BOSTON — Some have said there are only two things further left than Michelle Wu — Zohran Mamdani and the Pacific Ocean. Well, it turns out the mayor may have some competition. From the very people who elected her.
The same progressive groups that helped propel Michelle Wu into the mayor's office are now turning on her after her FY27 budget proposed a $7.5 million increase for the Boston Police Department while cutting more than $7 million from housing, food access, and immigrant support programs.
The Better Budget Alliance, a coalition of activist organizations with roots in Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Dorchester, and East Boston, posted on Instagram Wednesday accusing Wu of choosing police over communities. "Enough is enough," the group wrote. "Police continue to take $ away from our communities."
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Wu campaigned on diverting 911 mental health calls away from police and committed $21 million over five years to behavioral health programs. She positioned herself as the progressive alternative on public safety. Now she's funding police recruit classes and her own base is calling it a betrayal. Whether it's a genuine shift or an election-year pivot remains to be seen.
But the reality Wu is governing in looks different from the one she campaigned in.
Boston is dealing with a $48.4 million budget deficit, a police department struggling to retain officers, and a string of violent incidents that have put public safety back at the top of the conversation. Two people were stabbed in Hyde Park last week by a man who was already on probation and awaiting trial on a separate assault charge. A clinician was attacked with a sword near Northeastern. The police union has been in open revolt against DA Kevin Hayden's decision to charge an officer with manslaughter.
The $7.5 million increase funds recruit classes to replace officers lost through attrition — not some massive expansion of the force. It is, by any reasonable measure, the bare minimum to keep staffing levels from falling further.
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As for the cuts to housing and immigrant services — the federal American Rescue Plan Act funding that propped up those programs is expiring. It was always temporary money. The progressive groups screaming about it now knew that. They just assumed someone else would foot the bill when it ran out.
None of this makes Wu a conservative. She is still the mayor who sued the Trump administration over sanctuary city funding, allocated millions for deportation defense lawyers, and spent $135 million on a pro soccer stadium. But on police funding — an issue where she spent years signaling to the left — the budget suggests she has looked at the numbers and decided that keeping cops on the street matters more than keeping activists happy.
It is, quietly, a course correction. And the people who are angriest about it are the ones who should be paying the closest attention to why it was necessary.
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