The Dorchester Reporter has the details on Michelle Wu's endorsement today by the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association and its allied EMS union.
The endorsement comes at a good time for Wu. She now has well funded opposition in the form of Josh Kraft and next week she travels to Washington to face sneering Republicans who will accuse her of turning Boston into a crime-ravaged doomscape lorded over by violent immigrants, and never mind statistics showing the city is one of the safest in the country.
The endorsement is also notable because it once would have been unthinkable, back when the BPPA was headed by men - both now convicted felons - who published an openly racist and rightwing newsletter,
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Comments
Emerson
By emac
Thu, 02/27/2025 - 11:01pm
Poll finds a +22 point net favorability for Wu* and 57% think Boston is headed in the right direction. 50-50 split on bike lanes, White Stadium redevelopment has a +31 point net support (53% support - 22% oppose), Wu leads Kraft on housing affordability 38% to 25% (“nobody” gets 31%).
Josh Kraft has a bit of a hill to climb here.
*approval is only +3.
https://emersoncollegepolling.com/boston-2025-mayo...
I have to laugh
By BostonDog
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 6:45am
It's cute when people suggest White stadium or bike lanes are going to cost Wu her job.
It's been 75 years since a Boston mayor lost reelection and most have not been as popular as Wu is now.
Still, it would be nice if she had a stronger opponent just to keep her focused.
There’s common ground on bike
By Frelmont
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 8:11am
There’s common ground on bike lanes between motor vehicle operators and bicycle/moped/kick scooter operators on the roadways: 1) Use common sense and don’t be a dick, 2) bike lanes are imperfect, they were never meant to be inviolable, this isn’t Nazi Germany sometimes you need to pull over lest commerce and civic life be strangulated or made exclusive to the young and able, i.e.: drop off vulnerable passengers at the nearest point to a building’s entrance. 3) see # 1
Just stop being too selfish to protect human life
By cinnamngrl
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 9:05am
if it is hard to drop off a vulnerable person at a building then there should be a no parking loading zone there. But mostly it is people too selfish to pull to the curb when they want a quick stop. There is a great deal of parking in Boston neighborhoods that is illegally close to intersections and curb cuts. This cuts the visibility for pedestrians and cyclist.
People don't seem to understand that the only reasons we have sidewalks and bike lanes is because drivers are dangerous.
Yes, and many more loading
By Frelmont
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 9:35am
Yes, and many more loading zones and more closer, cheaper parking.
I thought we had built up sidewalks to not sink into the mud, waste and horse shit in the roads.
"I would like to have my cake and eat it too"
By spin_o_rama
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 9:55am
Gonna have to bulldoze parts of the city for parking lots if you want closer and cheaper parking.
Agreed about loading zones, we could really use those along Brighton Ave with all the restaurants.
Likely both. I mean I wouldn
By Muerl
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 9:59am
Likely both. I mean I wouldn't want to get run over by a horse.
Do we want to go back that far?
By tachometer
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 10:52am
The reason the roads were paved as an upgrade from dirt or cobblestone was because of advocacy from The League of American Cyclists. That means we're just taking back what is rightfully ours and motor vehicle drivers are lucky we don't cut them down to a single lane everywhere.
Dplct
By Frelmont
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 11:47am
Dplct
Cobblestones don’t get
By Frelmont
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 11:38am
Cobblestones don’t get potholes!
So, thanks for that League of American Cyclists.
North Greenleaf Avenue was a cobblestone road in Roger’s Park Chicago that was built long before I was born and was in the exact same perfect condition in the nineties.
Truth in this statement
By ElizaLeila
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 10:43am
In all honesty, it cuts the visibility for drivers, too. It's bad for everyone.
Yes but the drivers are not
By cinnamngrl
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 10:44am
Yes but the drivers are not injured or killed for it.
Correct
By ElizaLeila
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 11:10am
But when I'm driving it does cut off my ability to see pedestrians and cyclists. You want it to be seen - I want it to see you. I'd like better visibility of my fellow humans as I move about the city. It is a win-win.
edit to add: I think we're on the same page - you don't want to be killed. I really don't want that to happen either. Give us all tools to keep pedestrians and cyclists safe(r).
Such a good point it's worth
By Adam Pieniazek
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 12:19pm
Such a good point it's worth quoting:
<blockquote>the only reasons we have sidewalks and bike lanes is because drivers are dangerous</blockquote>
Well said. And worth pointing out protected bike lanes make the road safer for everyone!
Interesting definition of common ground
By HenryAlan 2.0
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 9:32am
You are describing a situation in which drivers can eliminate the benefit of bike lanes to riders whenever it suits their own personal purposes. You are part of the problem. People die because attitudes like yours are far too prevalent.
Not “whenever” there are
By Frelmont
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 9:57am
Not “whenever” there are general rules and exceptions governed by caution, commons sense and not being a jerk.
Bike lanes would have been a non-starter if there was any expectation of perfect adherence and enforcement.
not being a jerk means keep
By cinnamngrl
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 10:45am
not being a jerk means keep cars out of bike lanes
game over for Kraft
By deselby
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 5:32am
cuts the legs off any momentum he could get in the white high-voting precincts south of I-90
I think we can predict the map
By tachometer
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 6:55am
Wu-Kraft will end up looking a lot like Harris-Trump results in Boston.
Someone should make a chart
By BostonDog
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 7:21am
Comparing the Mayoral election to the presidential election and show the difference in years the Boston mayor was running for reelection. I'm curious how that's changed over time. How often did the mayor under preform the Democratic presidential choice?
No comparison
By sartreswaiter
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 7:31am
Boston mayor elections happen 1 year after the presidential election. The voter bases between a presidential election and an off-year election really can't be compared in the results. It's not even during a congressional midterm cycle, it's just fully an off-year election.
Scratches head
By sartreswaiter
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 6:58am
I take your point, but the vast majority of the city of Boston is south of I-90, maybe 90% of the land area and possibly as much of the population. Only the core of Downtown and most of Alston, Eastie, and Back Bay are north of it. That Southern portion also probably includes more non-white people than white as Boston is a "majority minority" city.
Charlestown is also north of I-90
By Ron Newman
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 9:56am
and most of residential and commercial Allston (as opposed to the Harvard campus and stadium) is actually south of I-90
Ah yes
By sartreswaiter
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 2:44pm
Definitely an oversight on my part. 90% is probably an exaggeration but a lot
Maybe. Maybe not.
By Frelmont
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 11:58am
Maybe. Maybe not.
This is where the power lies,
By anon
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 6:49am
This is where the power lies, rich sport team owners and cops.
The union leadership
By anon
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 7:18am
Not its members. A lot of pissed off people right now.
just you actually.
By cinnamngrl
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 11:49am
just you actually.
Probably true
By emac
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 2:37pm
But the value of a police union endorsement is less in a few thousand votes from the members and more in the optics for hundreds of thousands of voters. Particularly the persuadable voters in the middle. Kraft could’ve really used this boost and Wu got it — 9 months out from the election.
The devil is in the details
By cliff
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 7:22am
Smart move by Mayor Wu but she had to give up something to receive the endorsement. The rumor is she is going to allow retired officers to work the lucrative racket of street police details.
Maybe she is everybody’s mayor.
By Frelmont
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 7:56am
Wow. Maybe she is everybody’s mayor.
Do mayoral endorsements always come this early in the election year?
Is Mayor Wu demonstrating her tack away from the failed Nutsy Fagan antics of appeasing the extreme left?
‘GBH News. 2/27/2025. ‘Boston mayor says police will increase enforcement of public drug use laws’
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2025-02-27/boston-mayor-sa...
Wow
By lbb
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 9:45am
Are you demonstrating the effects of the kaleidoscope of mind-altering chemicals that you sprinkled on your Count Chocula this morning?
Next week's "hearings"
By Ari O
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 9:31am
Unlike the hapless college presidents, I feel like Mayor Wu will be slightly better prepared when she goes to DC, and she's also a slightly better politician.
If I were her, I'd go in with the following data:
Boston's homicide rate in 2024: 3.6 per 100,000
House oversight committee Republican members are from states with the following homicide rates*:
And then, when questioned by each one, begin every statement with "and thank you, Representative from [state], which had a murder rate of [x.x] which is higher than the so-called dangerous City of Boston." (For somewhere like Louisiana, mention that it's six times higher.)
Wu should hammer the
By Frelmont
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 1:20pm
Wu should hammer the Republicans without relent for the INFAMY* of February 24, 2025.
She must not surrender one soundbite that is untainted by the terms: BenedictArnold, Chamberlain, appeasement, surrender, the CIA’s wall of stars/Memorial Wall, puppet, betrayal, asset, compromised…
Russia is a parasite state. Countless patriots have died attempting to snuff out this evil stain on world history and we are so close to freeing the people of Russia from absolute nihilism and Trump is giving oxygen to this ember!/?
A distinction can be drawn between “the Russia scandal/hoax,” and very, very well established active measures of Russian interference in many sovereign Western democracies’ elections.
Beyond the mother loving pale.
* ‘Infamy. J. Nordlinger. NR. 2/25/2025.
Remember in Looney Tunes
By Will LaTulippe
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 10:25am
When a character would coerce another character to do something by showing them a financial ledger labeled "BANK BOOK?"
Wu should do that in front of whatever jerkoff panel is challenging her on nonsense. I want her to look someone in the eye, and say "My state subsidizes your state. (Expletive) off."
Well done, BPPA and the EMS union!
By Lee
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 10:27am
.
Michelle deftly following the Kevin White playbook
By anon
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 11:05am
Pay off the major unions, make all the city employees take a loyalty test, and carve up whatever you can get your hands on for the people who really run the $how. It's pretty insidious.
Source: trust me, bro
By CH
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 11:22am
Source: trust me, bro
Here’s the thing though
By dan r
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 11:23am
You’re like profoundly stupid so that’s not a reflection of anything remotely resembling reality. Snack on a Tide Pod or two.
It's interesting that one of
By Luv Boston
Fri, 02/28/2025 - 1:03pm
It's interesting that one of the early things Wu had to do was negotiate the contract with the union. Seems like she got done reforms in there too but clearly both sides are happy
https://www.boston.gov/news/five-year-contract-ratified-boston-police-de...
I do wonder what happened to the idea to open up traffic details to civilians. That seems like it would be a huge safety improvement as so many of these go unfilled
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