said.
