‘Cards on the table’
Wu faces tone-setting few weeks, could impact her legacy
A surging virus and impending decisions around a mandate. Protestors hitting the streets and tents being removed from them.
ANALYSIS
Mayor Michelle Wu is in the middle of a stretch of a couple of weeks when it seems like every day brings high-profile and higherstakes decisions — ones that could end up rippling forward over her ambitious mayoral plans.
“Whether it’s a success or a failure by her, it’s going to set the tone for her tenure,” political consultant Jacquetta Van Zandt said of these few weeks, particularly the issues around Mass and Cass and vaccine mandate negotiations. “She’s putting all of her cards on the table right now.”
Wu’s administration did have some successes this week. Wednesday alone, for example, saw her vaccine mandate prevail in court at the same time as city workers plugged away on what eventually would be seen as a successfully balanced effort to clear out the large tent encampments at Mass and Cass without being punitive to the homeless.
But both of those storylines still have many chapters to go, and they’ll be written soon.
At long-troubled Mass and Cass in the South End, whether an encampment will begin to regrow and how the city will deal with the crowds of people using and dealing drugs still on the streets remain open questions about one of the city’s most intractable and visible problem areas.
And the highly contagious omicron variant of COVID19
continues to surge — if appearing to abate somewhat in recent days — has come with the symptom of staffing headaches, making it hard to keep kids in school.
The onset of omicron last month led Wu to announce a slate of vaccine mandates that ultimately went into effect this weekend. City workers now had to get the jab or face suspension and eventual possible firing — drawing heavy opposition from some first-responder groups in particular. Some people have shown up at her house and at public events with bullhorns, shouting “shame on Wu!” That’s among other protests and the lawsuit, which was ultimately unsuccessful at stopping the mandate from moving ahead.
Wu announced Friday that a week’s grace period would precede enforcement, a move she said came “as planned.” Union leaders who spent chunks of the past several days negotiating back and forth with the new administration framed the pause in enforcement as more of a concession, and continue to seek more accommodations.
This week will bring more administration-labor talks, and then Wu will be faced with the proposition of placing potentially hundreds of workers — possibly concentrated in the fire department — in violation of the mandate on leave.
This struggle between Wu and first-responder unions will serve as a precursor to what is expected to be a broader fight over the next round of police labor contracts. Wu’s been open about her desire to negotiate reform-minded changes to the labor agreements on issues including discipline. That kind of move isn’t popular in the union halls and will require the mayor negotiating from a position of strength.
That’s why “if she doesn’t come though with these negotiations, it’s going to spiral quickly,” Van Zandt said.
Wu, who turned 37 on Friday — on a day that dawned, like they all do these days, with anti-vaccine-mandate protestors yelling at her from outside her Roslindale home — is now just about exactly two months into a four-year term in which she’s vowed sweeping progressive change.
Matt O’Malley, who recently retired from the council after a decade on the body, said Wu’s taken the right tack on mandates and Mass and Cass: acting authoritatively when faced with serious issues.
“She’s demonstrated some real leadership when it’s hard,” O’Malley said. “The times have demanded it.”
This is shaping up to be a busy next few months, as Wu also will have to make decisions on her first budget proposal, due in April. This year has the added wrinkle that the council has new power over budgeting that didn’t exist under past mayors. Wu’s also hunting for a new police commissioner and has set up committees to look at big-picture progressive proposals such as rent control.
Larry DiCara, a former city council president and longtime chronicler of Boston politics, noted Wu’s convincing win in the November election.
“Everybody gives her the benefit of the doubt, but then things happen and then you gotta deal with it,” DiCara said. “All of these early actions on her part will resonate down the road.”