Episode 199: Mayor Michelle Wu on what's ahead for Boston

1/27/2022--This week brings a handful of new campaign announcements. Among them, Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin who confirmed he is seeking his eighth term in office, State Treasurer Deb Goldberg who is running for re-election, labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan who announced her bid for Attorney General, and Chris Doughty, a moderate Republican businessman from Wrentham and new entrant into the race for governor of Massachusetts.

Jenn, Steve, and Lisa discuss Governor Baker's final State of the Commonwealth address that included plans for a slew of tax breaks.

The special guest on today's show is Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. After just over two months in office, she answers questions regarding her major policies thus far, and her plans for the future.

Full transcript below:

Steve Koczela: [00:00:26] Today on The Horse Race, Mayor Michelle Wu recaps her first two months in office and lays out her plans for the rest of her term. Plus a MApoli roundup of increasingly busy races. It's Thursday, January 27. [00:00:38][12.1]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:00:51] Welcome back to the horse race, your weekly look at politics, policy and elections in lovely Massachusetts. I'm Lisa Kashinsky here with Steve Koczela and Jennifer Smith. And guys, it's official the Massachusetts governor's race is on in earnest. We can't say it's on because it's been on for a while, but on in earnest. Attorney General Maura Healey has announced her campaign and we have a Republican primary. [00:01:14][22.6]

Jennifer Smith: [00:01:14] That's right, Lisa. You mentioned this last week, but we only had a quick second to touch on it and we didn't get to talk about it in depth. But now we have so much time to dove in. Please just tell us first what Maura Healey officially announcing means for the shape of the race. Aside from, there is going to be a lot of money in it that wasn't there before. [00:01:34][19.8]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:01:35] Yeah, there is a lot of money. She raised over $200000 in the first 24 hours of her campaign, and I am very much looking to see what it will be. You know, with filing deadlines coming up for the month of January, it's going to be a lot. I mean, at this point, it's her race to lose. She enters as the assumed frontrunner by all intents and purposes, she is the frontrunner in money and name recognition. You know, not just for the Democratic primary, but for the entire race. You know, there is now a Republican businessman in the race. You know, yet to be determined how much he might self-fund or how much money he'll be able to bring in. But so far, the other candidates. You know, Jeff deal on the Republican side, state senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, Harvard political theorist Danielle Allen. They just can't keep up with her even remotely close in money. And soon we're going to get into the caucuses and more endorsements and then the convention and things like that. So we'll see where the Democratic primary electorate goes in this one, especially. But for now, you know, people need to catch up to her. [00:02:38][63.1]

Steve Koczela: [00:02:39] We saw in the poll that we released several weeks back now that she certainly has the highest name recognition of migrant Democratic candidates among all the candidates, really. We're going to have another look at this next week. On Monday, we're going to be releasing a full statewide poll, and we have just a bit of a look at that today on just the ages numbers. But come this Monday, we'll know in more detail kind of how the gubernatorial race is shaping up as well. [00:03:01][21.8]

Jennifer Smith: [00:03:02] Can you tell us anything about this new moderate Republican who's filed entering the race here? Does anyone think there is kind of a Charlie Baker Lane still to run? I guess, is the question that we've been asking, and Chris Doughty seems to say yes. [00:03:17][15.4]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:03:19] Yeah, definitely, I mean, we're seeing both him and more Healy a little bit playing in this Charlie Baker lane, you know, kind of on both sides of the political aisle, but really that more moderate economy and education focused message. Chris Doughty, he is, you know, Wrentham businessman investor. He's looking to continue that long line of business and business friendly governors. You know, he's sounding the he's hitting all the notes, the baker, what the investments in education, the teamwork which the governor stressed at his state of the Commonwealth earlier this week. Trust, collaboration, teamwork. You know, he's already hitting those buzzwords. He is a little bit more conservative leaning when it comes to abortion. But yeah, I mean, we're seeing people start to close in on that moderate kind of void in a race where other candidates had been kind of running more to their party's flank so far. [00:04:09][50.0]

Steve Koczela: [00:04:10] The challenge, I think you'll have to it's just trying to trying to thread the needle now when he's a new candidate that nobody knows. You know, by the time Trump came in, twenty sixteen came out of the same baker and already won and had already run twice. So he didn't really have to establish himself right in the face of all these questions that Chris Doughty is going to face as he's trying to establish himself. You know, he's not a not a known quantity at this point to a lot of the electorate and the kinds of questions he's going to get in the Republican primary, I think, are not not the ones that you would want to if you're going to introduce yourself as kind of this moderate that he's positioning himself as right now. The other interesting thing I thought in the bicycle a profile of him of his campaign launch is that he says he voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Donald Trump in 2020, which that's that's something I am looking forward to learning more about. But I feel like kind of irritates both about voters in both parties. [00:05:06][55.7]

Jennifer Smith: [00:05:07] That's such an interesting point, too. And Steve, you mentioned polling on the AG race, so let's talk about the AG race right now. I think we're going to come back to kind of the Charlie Baker question when we get into the state of the Commonwealth, but keeping it on active races. Shannon Liss-Riordan, the labor attorney who at one point was challenging Ed Markey, who has been on the podcast a few times at this point. She is officially in running for AG. The announcement came very quickly after Maura Healey announced that she was going to be running for governor. The thing that I would love your take on Lisa is, you know, with this open seat, it means that kind of the question of Rollins's elected successor Rachael Rollins, who is the departing Suffolk County District Attorney now, of course, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts has been replaced with Kevin Hayden to fill the role, and he told GBH that he's still not sure if he'll run to fill the seat officially because anyone with a high enough profile in Suffolk County may actually now just look at running statewide because Andrea Campbell's name is in the mix, isn't it? [00:06:13][65.3]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:06:14] Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to say. I was going to mention Andrea Campbell because she kind of been floated for a while now for D.A., possibly A.G.. And, you know, up until just recently, she had maintained that, you know, it wasn't something she was focused on, but now she is seriously considering a run for attorney general pretty seriously from what I hear. And there's also, of course, more contenders, more possible contenders for the attorney general's race, including Quentin Palfrey, the 2018 Democratic lieutenant governor nominee. Someday, I will not trip over that, but not today. You know, he is also expected to launch a campaign in coming days, and there could be other candidates as well. And that brings us, I think, back to those A.G. polls, Steve. [00:06:59][45.3]

Steve Koczela: [00:07:00] That's right. The poll that was out just this morning and playback as part of a portable will actually be releasing in full next Monday. This one looked at how Democratic primary voters are looking at the AG's race specifically and found that Andrea Campbell has a very large lead. We found her among potential likely voters, but thirty one percent support. That's less than the percent who are undecided, which is just over half at 54 percent. But it's far more than Clinton Palfrey and Shannon Liss-Riordan, who draw two percent and three percent, respectively, are getting at this point. So should Andrea Campbell decide to run? That is how the race shapes up at this very early point. Obviously, there are caveats. These are these candidates are not bogged down. Andrea Campbell is the best known, just given her recent history as a Boston city councilor and candidate for Boston mayor. Her support is drawn primarily from inside one 28. And the other candidates just aren't aren't particularly well known, or they don't have, like another geographic base of support. Basically, you're looking at where Andrea Campbell is well known. She draws a lot of support, and the other candidates kind of don't yet. So will that change, I think is the big question is the other candidates become better known? Do they have kind of a compelling case to make? But at this point, Andrea Campbell is has quite a significant lead among those who have a have a view at this point. [00:08:17][77.8]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:08:18] So well. Definitely be keeping eyes on that race, that's a really interesting first look. In the meantime, some other people who have said that they're running are actually said that they're running. This week, our Secretary of State Bill Galvin, who is going for a record eighth term in office, and State Treasurer Deb Goldberg is also seeking reelection. So now we know the status of all six of the state's constitutional officers just in time for the Democratic caucuses to begin. [00:08:45][26.8]

Jennifer Smith: [00:08:46] A full hand, a full deck. All the information you could possibly want, but that's what's going on among people running for office. But of course, one Gov. Charlie Baker is fulfilling his final term right now. And on Tuesday, he delivered his last state of the Commonwealth address, and as one might expect, he announced plans for a bunch of tax breaks. Lisa, would you like to break down kind of the slate of what was proposed? [00:09:09][23.1]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:09:11] Yeah, definitely. So he proposed eliminating income tax for about the lowest two hundred thirty two hundred and forty thousand income earners in Massachusetts. He also is proposing doubling tax breaks for children and dependents, renters and seniors, and this is all in the budget that is being unveiled to legislators this week. And then the question is, you know, how much of these are actually going to go through? I mean, this is really big, sweeping kind of tax reform proposals. After the state of the Commonwealth address, we spoke to House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, they were both noncommittal because they hadn't seen the proposals yet. So it's definitely a question of where this Democratic run Legislature is going to go with this. [00:09:54][44.0]

Jennifer Smith: [00:09:56] Because legislative action is always the context that we have to keep these things in mind. And right, like Baker is not just asking for the budget priority, but also other bills. There is a bill on nonconsensual pornography which other people might know about as revenge porn and criminal dangerousness to kind of move through the House and Senate in a timely fashion. Watching these kinds of public announcements is sort of like trying to read tea leaves, but is there anything actually to be read for Mariano and spilker not applauding when Baker said the bill should get a vote this session? [00:10:27][31.4]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:10:28] Yeah, that was interesting. They stayed seated while he got a standing ovation for saying that the bills definitely deserve a vote. We kind of tried to ask them about that afterwards, too, and it was similarly noncommittal. They weren't quite sure how many times Baker had filed the bills in the past. They weren't quite sure how you know what had happened with those bills, but spoko did say that there was some appetite. Maybe on some of this because people had filed similar bills in the past, but there was just a lot of kind of non-answers as to what had actually happened to those and where they might go from here. [00:11:01][33.5]

Jennifer Smith: [00:11:02] Well, thank you for that insight. I love so much of the analysis is always just around body language and facial expressions, and then the reporters have to go chase people down later and say, Where you were you trying to make a dig? But I will say my final takeaway is if one more person mentions the bromance between a former mayor, now Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and now governor soon to not be Gov. Charlie Baker, I will go find Loon Mountain and I will go jump off of it. But for now, we have other things to cover. Do we not? [00:11:34][31.3]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:11:35] Yes, we do. Let's go. [00:11:36][1.4]

Jennifer Smith: [00:11:44] It's been just over two months since Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was sworn into office the first woman and first person of color to be elected to the seat. Wu has already made some big moves a vaccine mandate for indoor businesses, three fare free bus routes connecting those run mass and cars to housing and services. And recently, a $40 million commitment to the preservation of affordable housing units, to name a few. She joins us today on the horse race to talk about her short time as mayor thus far and what lies ahead for the City of Boston. Mayor Wu. Thank you so much for being here today. [00:12:14][30.6]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:12:15] Thank you for having me. [00:12:16][0.7]

Jennifer Smith: [00:12:17] So first, let's look back over this tenure so far. How would you describe the last two months? Are they anything what you expected pictured at the beginning of a mayoral term? [00:12:27][9.8]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:12:28] It's been everything and more than expected. Every day, I'm just humbled and blown away by how many incredible, hardworking staff members are behind all the city services that are vital to Boston residents across our neighborhoods. And I've also been blown away by just how much is possible and how much how quickly we can move when we really decide that an issue is one that we want to take on. [00:13:01][32.6]

Steve Koczela: [00:13:02] The omicron variant hadn't, of course, hit when you took office, but you, like many others, found yourself over the last few months, you know, dealing with and focusing on the Omicron variant and guiding the city through a major surge. And one of the big and controversial things that you implemented was the proof of vaccination to enter indoor businesses, restaurants and so forth in the city. How is that rollout been? Have business has been fined or what's the feedback been that you've gotten so far? [00:13:28][26.3]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:13:29] It's been really smooth and I I've gone out to several restaurants and other venues that have required proof of vaccination, been proud to show my be together at proof and have heard from folks from all different angles. You know, I think it's really hard being a small business owner during COVID and I know how much is on their plates. And so to add one more thing that they have to do and think about and worry about complying with is a burden. And we are trying to do everything we can in the city side to drive more resources. We've put more funding into small business relief fund for for city businesses, and we're partnering with the state so that businesses can actually tap into both sources of funding at the same time. But it is hard to ask them to do more for the for the most part. What I've heard is that it's gone really well, that customers have been very, very willing and happy, and I've heard a lot of folks telling me that they're now going out and booking birthday parties or going out to eat with elderly relatives that they otherwise wouldn't, because now it feels a little bit safer. But I know it's a tough time all around. [00:14:44][75.1]

Jennifer Smith: [00:14:45] So the vaccination mandate was kind of serving two purposes. There is the question of encouraging more people to get vaccinated and also the question of the safety of the individual businesses themselves of being in there. So is there any indication to the first point that it's contributing to the number of vaccinated Bostonians and then kind of to the second? Is this making people feel more able to be in these spaces? Or are they more willing to go to the restaurants? [00:15:11][25.7]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:15:13] Yeah. On the first point, it's it's hard to really pin down exactly because we've been trying to do so much to boost vaccination rates across the board. We've also. Increase the requirement for our city workforce, for example, we have put resources into making sure that there are more clinics available citywide and everywhere. So whatever exactly of that had an impact on the mix of it has led to huge jumps in our vaccination rate and our booster rate as well. So we've seen really big uptake, especially two weeks ago and then continued uptake this past week. We've seen the numbers in our city workforce in terms of from our first announcement that this policy was going into place to just a couple of days ago when we did the full tabulation on Monday. Six hundred additional city workers got vaccinated even in the two days since then, it's been another. More than 100 folks have gotten vaccinated. And so we know that this works. We know we know these policies are effective in terms of closing gaps. [00:16:18][65.0]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:16:18] And then in terms of whether it is safe, omicron has has definitely thrown a big curveball for how we understand the virus and how quickly it's been spreading. We do know that even with Omicron, if you are vaccinated, you are still far, far, far less likely to end up with serious illness and end up hospitalized. You are also, according to the data. Less you're likely to be contagious for fewer for a shorter period of time and to be less contagious when you are contagious. And so there's kind of marginal benefits on all sides we're doing. But the goal right now in the middle of a pandemic is just to do every possible thing that we can. [00:16:58][40.1]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:16:59] So we're starting to get on the back end of the surge now. Do you see any off ramp for these vaccine and mask mandates for businesses? [00:17:06][6.5]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:17:07] The hope is that these are temporary policies that we're that are necessary while we are seeing such high case counts and the metrics that really show how urgent it is to use every possible lever, but that as community positivity comes down, as we see vaccination rates go up, we want to get back to a situation at some point where people are fully free to go about their lives and we're not there yet. And I know it's taken a lot of sacrifice from small businesses and from everybody working to protect their families and communities. But we're monitoring that very closely. [00:17:44][37.2]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:17:46] And is there a certain metric, whether it's cases or positivity rates, hospitalizations, that when we hit that metric, you'll say, OK, we can start to lift these vaccine mandates? [00:17:56][10.5]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:17:57] Yeah, I think it's it's all of the above, and I would also add vaccination rates in general. We do know that when communities are above a certain threshold of vaccination, it is just far safer across the board for everyone. We've seen those rates come up in Boston very quickly, even in recent weeks, and we hope to to drive those up a little bit more. [00:18:20][23.3]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:18:21] Are there any specific targets like a specific number, maybe for a positivity or a vaccination rate that you want to hit? [00:18:29][7.3]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:18:29] I mean, what do I want to hit? I want to hit 100 percent vaccination for our city workforce. I want to get us as close as possible not only to full vaccination, but especially in closing the disparities that we still see by race and income in terms of vaccinations. For example, Dr. Ojikutu, the director of our Boston Public Health Commission, was just sharing a couple of days ago that if you look at vaccination rates for children, we see for white children, it's we're at about or over 70 percent have gotten vaccinated. But if you look at the specific rate for black and Latinx children, it is much closer to 30 percent. And that plays out in terms of then how the virus continues to be transmitted to older family members and through communities. And so we're looking very carefully at not only what the averages are across the board, but also the disparities. [00:19:27][57.3]

Jennifer Smith: [00:19:28] So as we record this right now, the City Council meeting this week actually just had to go remote because people were protesting the vaccine mandate and refusing to wear masks in the council chambers. So polls show that most Bostonians support things like workplace vaccine mandates and masks in schools. And also, some of the MassINC polls have shown that people feel safer participating in events like indoor dining with vaccine mandates in place. So how are you thinking about these incidences of protest? Is that seen as kind of indicative as a large of a large portion of your constituents concerns? Are you watching these as bellwethers or are these kind of, you know, considered minority opinions? [00:20:09][40.7]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:20:11] I have been really frustrated because I I want to celebrate how much effort and how much progress we actually have made when it comes to closing gaps and seeing vaccination rates go up. We are at, as of today, 95 percent vaccination rates across our city workforce. That is an incredible number and that is higher than most any other way you can slice any group or organization, and we're going to see that number continue to go up over the next few days as we as we have our last few clinics here. So it is it's really I mean, within the Boston police there at 95 percent vaccination, Boston teachers at 94 percent, fire departments at 91 percent. And so the vast majority of our workforce and of our residents and community members are not only vaccinated, but support and believe that this is how we make sure that we are keeping everyone safe. It is a very emotional conversation for folks who feel differently, and it is more and more intensely tied to the political divisions that we're seeing at the national level, spilling over into local policies and conversations and some of the same. I saw some pictures of what happened at the council meeting. These are the same people that are outside my house every morning at seven a.m. the same individuals and their refusal to wear masks in a public building where we've been clear what the policies are, where there is widespread agreement that this reduces transmission, where we are still in, you know, now coming down from a surge but still within a surge environment in a pandemic. It's just irresponsible to be putting other people to be putting to be making the argument that your individual freedoms or liberties allow for putting everyone else at risk. That is not what this country has ever been founded on, and that is certainly not what the city of Boston will be making our policies based on. [00:22:16][125.2]

Steve Koczela: [00:22:17] It seems like speaking a bit more about national politics that many, many local elected officials across the country are dealing with. Some version of this, particularly places that have put in vaccine mandates or mask mandates, just lots of sort of lots of kind of very edgy and borderline dangerous feeling protests going on across the country. How do we back away from this? What's the what's kind of the thing that we need to do to at least restore some some sense of calm as we discuss these issues and kind of have an ongoing public dialog? [00:22:48][31.0]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:22:49] Well, I really believe that city government is one of the only places where we have the potential to get to a different kind of political discourse and community building. At the root of what we see, I believe in our national nationally divided politics, and in many of the protests that we're seeing here today is a feeling of distrust and mistrust that you can't believe what scientists say about the vaccine or even if. If our officials are saying that this is a policy that's necessary for public safety and public health, that that is not true or their conspiracy theories that that need to be wrapped into that there's good reason why people distrust government and why people are skeptical of of policies and policymaking. And it's up to us in government now and in our communities to earn that trust back in the way we do that is to show that we're taking steps that make a difference, that are in the public interest that change people's lives for the better and to communicate that in a way that is as inclusive as possible. And so we're moving on a lot of different fronts, all at the same time. We're looking for a new police commissioner. We're trying to close the racial wealth gap. We're putting funding out for housing stability and affordability. We're continuing to take action around our opioid crisis and the crises that have been centered at Mass and Cass and in every which way. I keep saying we do big things in city government by getting the small things right. In the responsiveness to people's calls for service or in the needs that really touched everyone's day to day lives. This is where city government can show we can make a difference and we can move more impactful policy when people are actively at the table with us. [00:25:01][132.0]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:25:02] And speaking of policy, turning to Mass and Cass for a bit. It's been a couple of weeks now since the deadline for connecting those living in the encampments down there to temporary housing and substance treatment and services. Is there a long term plan for getting those moved into those temporary shelters, you know, into more permanent housing? [00:25:22][20.0]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:25:24] Yep. It's already happening individual by individual, and I'm so grateful to the many, many city departments that have been involved. We've been having regular check in meetings and I've been going out to the new market and Mass and Cass area, sometimes a couple of times a day to understand what folks are seeing on the ground from our outreach teams and and just to kind of survey the area and things are still going very, very well. We do not have encampments have have not returned and the residents form the former residents of the encampments who have been connected to low threshold supportive housing remain in that housing and are doing very well with the medical and counseling and social emotional supports that are wrapped around all of those housing units. We've already had people transition on from that transitional housing into permanent housing, and we'll continue to see that happen. For some individuals, it might be a matter of weeks. For some people, it'll be months and we're working on the medium to long term solutions as well. Whether it's building out facilities on Long Island, working on the transportation to get there or thinking about how we can work with our regional and statewide partners on what a larger solution looks like. [00:26:44][80.0]

Jennifer Smith: [00:26:45] So relatedly, on Long Island, what is the current status of those discussions right now? Because if you think about availability of space for a possible long term solutions, that's been kind of at the top of of the list in discussions that that pre-date your tenure in office. So so is that still the hope to find either a way to work with Quincy on it? Or perhaps you had floated ferries as as an option? Where is that at? [00:27:14][28.8]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:27:15] So there's two different sets of issues we have to think about in terms of activating Long Island. One is what's gotten a lot of attention, which is the transportation there, whether it's by a bridge or ferries or some way to get to the island. But the other is, and I think, the larger set of issues is, what are we actually going to do with it? Who will we serve on the island? And the transportation matters a little bit because ferries are there's a little bit more unpredictability there with weather, with speed, with the choppiness of the ride. And so you're talking about possibly a smaller likelihood of being able to serve those who are more medically vulnerable if the only way to get there is from ferries. However, there are many, many needs that we need additional resources and facilities to serve. The buildings on the island have been sitting there without any use for seven years now since the bridge came down. And so they are going to take a significant amount of resources to rehab and renovate. I went out there with the team a couple of weeks ago. Now some of them look like with some basic fixing up. It would be a huge potential to use, and so we're really narrowing down what services could be located out there. And then from there, we'll figure out what the quickest way to get transportation up and running would be. [00:28:37][82.6]

Jennifer Smith: [00:28:38] And then pivoting over to, you know, another thing that's come up for more than two years, you've been calling for the abolition of the Boston Planning and Development Agency right now. What are what is the timing that you're looking at for your plans to kind of dismantle it, given that that will require state action? And what's going on in the meantime? Obviously, you're searching for a cabinet level chief of planning right now. [00:29:01][22.8]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:29:02] Yep. So that's that's a huge part of the structural planning is going to be finding somewhere where this lives in the cabinet and where our new chief of planning will be thinking about not only the immediate pipeline of projects that are up for review and how we respond and plan right now, but also the structural reforms and the dismantling of organizational structures as we move towards a more planning focused system of development. So that is all hopefully moving ahead quickly as we look to get the right person in that role and to build out that team. There's obviously still a lot going on in the meantime, whether it is the conversations around affordability and reforms to our zoning process that are needed to expedite affordability or streamline some processes or pending projects that are sometimes years into the review process or just entering it right now. [00:30:02][59.8]

Jennifer Smith: [00:30:03] And kind of on that BPA process. I can't imagine morale is great inside the department at the at the moment when it probably feels like jobs are on the chopping block. What have your conversations actually been like with leadership there in terms of a transition over to, for instance, what this new cabinet department might be? [00:30:27][23.4]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:30:28] So we had a BPA wide conversation that I was really grateful to take part in. It was actually a couple of weeks ago on my birthday, so I never imagined being serenaded Happy Birthday by the entire BPDA, but I can check that off my bucket list. And it was it was a really great, direct, honest conversation I was emphasizing with the staff and the team that. We're not talking about this. This was never this was never about individual people not doing their jobs or not trying their hardest or doing their best to really advance the larger interests of the neighborhood in the city, but about the big-picture structural organizational issues that we need to change, and so a lot of it is at the same, the same types of functions that we are performing now, whether it's on planning or zoning review or development review and project management. Many of those things we will need in any scenario, but we need to build more accountability in how we structure that and how we are ordering things, right, putting planning first before development and not having it kind of having development drive everything else. And so I want to work with our amazing staff to get this right. We are going to be making changes, but we're going to be making changes in a way that will continue to draw on the talent that's there and to plug in all the voices of many, many people who want to be helpful in this process. [00:32:00][91.7]

Steve Koczela: [00:32:02] So touching very quickly, then on on another issue, of course, fair free, the fair, free media in general is a topic that came up a lot during the mayoral campaign and was something that you, of course, were supportive of. And since that time, we've we've started to move, move in that direction with some fare free bus pilots. How would you say that's going so far in terms of ridership and just in terms of implementation? I know it wasn't necessarily as straightforward as we might have hoped, just even creating a fare free bus pilot in the first place. So how's that been going on ridership? [00:32:33][31.3]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:32:34] There is, I mean, there's very, very few things that you can do that will have as huge an impact on boosting ridership as eliminating fares. And we've seen that on the twenty eight bus where we saw ridership increase while bus lines everywhere else, were really seeing a drop during the pandemic. We've seen that in other cities like Lawrence and Worcester and Brockton, where they've already implemented pieces of a fare free access to their bus systems as well. And so that continues to be a big reason why we need to move forward on this. It's important for connecting people to where they need to go and the job opportunities in our recovering economy. It's important for our climate goals and it's important for equity across the city. Now there are some pieces that we've had to untangle and kind of different understandings of what the federal rules are and this and that. So we've, our chief of streets, has been at the table with with the media as well as the MTA and federal agencies. A lot we have worked through those issues. We are on good track. The pilot for the 28 bus, the free 28 bus, runs through the end of February. So the hope is that we will be able to seamlessly pick up continuing that route and adding the other two routes right after that. But we should have an announcement. Fingers crossed in the next couple of weeks. [00:33:53][79.2]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:33:54] Well, we will definitely be looking forward to that. Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today. I think we have a million questions each that we'd love to ask you. I know John very much wanted to get to your parking permits and space savers. So I think we'll just have to have you back on the pod another time. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, thanks so much for joining us. [00:34:13][18.8]

Mayor Michelle Wu: [00:34:13] It's been fun. Thank you. [00:34:14][0.8]

Jennifer Smith: [00:34:17] And that brings us to our final segment. Something to watch. Lisa, what are you watching this week? [00:34:23][5.7]

Lisa Kashinsky: [00:34:24] I'm watching voting reform, which is on the move again on Beacon Hill. The House is taking up its version of the Votes Act that the Senate passed last October, and it does not include same day voter registration. It had been predicted that that would be possibly not in the house's version. It officially is not in the house's version. We'll see what happens with any amendments or something like that when debate gets underway. The House has voted down same day voter registration and an amendment before. So yeah, definitely a point of contention. I'm going to be watching going forward. Jenn, what about you? [00:34:58][34.2]

Jennifer Smith: [00:34:59] Well, as we record this on Wednesday, all of national politics is abuzz right now because Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is apparently going to retire. If you'll recall, this has been sort of a sticking point for a lot of progressives who remember what happened with Ruth Bader Ginsburg dying on the bench and then the whole rigmarole that led to an extremely kind of conservative court, six conservative justices that kind of, you know, a very big inflection point with a lot of kind of civil rights protections that had been held up by a thread and by precedent up until possibly this moment. So Stephen Breyer is reportedly going to retire, and this gives President Joe Biden an opportunity to perhaps do what he promised he would do, which was nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court. So we will keep an eye on that. And I expect if you're anywhere near legal Twitter, it's going to look really ugly for the future. [00:35:57][58.1]

Steve Koczela: [00:35:58] And before we leave you today, I wanted to quickly sound the alarm that, MPG is hiring! We're looking for a survey panel manager, so if you or someone you know, has skills in recruitment, list management, database management, whether it's on a campaign or for a brand or anything like that, please send resumes our way and find more details at massincpolling.com/jobs. But that is all the time we have for today. I'm Steve Koczela here with Jennifer Smith and Lisa Kashinsky. Don't forget to subscribe to us wherever you listen to your podcast, subscribe to the Massachusetts Politico Playbook from Lisa and give us a ring or a ping if you need polls done. For now, thank you all for listening and we will see you next week. [00:35:58][0.0]

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