Jew World Order

But she said others shouldn’t be deterred from public office.

“Be yourself,” Wu said in a wide-ranging interview about the early months of her administration. “I’ve seen how quickly the dynamic can shift when there are more of us at the table.”

Wu said everyone has to learn to live with the virus — a message Democrats have leaned on as the pandemic turns two and restrictions become increasingly unpopular. But she also said it’s “frustrating to see such a desire to protect the right to be unvaccinated and serve the public” when 95 percent of city workers have gotten their shots. “It’s irresponsible.”

The vaccine-mandate fight looms over the more mundane needs of the city, as well Wu’s lofty first-term goals. She is looking for a new school superintendent and police commissioner as she fills other key Cabinet positions. Her administration is also trying to connect people struggling with homelessness with shelter and substance-use treatment programs while pumping millions of dollars into more affordable housing. Perhaps her splashiest plan so far is to make three bus routes through the heart of Boston’s Black and brown neighborhoods fare-free for two years.

Wu’s barrier-breaking victory in November and her unabashedly progressive policies have made her the latest rallying point for the left and a political punching bag for the right.

She sat down with POLITICO to reflect on diversity in government, her goals for transportation and climate, and whether an increasingly toxic political discourse is as much part of the new normal as Covid.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You shattered a glass ceiling for progressives, for women, for people of color in Boston. How do you make sure you’re not a one-off?

We’re already seeing that. I had said throughout the campaign that the organizing happening in Boston for the 2021 mayor’s race had to roll right into the 2022 governor’s race. Cities need a strong partner in the governor’s office and statewide and with our federal partners, so we’re already seeing a lot of the energy and momentum around issues and advocacy turn right into this year’s conversations and the huge opportunity that Massachusetts and the commonwealth have for making change across the state. And we’re also building teams. So much of what we’re doing is really to reshape how communities engage with city government, and who is leading these conversations and who is sitting in positions of leadership.

Seeing the racism and misogyny you’ve faced, do you worry that might dissuade other women or people of color from wanting to seek office?

That’s why I have spoken about it, to be honest about what happens now and how ridiculous it is in so many ways that we’re proving that more is possible in city government and the conversation sometimes is so focused on a small group trying to assert their supremacy that it can distract from what is happening. But our administration has not been daunted or slowed down by any of that going on on the outside.

What is your message to other people who say “I want to be her, but I’m not sure if I want to face this?”

Be yourself. I’ve seen how quickly the dynamic can shift when there are more of us at the table. When I was first elected to the [Boston City Council], it was a doubling of the number of women on the council, and [then-councilor] Ayanna [Pressley] and I were very much constantly described as “the women councilors.” Even when we doubled again the next year, it was four out of 13. And so it was still “the women councilors” and everyone else. And then by the next year, when we were at six, I don’t think anyone said “woman councilor” ever again because it’s just the standard.

We’re still in 2022 waiting for the state’s highest glass ceiling to be shattered. We’re getting there, but it has taken quite a while. And not everyone is excited about these barriers coming down. In fact, some people — a small, vocal, unhappy group — choose to share their fear of change in a way that’s incredibly harmful to our society and to the public discourse. But there are many more people who are excited and there are many more people who have been involved and have already helped fundamentally change how we will see city government and politics from this point forward.

You’ve attributed a lot of this backlash so far as the kind of trickle-down effect of national politics. Is this just because of Covid-19, or is this the new normal?

I don’t know. I think there’s a combination of related factors. There was hate long before Covid. There was systemic racism long before Covid. And the pandemic has deepened not only every disparity but also the intensity of mental health needs that we see in our communities. People are living with a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety and uncertainty and are channeling it in all different ways.

But you can ask any woman who has served in government in Massachusetts and you’ve had stories dating back decades of what it has been like to be right on the other side of the barrier that has come down, but still experiencing a lot of discomfort and fear from those who are worried that this is somehow affecting their power or their ability to hold onto their lives or what’s important to them.

We’re in a moment where social media … and the constant flow of information and misinformation is really affecting how people interact with each other. A lot of what I hear outside my house every day is directly from the playbook of national right-wing talking heads and funders. I think many are coming in from outside Boston to find a platform here. But I see how intense the misinformation campaigns are and how much that gets connected to people’s identities and who they feel like deserves to be in positions of power.

New York City recently fired 1,400 employees for not complying with the city’s vaccine mandate. Why are you having so much trouble enacting a similar policy here?

There’s long-standing precedent that state and local governments have the authority to take action for public health in times of emergency. It’s well within our authority to require full vaccination of our workforce, to ensure that we are keeping the public safe as well as our own city employees safe. It’s disappointing that a very small group is fighting for the absolute right for some people to stay unvaccinated and get to work and interact with the public and their co-workers without any restrictions whatsoever. That’s just not safe and it’s not realistic.

When you talk with public health officials and epidemiologists about how this pandemic will likely look in the months to come, it’s not over — it’s not going to be over. It will ebb and flow. And if we continue to see the progress that we have, the surges will no longer be intense emergencies. But we will still have to react to them and we’ll still have to accommodate what that means in terms of the behaviors that are necessary to protect people in those moments.

Is there a point where you bring back a testing option?

We’ve already ratified [an agreement that includes testing during times of lower transmission] with the Boston Teachers Union. It’s not my ideal. … This pandemic has been changing very quickly and our goal is to stay ahead of the curve on what’s happening. A key provision of the BTU deal even is that all new hires must be vaccinated and the remaining very small number [of unvaccinated staff] will not be in classrooms during times of high transmission, people will be on unpaid leave.

You’re using $8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to make three bus routes fare-free for two years. What happens when the pilot program ends?

I am constantly in communication with Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Ed Markey, as they have filed legislation at the federal level that would generate funding for fare-free public transportation across the country. We have similar legislation focused on fare-free buses up at the state house. For the time being, our partners and sister cities across the region are already in conversation with the MBTA about how we expand this current model, which is municipalities finding funding to replace fares on bus lines.

With Democrats’ climate agenda stalled in Congress, what can cities do to combat climate change?

As a Green New Deal city, the vision is that climate, jobs and equity are part of every conversation of every department. Sometimes people say “it’s so big, how do you do anything on the local level?” We are moving seriously on electrification, so electric school buses would be one of the fastest ways to clean air in our communities and start to reduce our carbon footprint in Boston. … Growing our urban tree canopy is the best technology we have to bring temperatures down, absorb pollution, absorb stormwater. And then thinking about green infrastructure … and [legislative tools] to help tackle building emissions, which are the vast majority of Boston’s municipal carbon footprint and then transportation makes up most of the rest of it. [The city is hiring a Green New Deal advisor who] will be orienting the full force of city government and our partners in the community to connecting climate justice, racial justice and economic justice with every action that we take.

Cities like Santa Monica, Calif., are now prioritizing affordable housing for people who were displaced from highway projects years ago. Is this something that’s being discussed here?

It hasn’t come up yet. But there’s a legacy of communities being displaced across our city that has stretched the entire course of our history that we are looking to change and looking to repair. … I’m not as familiar with that program so I’ll definitely look into it. But there have been many important conversations on reparations, for example, and how, in addition to conversation to federal movement, that cities can take our own action as well. The City Council is moving through a legislative process around what a codified, formalized effort would include. The Boston Foundation is leading conversations as well and I expect Boston to be heavily involved in repairing the harms of the past.

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