Things you won’t hear Michelle Wu say in her State of the City address Tuesday night:
Retail shopping is booming in Downtown Crossing.
We’re putting the Christopher Columbus statue back up.
No! More! Bike Lanes!
Boston Public Schools are safer than ever.
It’s about time the City Council finally got raises!
Now halfway through her sometimes tumultuous first term, the Boston mayor has a few things to crow about, like finally getting rid of tents at drug-plagued Mass and Cass, but others that have a mixed track record of success.
Despite her pledge to unite the city when she was elected two years ago, some residents and neighborhoods feel more divided than ever. Her Christmas party excluding white elected officials and her attitude toward North End restaurant owners are just two examples of reality not matching her rhetoric.
And Wu can be tone deaf, like her knee jerk defense of former Harvard President Claudine Gay and blaming her ouster on racial bias.
“I’m just really saddened by how the whole thing played out,” Wu said on ‘Java with Jimmy.’“I simply don’t believe that three minutes of a video clip, especially in a certain setting where you’re in a place where people are putting you in a ‘gotcha’ moment, that that should define everything,” she later added.
Actually, Gay’s lame refusal to denounce antisemitism on campus and make it safe for Jewish students, and the serious allegations of plagiarism are what led to the calls for her to go.
On public safety, Wu often seems more fixated on creating new bike lanes than creating safer neighborhoods.
Crime was up 2% in 2023 though shootings were down. But do you really feel safer in Boston than you were two years ago?
Macy’s is under attack by shoplifters, and the store didn’t even do a tree lighting this year at its Downtown Crossing location. Just this week, a Boston student was arrested with a gun at a Back Bay high school.
In West Roxbury, fire trucks are having trouble getting through Centre Street and traffic is often backed up for blocks because of her refusal to back off her “traffic calming” and bike lane plan.
Many schools continue to under perform and Wu has stirred up a hornet’s nest of opposition to her plan to move the O’Bryant School to West Roxbury. Her administration leaked out a plan to close half the schools then the next day insisted it was not going to happen.
Which brings us to transparency. Wu’s administration, especially the police department, is one of the least transparent in recent memory when it comes to answering public records requests.
Wu’s future as mayor remains a bit unclear more than two years after she was first elected.
She doesn’t yet have an opponent in 2025 but more and more conservatives are pushing back against Wu’s agenda, and they could unite behind a candidate if they find a good one.
And rumors continue to dog Wu about whether she is looking for another job.
It will be interesting to see if Wu makes a definitive statement about keeping her job during her State of the City speech Tuesday night.
