Wu’s State of the City

I attended the State of the City address yesterday at MGM Music Hall. Mayor Wu talked about some interesting programs going on in the city that I was unaware of.

The BPDA is being dissolved and replaced by a new planning commission that will be taking a comprehensive look at zoning and modernizing it. I’m not sure how I feel about this. My ##1 issue is I want more housing built. I’m just not sure if the new planning commission will be even more anti-development than the current zoning. The way Mayor Wu talked about it made me nervous that it will be filled with NIMBYs.
13th grade. Essentially a free year of college at UMass Boston for BPS students. I love stuff like this.
Expanding ‘universal’ prek to more locations, classrooms, and kids. Universal in quotes because it’s not universal until there are enough spots for everyone. I love this. Childcare is so goddamn expensive here, having 1 less year of it to pay will be huge for so many families.
Largest investment in the arts in Boston history. Far from my top priority, but I’m generally pro-arts. A junior at Obryant high school played an amazing song on the piano that she had composed. I’m proud that Boston is investing in arts programs for people like her.
They’re renovating a couple more libraries. More great stuff. The library in my neighborhood of Roslindale finished its renovation in 2022 and it’s a wonderful community asset.
22 more miles of bus lanes in 2023. This is awesome, but I worry without any enforcement that they won’t be very useful. The buses almost never use the Washington St bus lane because there’s always at least some cars parked in it. Id like to see the city start towing (we can do it for street sweeping, why not bus lanes?).

What did you all think about the State of the City address?

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