Wednesday. Sunshine and cool temps.
Michelle Wu is the mayor elect of Boston. She’ll be sworn in in 2 weeks. I expect/hope she already has names lined up for a cabinet and presumably we’ll hear who those people are soon. They will be the key to executing her vision while making sure the trash gets picked up and potholes filled. She’ll also need a new police commissioner. (I think we know who it won’t be.) It’s a critical early decision for the new mayor so she shouldn’t rush it. But sooner is better than later.
Former Globe columnist Eileen McNamara reflects on Wu’s victory in the Times, noting that turnout was about 30%. But, she adds, “Ms. Wu should not be misled. Those stay-at-home voters will be paying close attention when she takes the oath of office in two weeks. Politics in Boston might just have gotten more diverse, but it is still this city’s favorite spectator sport.”
The Boston race reverberated to the other side of the planet, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan tweeting its congratulations. “We couldn’t be prouder of the 1st woman & Asian American to hold the city’s top job. More power to her as she keeps breaking those glass ceilings!”
Despite all the election stories, I wasn’t able to find the results of the ballot questions in the Globe’s online coverage. At least not easily. I ended up Googling “Boston Globe ballot questions 2021” to get this article. (I don’t think that’s the way an online newspaper is supposed to work, but whatever.) So it looks like Boston will go back to an elected school committee. In the past this gave plausible deniability to the mayor on school issues. And Question 1, the new budget process, also passed. Implementing it will require a change to the city charter, a big deal. Whoever Wu picks as CFO will have their hands full in the spring.
And it looks like we’re going to have to go to war with Maine. Sustainable energy? Can’t get here from there.