Boston Mayor Michelle Wu Delivers 2024 State of The City Address

By Tiffany Williams –

Tuesday night, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu delivered her 2024 State of the City Address at MGM Music Hall at Fenway. 

Mayor Wu talked of her vision for Boston, where every resident feels at home. 

She also highlighted new initiatives, including housing families, expanding homeownership, and plans for a green and growing Boston. 

She talked about partnerships with employers, higher education, and cultural institutions that will transform public schools and BPS athletics, investing in Franklin Park, and expanding opportunities for students and families from pre-K to college, including summer jobs and access to spaces for learning and curiosity. 

“Time and again, we have proven the future is ours to shape. And day by day, we’re following through on Boston’s promise to be a green and growing City for everyone,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “As a mom—and a BPS parent—I know that to truly be the best City for every family, we have to give our young people the world: in the classroom, in community, in every corner of our City.”

Mayor Wu talked about one of Boston’s hot topic issues, Mass & Cass and a public health-led approach at Mass & Cass that she says has led to the removal of encampments and helped hundreds of people find housing and begin a path to recovery. 

She recognized the Boston Police Department and talked about a community-driven safety plan that she said has achieved the lowest levels of gun violence on record. 

Staying on the Boston Police Department, Mayor Wu talked about negotiating a new police contract that sets a national precedent for community policing, including discipline reform, detail reform, and investing in officer education.

On the issue of preserving existing affordable housing across Boston’s neighborhoods, Mayor Wu talked about protecting Boston families from getting displaced when their apartment buildings are sold to private investors, and announced the launch of a fund to acquire apartment buildings and protect renters by making the units permanently affordable through a community trust. 

The Mayor’s office says this initiative builds on the City’s success working with community partners to keep 114 families across 36 buildings in their homes in East Boston through the Blue Line Portfolio acquisition in October 2023. The new fund the mayor’s office says will be used to protect 400 more families in Mattapan, Brighton, and Dorchester this year. 

As a mother of two, it was expected that Mayor Wu would talk about Boston’s public schools, and she did just that by first talking about making it easier for families to enroll in early education and growing the early education workforce.

In the spring, Boston is expected to launch a one-stop-shop platform that is intended to help parents and caregivers find early education and childcare seats citywide and enroll in the City’s free Universal Pre-K, including family child care, community-based programs, and pre-kindergarten in the Boston Public Schools. 

She also talked about bolstering partnerships with higher education institutions for BPS students to ensure that BPS high school students have access to early college and career pathways with the City’s world-class higher education and health care institutions, 

Wu announced that Bunker Hill Community Community College will broaden its partnership with Charlestown High School by offering every student the opportunity to take college courses either through dual enrollment or early college pathways in business, technology, and health. In September, Bunker Hill Community Community College and Charlestown High School, Wu announced, will launch the City’s second Year 13 program, which provides a full year of free college courses to Charlestown graduates. 

Roxbury Community College, Wu announced, will partner with Boston International Newcomers Academy, the Margarita Muñiz Academy, and English High School to launch the first early college incubator designed specifically for multilingual students.

Additionally, Wu announced that Mass General Brigham will deepen its partnership with Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers to ensure Boston’s healthcare professions reflect the community. 

Mayor Wu also announced that Boston Public Schools has signed an agreement with UMass Boston and Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco to transform the BCLA-McCormack High School into the district’s first University-Assisted Community Hub School. The agreement, Mayor Wu says will give BCLA-McCormack students unprecedented access to UMass coursework and opportunities, partner talented educators from both institutions, help develop UMass graduate students into future teachers and counselors, and create a seamless pathway into UMass Boston for BCLA-McCormack graduates. This partnership accompanies BCLA-McCormack planned renovations to create a state-of-the-art high school campus embedded in the Columbia Point community. 

Not skipping a beat on education, Mayor Wu announced free admission to Boston’s cultural institutions for BPS families. Those cultural institutions include Boston Children’s Museum, the Franklin Park Zoo, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Science, and the New England Aquarium.

Mayor Wu also announced a $20 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which will allow Boston to add 50 electric school buses in 2024. This Wu says will more than double the current fleet of electric buses. 

The funding will also cover costs, Mayor Wu says to purchase the new buses and install expanded charging infrastructure to service them. There are 20 electric buses currently in the BPS fleet, and an additional 19 buses have been ordered and will be on the roads later this school year.

Jobs are a hot topic for all Bostonians especially Boston’s youth population and when talking about creating access to youth job opportunities for all BPS students, Mayor Wu announced a “summer job guarantee” for any BPS student who wants one this summer. In addition to expanded private sector employment with the Boston Private Industry Council and many businesses, the city is also expanding  “learn-and-earn” jobs, which pay BPS students to take summer college courses. Local colleges and universities provided over 300 “learn-and-earn” jobs in summer of 2023, including  Northeastern University, Boston University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Roxbury Community College, Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology, Tufts University, and UMass Boston.

Mayor Wu also highlighted other areas of focus for her and her administration like revitalizing Franklin Park to its fullest potential as a shared space for neighbors, student athletes, and professional soccer players, launching a $10 million life sciences workforce initiative, and dding e-bikes to Bluebikes and, in partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, launching the lowest-cost annual bikeshare pass in America.