Bike lanes. A brand new “forestry” division. A 20% increase for uncontrolled metropolis councilors. Shootings. A continued disaster at Mass and Cass.
For this we’re speculated to take a victory lap for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s first anniversary?
Wu on Wednesday did precisely that, criss-crossing the town from Java with Jimmy in Roxbury to the opening of a senior middle in East Boston to “commemorate” her first yr in workplace.
Wu has had some successes, like getting the streets plowed final winter, and represented metropolis residents properly throughout the MBTA Orange Line shutdown, holding the T accountable.
But the truth is that it’s been a typically rocky first yr for Wu, whether or not it’s clamping down on protesters outdoors her home to explaining why shootings and murders proceed to plague metropolis neighborhoods.
She vetoed a 20% pay hike for metropolis councilors and different metropolis officers however couldn’t even maintain her veto — displaying she will be able to’t management the pay-hungry elected officers.
Councilors additionally now have a giant say within the finances, which has weakened Wu’s energy.
In Roxbury and Mattapan, Black ministers are taking issues into their very own fingers as a result of police can’t shield their neighborhoods.
Earlier this week, a Transit cop was attacked by a gaggle of youngsters at Forest Hills T station within the newest brazen act of violence. The suspects, ages 14 and 15, had been charged with assault and battery on a police officer however will in all probability get off with a slap on the wrist.
Wu has not addressed the violence besides to say we want extra youth applications and psychological well being companies.
She’s spent extra time speaking about new bus lanes, whereas making public relations strikes like driving her bike to work.
She handed an ordinance permitting police to arrest protesters in entrance of her Roslindale home, in a transfer to crush dissent, solely to see a kind of arrests get thrown out in court docket.
She has no management over the town council, permitting them to flex their muscle tissue on a brand new pay bundle and exert extra management than ever over the town finances. No earlier mayor would have allowed the council to wield his a lot energy and present such an absence of respect for the mayor’s workplace.
City Hall is now a humiliation and a laughing inventory underneath Wu’s tenure.
Wu has spent thousands and thousands to create new metropolis departments and high-paid positions.
She created a Forestry Division and employed a dozen new staff for a metropolis that has no forests.
“Trees are our best green technology to fight climate change and build healthy, beautiful communities, especially as heat and storms intensify,” she stated. “Dedicating staff and resources to our new forestry division will empower the city to strengthen our tree canopy citywide, so every community benefits from these treasured resources.”
These assets are so treasured that Wu’s public works division simply mowed down acres of small bushes, bushes and wildflowers at one of many metropolis’s actual treasures, Millennium Park in West Roxbury. Can’t anticipate yr two.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”