Meet Boston’s ‘woke’ mayor Michelle Wu, known for her progressive policies
The struggles of Wu’s mum with mental illness and the pitfalls of the public system inspired Wu to attend Harvard Law School
Michelle Wu, 39, made history when she was elected mayor of Boston in 2021. As the first woman, person of colour and Asian-American to take the role, she “broke a 199-year streak of white, male elected city leaders”, per NPR.
Wu is a decidedly progressive mayor whose platform is about creating a “more resilient, healthy and fair Boston, and then having the courage and political will to fight for all our families”, per her website. She advocates for housing affordability, education equity, public health and safety, and economic and climate justice, among other issues, but she’s been heavily criticised for her approach, which some see as too liberal.
So who is the Boston politician whose progressive policies have earned her the label “woke?”
Michelle Wu had a controversial voting plan for Boston
Wu caused a stir earlier this year when she announced a plan to offer more inclusive voting rights. Under her plan, more city residents would have a say in how some of their taxes would be used, as part of Boston’s participatory budget voting process. According to the city’s website, the participatory budget aims to provide “a democratic process where community members directly decide how to spend part of the public budget”.
Wu wanted to extend voting to “kids as young as 11 and undocumented migrants” to allow them to decide how US$2 million of the city’s funds would be used. Her administration would hand-pick 15 community priorities for the voting process. Voters would then be able to decide which of the 15 the money would be used for.
In a letter to the director of the Office of Participatory Budgeting, city councillor Ed Flynn called Wu “tone-deaf”, adding that public officials need to show “the taxpayers of Boston that we take our financial responsibilities seriously”.
She’s supposedly soft on crime
