Boston City Hall
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says at-large City Councilor Michelle Wu called him to say she plans to announce a run for mayor in 2021.
Walsh told the Boston Globe of the call shortly after it was made Monday.
In statements to the paper and to GBH news, Wu’s office did not explicitly deny the councilor’s widely-anticipated run.
“[Wu] believes that in this moment of hardship for our city, each one of us should be asking ourselves how we can make a difference,” her office said.
Wu has been a frequent critic of the current development process in Boston, calling for the Boston Planning & Development Agency to be split up into a traditional planning department and planning board, plus a separate agency charged with its other responsibilities. Wu has framed her criticisms both as necessary anti-corruption measures in the wake of last year’s Zoning Board of Appeals bribery scandal, and as a call for more organized planning efforts that give city residents a greater say in how neighborhoods are developed. Boston has largely been without a formal citywide plan that is codified in zoning for decades, resulting in project-by-project negotiations between development teams, neighborhood residents and city officials.
She has also clashed with real estate interest groups over efforts to reform the city’s ZBA. As head of the Boston City Council’s planning committee, she organized her fellow councilors to reject a new slate of nominees to the short-staffed body last month, instead asking groups like the Boston Society of Architects and the Greater Boston Real Estate Board to submit new slates of candidates for the seats allocated to them. The council had earlier passed changes to the ZBA’s membership requirements stipulating expertise in areas like climate change and urban planning. The changes still await approval from state legislators as required under state law.
Wu has also been a leading voice on improving MBTA service, including calls for service to be made free, and recently issued a Boston-specific Green New Deal roadmap to make the city more sustainable.
