Michelle Wu held a press conference on Wednesday, her first full day as Boston's mayor. She spoke briefly after taking the MBTA to work at City Hall, touching on some of her plans for her first day and her first week in the mayor's office.
Wu said she has a series of internal meetings planned in the morning before a scheduled meeting with Gov. Charlie Baker, followed by more internal meetings. Among the issues she said she will be dealing with on Wednesday are the Boston schools and the ongoing Mass. and Cass situation.
She announced that the city is pausing the removal of tents from the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard pending the results of Wednesday's court hearing on the ACLU's challenge of the city's order.
Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters.
"I'm very excited. I don't have to give speeches, I don't have any events today. It's just about getting to do the work," she said. "We're going to get to work very urgently on the big issues that are ahead."
Wu said her ultimate goal is "to truly make Boston a city for everyone," and she hopes that is what she will be judged on.
She said she was looking forward to meeting with Baker, who attended her swearing in on Tuesday but is not someone she has had a lot of interaction with until now.
"I've been focused on city issues and the council," Wu said. "I'm looking forward to building a great relationship and getting into the nitty gritty of issues today."
The pair met in Baker's State House office Wednesday for just under an hour and, among other things, discussed public transportation and issues surrounding Mass. and Cass.
"She certainly exceeded what I think were anybody's expectations with respect to how well she did on election day. And I think in many ways, that's a good thing," Baker said. "She certainly starts with what I would call the wind at her back and that's important because there's gonna be plenty of tough things that she's gonna have to deal with."
Wu was sworn in Tuesday as Boston’s first woman and first person of color elected mayor in the city’s long history.
The swearing-in of the city’s first Asian American mayor came two weeks after Wu won the city’s mayoral election. Before Wu, Boston had elected only white men as mayor.
“City government is special. We are the level closest to the people, so we must do the big and the small. Every streetlight, every pothole, every park and classroom, lays the foundation for greater change,” Wu said after taking the oath of office.
“After all, Boston was founded on a revolutionary promise: that things don’t have to be as they always have been. That we can chart a new path for families now, and for generations to come, grounded in justice and opportunity,” she said.
Wu, 36, takes over for a fellow Democrat — former acting Mayor Kim Janey — who was Boston’s first woman and first Black resident to serve in, but who was not elected to, the top post.
