The mayor of Boston is on the news again. In each interview, her voice is warbling and unsure, yet each word conveys her utter grief over her friend’s death. For weeks, she has told anyone who will listen that she “will never get over it,” and that the tragic scene, with its screeching tires and crunching bone and metal, was a call to action.
I am sure that when the mayor lies awake at night, she sees a sunny day in Mission Hill. She sees her friend riding down the street. The mayor wonders, did she look over her shoulder? Was she afraid? When her spirit left her body, did it split the sky? I think in those dark hours, she must ask herself what ocean will wash this blood clean from her hand and finds no answer. I think this is true.
I also think that the mayor is full of shit.
Mayor Michelle Wu is responsible for the systematic delay and cancellation of street safety projects. These projects, ranging from simple bike lanes and street reconstruction to extensive transit overhauls, were designed and funded, and now have been canceled. Wu’s staff have told reporters that the mayor must approve every project personally before it can continue, to the point where they are no longer allowed to even communicate directly with the MBTA. The political reasons for this are not the point. What matters is that she chose to change her policies to impeding from supporting.
What has left many of us confused is the fact that this was seemingly for no reason. Pilloried in the national press for being woke and by the local press for her support of bike lanes, Wu emerged victorious in a landslide reelection against Josh Kraft, who explicitly ran against street safety. Wu had a mandate to implement her agenda, the agenda that her staff (including people such as Louisa Gag, the cyclist and city planner who was killed) worked tirelessly to plan, fund and build.
Instead, Wu retreated and hoped nobody would notice. One theory for this is that she is hoping to run for higher office and wants to seem more moderate. To me, that is shortsighted. In a time when someone such as New York’s Zohran Mamdani is happy to take the reins of a big city and shape it in his vision, why can’t Wu be content with what she has? She could rule here for 20 years, put her name on the side of every chain-link construction fence as she implements the green, safe and affordable city that she promised years ago, and people would thank her for it. There are people who would kill to be Boston’s mayor. It seems that Wu would kill to be Elizabeth Warren’s successor.
I think it is bogus that, over a month later, her staff is setting her up with softball interviews during which she can deflect blame. She frames the entire discussion as a quibble over the cost and utility of flex posts (and as usual, the journalist involved accepts this without pushback). In fact, the conflict is about whether her actions contributed to the death of someone she was close to! And why she turned her back on those who believed in her.
In her response, Wu promised more process, more listening and more planning. This is the brainworm that has paralyzed Democrats nationally – the abject fear of doing something even slightly unpopular, the fear of power being wielded to implement one’s agenda and not for the insulation of those who wield it. This paralysis is so familiar that we plebeians have learned to abuse it. Want to stop something? Claim you weren’t listened to. Say there needed to be a better process.
If the mayor truly felt guilty, she would not promise to reorganize various subcommittees and evaluate priorities and consult stakeholders. She would not lie and say that the police will begin enforcing traffic laws. And if she really wanted this to end, she would restart the projects she has thwarted.
Life is the slow process of accepting death. People die, and we grieve and move on. It is something else when there’s a throughline between one’s actions and someone else’s death. It must be hard to be Michelle Wu. The weight of it must crush her. I know it could crush me.
Nicholas Marchuk is a local author and engineer. His work is available at major retailers and on his website, nicholasmarchuk.com. Comments and questions can be directed to his contact form and may be responded to in this publication.
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