Wu promises more housing, progress in schools during State of the City address

Boston is proof that communities can help families find joy and belonging, Mayor Michelle Wu said during her second State of the City address Tuesday night.

Speaking at the MGM Music Hall near Fenway Park, Wu touted her administration's efforts around combating addiction and homelessness, improving schools and pressing for more affordable housing in the city.

"The world needs the proof that Boston provides," Wu said.

Wu pointed to several law-and-order issues early in her remarks, including the removal of tent encampments in the area around Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, and an increase in people housed or in treatment. She also highlighted record lows in gun violence.

"And we negotiated a police contract unlike any other: opening up paid detail opportunities, investing in officer education, and ending arbitration as a way to overturn discipline for the most serious offenses," Wu said. "In ratifying this contract, our officers voted overwhelmingly to hold themselves to the highest standards of accountability and set a national precedent for community policing."

On housing, Wu cited the 7,400 permits approved last year and what she called one of the highest ratios of affordable housing approvals in the city in more than a decade.

Addressing the first-time homeowners in the audience she brought as guests, Wu announced plans to bring more residences to the city.

One effort promises to make it easier to build so-called in-law apartments and other types of additional dwelling units in homes. Another program would expand a fund to create what Wu described as "permanently affordable" housing units for another 400 families, expanding on a program launched last year in East Boston.

She also said the city would identify sites for 3,000 additional affordable housing units and federal grant funding to support them.

Missing from Tuesday's speech was any reference to rent control, which was a signature goal from her inaugural State of the City address last January. That proposal — which would tie rent increases to inflation, capped at 10%, for more than half of the city's apartments — sailed through the Boston City Council but has stalled on Beacon Hill, where the House and Senate have shown little appetite to enact the change.

On schools, Wu touted progress the embattled Boston Public Schools district has made in 2023, including developing a plan to overhaul its crumbling facilities.

"After decades of underfunding, we’re building and renovating schools to reflect our students’ aspirations: state-of-the-art science labs, performing arts spaces, locker rooms befitting the City of Champions," she said. "Today, 10 major BPS capital projects are underway — as many as were built in the last 40 years, combined."

For younger learners, Wu celebrated the expansion of universal pre-K to an additional 390 families. For high school kids, the district's summer work program helped 10,000 teens find a job.

"This year, we’ll expand 'learn-and-earn' jobs that pay students to take college courses over the summer and we’ll guarantee a summer job to every BPS student who wants one," she said.

Wu also announced several collegiate-high school partnerships between Bunker Hill Community College and Charlestown High School; Roxbury Community College and English High School, Boston International Newcomers Academy and Margarita Muñiz Academy; and UMass Boston and Boston Community Leadership Academy-McCormack High School.

Wu closed her speech telling a story about her mother taking her to a museum as a little girl, worried about providing for her family but happy in the moment because of the free access the museum provided.

"So she’s there with her little girl, in a little pink stroller, staring up at a painting of a cliff full of wildflowers," Wu said. "And, in this moment, this mom with no money and no words in this language feels like the best mom on earth because she has given her daughter the world for a day."

Wu announced a new program giving Boston public school families twice-monthly free admission to the Museum of Fine Arts, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Science, the Boston Children’s Museum, the New England Aquarium, and the Franklin Park Zoo.

"Because 'home' is so much more than a house — though it’s a good start," she said. "Add a park down the street for kids to run around in and a unit below so grandma can live close. Make it a place you can put down roots, knowing they’ll blossom. Surround it with schools that inspire and connect. Open the doors wide to give your community the world."

The night didn't go precisely to plan; Wu was briefly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters at the front of the stage.

"This is our democracy at work. We are a city for all voices," Wu said as the crowd began to jeer the demonstration.

Another contingent continued to chant and unfurled a banner and drop leaflets reading "Boston complicit with genocide" from a balcony.