Steve LeBron
Associated Press
Michelle Wu
BOSTON (AP) — When she was elected mayor of Boston in November, Michelle Wu changed the image of the city’s chief executive — until then, it was the only field for white men, many of whom were Irish pedigree.
Now in office, the Chicago-born daughter of Taiwanese immigrants faces a series of challenges, including delivering on key campaign promises such as creating a free public transit system and slowing the city’s soaring housing costs.
Ms Wu, 37, a mother of two, has also been grappling with early morning protests outside her home and racist taunts online.
“In a job like this, you can’t personalize things,” Wu said in an interview with The Associated Press. “At the same time, over the past few years, in particular, we’ve seen a normalization of behavior that is toxic, harmful and personally abusive to many.”
“Women and women of color, in particular, tend to have the most racialized and gender-based versions of this intensity,” she added.
A rowdy morning rally outside her home prompted Wu to push for a new city ordinance that would limit the time protesters can gather in residential areas to windows between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
She also dismissed online chats that attempted to question her mental health. Wu has been open about her mother’s struggles with mental illness.
“The most shocking thing about some of the rumors or these whispering campaigns is the fact that I think it had the opposite effect,” Wu said. “If I need mental health support, I’ll be the first to say so.”
She has also come under fire from city unions for her pandemic mandate, and most recently, she tried acupuncture on whether and how to allow restaurants to continue offering sidewalk dining on the narrow streets at the city’s northern end.
For Wu, the position remains a dream job — a former Democratic city councillor and policy expert, modeled after Senator Elizabeth Warren.
“In many ways, being able to roll up my sleeves just to address the issues I’ve been talking about feels familiar, uplifting and energizing,” Wu said. “The whole city can feel the energy of Boston getting the job done right now.”
While Wu was the first woman of color to be elected mayor, she was not the first to hold the seat.
Former City Council President Kim Jenney (Black) to serve most of 2021 after former Mayor Marty Walsh resigned as labor secretary under President Joe Biden Acting mayor.
Unlike the typical Boston mayor, Wu was not born and raised in the city. She first came to the neighboring Cambridge University from Chicago to attend Harvard University.
She will eventually move her two younger sisters and mother to Boston when she attends Harvard Law School.
“Boston gave me everything I value in my life – the ability to take care of my family, my mom’s access to health care in a way that saved her life, the school I was able to raise my sisters in and now my own two Boy,” Wu said. “It’s a city with every possible opportunity you can think of, but it’s also a city that really needs to remove barriers in order for every part of our community to feel that.”
One of Wu’s biggest challenges is housing.
Boston is facing hollowing out, fueled by rapid gentrification, as trendy new apartment buildings rise in neighborhoods that have traditionally relied on three-story wooden houses to house working and middle-class people.
“We’re now trying to put everything we have into housing,” said Wu, who has pledged to restore rent control, outlawed by Massachusetts voters in 1994.
Boston is surrounded by neighboring neighborhoods and the Atlantic Ocean, and there aren’t many large open spaces available for new housing. The last – a former industrial landscape renamed the Harbour District – has been filled with boxy, glass-enclosed high-rises.
Wu is eyeing three other parcels: a former horse ranch near the city’s East Boston; reconfiguring Interstate 90, which could free up land that Harvard primarily owns; and an industrial estate near the city’s South Boston neighborhood, where the During the city’s failed bid to host the 2024 Olympics, the district was used as a stadium.
During the campaign, Wu also pledged to provide a free public transportation system.
The city has made a down payment on the pledge through three toll-free bus lines that primarily serve riders in communities of color and low-income communities. The city is providing $8 million in federal pandemic relief funding for the next two years.
“Bus service is the most cost-effective and fairest place to start because that’s where we see the biggest gaps in rider experience,” Wu said, noting that black riders spend an extra 64 hours a year on Boston’s buses with white riders Compare.
Extending the rollout of free fares to other bus lines and subway systems could require action from state lawmakers, the governor and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, which oversees the public transit system. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker criticized the idea.
Wu said she hopes to change what it means to be mayor of the nearly 400-year-old city — and perhaps change how the rest of the country views Boston.
“I made a commitment to myself early on that I would be proud of my political identity long after I quit politics,” Wu said. “At first I was worried that taking on this role would mean having to change my family’s life in a different way. … But politics is not necessarily how we see it now. Politics is what we do.”
“I hope that in learning who I am – a mom of two young children, someone who didn’t grow up in the city and who was raised by parents who didn’t grow up in this country – I expanded what I was right about. Define what leadership looks like,” she said.
