Michelle Wu Doesn't Want to Talk About Transportation Anymore

The mayor who promised bold climate leadership just spent her second inauguration speech talking about literally everything except the streets killing Boston residents.

Mayor Michelle Wu stood before Boston this morning, took the oath of office for her second term, and delivered a sweeping vision for the city's future. She talked about Trump. She talked about schools. She talked about housing and standing as "a beacon for freedom."

Transportation? The thing that was supposed to be her signature issue? The climate emergency she campaigned on? The safe streets she promised?

Not. One. Word.

Mission Accomplished: 50 Miles of Asphalt

Two days before Wu's transportation-free inauguration speech, her Transportation Department released their triumphant year-end report: 50 miles of street resurfacing, a new record for roadway "improvements."

Not a single word about pedestrian safety. Not a mention of the bike lanes rotting in planning hell. Not a whisper about Hyde Park Avenue, Blue Hill Avenue, or any of the stalled projects communities have been screaming for while watching their neighbors get run down.

Just asphalt. Smooth, beautiful asphalt for cars to speed on.

This is what Boston's transportation policy has become under Wu: fresh pavement and radio silence. And if you're wondering what happened to the bold Vision Zero promises, the complete streets revolution, the climate emergency action? Ask Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Wu's former Chief of Streets.

Actually, you can't. She canned him in December 2025 after spending a year systematically blocking him from doing the job she hired him to do. Franklin-Hodge—a nationally respected transportation innovator—got to watch his boss abandon every safety project that might upset a suburban driver or displease a developer, then got shown the door for his trouble.

The message was clear: This administration isn't interested in transformation anymore. It's interested in smooth roads and political positioning.

What Political Courage Actually Looks Like

Let's travel 200 miles south, where a real leader just showed Wu how it's done.

Three days into his term, Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood on McGuinness Boulevard in Brooklyn and announced the completion of a stalled street safety project that the corrupt Adams administration had killed. The McGuinness road diet is back: one travel lane each direction, protected bike lanes, traffic calming. A project the community fought a decade to win.

"The parents and families of Greenpoint can breathe a sigh of relief," said Transportation Alternatives' Ben Furnas.

Day. Three.

Mamdani didn't commission another study. He didn't form a working group. He didn't wait to see which way the political winds were blowing. He kept his promise.

The Great Retreat

Remember 2021 Michelle Wu? The one who ran on Vision Zero and climate emergency and bold transportation leadership? The one who was going to transform Boston's streets?

She's read the room. And apparently decided that her political future depends on keeping suburban drivers happy and real estate developers comfortable—the same developers who bankrolled her embarrassingly weak opponent, Josh Kraft, hoping he'd kill her bike lane plans.

Turns out they didn't need Kraft. Wu killed them herself.

Under new BTD leadership, the department has quietly shelved every ambitious safety project and retreated to the one thing that offends nobody: repaving roads. They've made a calculated bet that you won't notice the bait-and-switch. That you'll see "50 miles" and think they accomplished something instead of asking: 50 miles of what, exactly?

The vision that was promised—complete streets, protected infrastructure, streets designed for people instead of cars—has been quietly abandoned. What we get instead: press releases about smooth pavement and silence when parents ask why their kids still can't safely cross the street.

Reading the Tea Leaves

Here's the political math Wu's clearly doing: Bike lanes cost her votes in West Roxbury and Roslindale. Protected crossings piss off drivers from Newton cutting through Hyde Park. Restaurant owners who think two parking spaces matter more than human lives? They donate to campaigns.

Meanwhile, the families begging for safe streets don't have PACs. The parents who want their kids to bike to school don't write big checks. The communities that have been fighting for these projects for years? They'll vote for her anyway, right?

So Wu pivoted. Threw some soaring anti-Trump rhetoric into her inauguration speech. Promised to fix schools. Talked about housing. And bet that transportation advocates would be too polite—or too naive—to call out the betrayal.

She's clearly eyeing higher office. Governor, maybe. Senator if the timing works. And she's learned the same lesson every ambitious Boston politician learns: bold transportation policy is a liability when you're courting suburban voters and developer money.

Better to fire the guy who believed in the mission and pretend you never made those promises.

Two Mayors, One Choice

The contrast with Mamdani is stark. He inherited a stalled project and revived it within 72 hours. Wu has had four years and somehow can't find the political will to complete a single major safety project.

Mamdani is delivering on campaign promises. Wu is delivering platitudes.

Mamdani is showing what happens when a politician prioritizes promises over positioning. Wu is showing what happens when someone's already thinking three elections ahead.

The tragedy is that Wu had everything she needed. She had the mandate—a landslide reelection. She had the council—full of her allies. She had the moral clarity—people are literally dying on Boston streets. She even had Franklin-Hodge, who knew how to do this work.

She could have been the mayor who finally made this city safe for everyone, not just people in cars.

Instead, she's running the same play every ambitious Massachusetts Democrat runs: Talk progressive in Cambridge, govern for the suburbs, and hope the coalition that elected you doesn't notice until you've moved on to the next job.

So What Now?

Mayor Wu gave an entire inauguration speech today without mentioning transportation. Her department closed out the year bragging about asphalt while people die on Boston streets. The bike lanes she promised are gathering dust. The complete streets projects are stalled indefinitely. The leader she hired to make it happen? Gone.

And she's betting we won't connect the dots. That we'll be too distracted by her Trump fights to notice she's abandoned her transportation agenda. That we'll accept smooth roads and soaring rhetoric as a substitute for the safe streets she promised.

But we're connecting the dots. We see the suburban drivers who opposed bike lanes getting exactly what they wanted. We see the real estate interests who funded Kraft getting their preferred outcome anyway. We see a mayor who talked transformation until it threatened her next campaign.

Mamdani just showed Boston what political courage looks like. He kept his promise when it was hard. He delivered for his community when it would have been easier to wait.

Where's our McGuinness moment, Mayor Wu? When do Boston's kids get the safe streets you promised them?

Or should we just accept that you're already running for your next job, and our streets aren't part of that campaign plan?

Take Action: Contact Mayor Wu and ask her directly: Why didn't transportation merit a single word in your inauguration speech?