Mayor Michelle Wu delivered her third State of the City address Wednesday night at MGM Music Hall in Fenway, updating key stakeholders and constituents on the city’s progress over the last year.
The speech comes at the beginning of the mayoral campaign cycle in Boston. While Wu has yet to formally announce her re-election campaign, she said in November she plans to run for another term. She began her remarks by thanking Boston’s city workers for setting the municipal workforce standard.
“At a time when public servants are being dismissed and discredited, you continue to show up for our residents and remind us what good government looks like,” Wu said.
Wu first addressed Boston’s sanctuary city status, which has become a major subject of Border Czar Tom Homan’s ire. At an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Homan said he is coming to Boston and “bringing hell” with him.
Two weeks ago, Wu testified at a House Oversight Committee hearing on sanctuary cities alongside Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, and Mayor Mike Johnston of Denver.
“No one tells Boston how to take care of our own, not kings and not presidents who think they are kings,” Wu said Wednesday night.
While nursing Mira, her third child, on Capitol Hill, Wu stayed informed on demonstrations across the city. She recalled scenes of hands being joined in prayer, bright letters illuminated on the bricks of the Old State House, and signs being held up at City Hall Plaza.
“Somos una ciudad de imigrantes,” Wu said, speaking in Spanish, “We are a city where the Irish coffee is strong but our opinions are stronger. If you come for one of us, you will get all of us.”
Wu claimed in her remarks that Boston is the “safest major city in the nation.” She noted that upon entering office in 2021, gun violence was at a 10-year high.
“Every year since taking office, we’ve set new record lows,” Wu said.
She went on to defend Police Commissioner Michael Cox, who said his department does not have the authority to enforce federal immigration laws.
“Under your leadership, community policing has reached a new level of trust focused on safety and quality of life downtown and across all of our neighborhoods,” Wu said. “We recruited the largest and most diverse classes of new officers at the academy and set national standards for accountability and reform through the police contract.”
Wu announced that the city would launch a business recruitment office to fill commercial vacancies across the city to make Boston “the best place to do business,” according to Wu.
“The state of our city is strong and we have to be,” Wu said, taking aim at President Donald Trump’s administration.
“All over the country, people are feeling the weight of a federal administration that’s attacking our sources of strength, the same people and purpose that make Boston great,” Wu said.
She continued to address the Trump administration’s targeting of Boston, specifying that the city would not budge against federal pressure.
“[Our city was] built on the values this federal administration seeks to tear down,” Wu said. “But for 395 years come high water or hell, no matter who threatens to bring it, Boston has stood up for the people we love and the country we built. And we’re not stopping now.”
Wu also announced that the city will expand its Office to Residential Conversion Program to universities and employers.
“If you are looking to reactivate office buildings as dorms or workforce housing, we will work with you to make it happen,” Wu said.
The city will roll out the Boston Energy Saver program to provide residents with more than $150 million in state funding to upgrade homes to lower energy bills, according to Wu.
“If you need new windows or an updated heating system, we’ll find every dollar available to get the job done,” Wu said.
Wu highlighted that the city reached a tentative three-year agreement with the Boston Teachers Union on Tuesday night.
“These school nurses, counselors, and educators serve in some of the most important jobs in our city,” Wu said. “Thank you for continuing to put our students first every day.”
Through the city’s Family Days program, Boston Public Schools students are able to visit certain museums and cultural institutions free of charge on weekends. Wu announced that revolutionary sites and performing arts institutions—including ArtsEmerson—will be included in the program.
Wu added that the current climate is not the world she expected or hoped for her daughter.
“I want her to grow up in a country that’s admired, not feared, a country stable and safe, not one that feels like it’s coming apart at the seams,” Wu said. “I want her to grow up in the America that Paul Revere rode for, that Dr. King marched for, that my parents left home for.”
Wu ended her remarks by calling Boston a city that “does not tolerate tyranny.”
“We are the city that leads in the storm, that stands up under pressure together and finds strength in each other,” Wu said. “We will defend the people we love with all that we’ve got.”
