Max Rome, a Northeastern PhD environmental engineer hired in November to drive Wu's flagship 2030 Climate Action Plan stormwater work, was called into a meeting with interim Chief of Streets Nick Gove and a city HR official. By the time the conversation ended, his job and his office were gone.

"The conversation was over before it began," Rome told the Globe. "It was just very straightforward: 'This is the end of the road.'"

Before joining the city, Rome was senior stormwater program manager at the Charles River Watershed Association. He called the Boston job his "dream job."

The Office of Green Infrastructure — created by Wu herself in 2022 and featured dozens of times in her own 2030 Climate Action Plan published just last month — is gone. Its work, per the city, will be "absorbed" elsewhere. No replacement office. No replacement director.

It's the kind of bureaucratic line item every center-right Bostonian has wanted somebody to take a hatchet to for years — a six-figure salary for a six-month-old position running an office whose work "will continue" without it. Whether the mayor has finally come to her senses about the fiscal hole, or whether this is a one-off cut she made under pressure, remains to be seen.

Hessann Farooqi, executive director of the Boston Climate Action Network, called the firing "shocking," per the Globe. His group had been collaborating with Rome's office on a community flood-mapping project.

Wu, asked about the layoff at an unrelated event Wednesday, told the Globe she was "unfamiliar with the details" and that the city "doesn't share information about personnel matters." Her spokesperson didn't answer follow-up questions.

The Globe reported in March that Wu had also effectively ground-stopped most streets-design projects by requiring her personal approval before they move forward, with several Streets Department officials departing in the months since. Tuesday's layoff completes the personnel sweep of the prior Streets leadership.

For the right-leaning Boston voter watching Wu's climate-spending priorities collide with the city's fiscal reality, the question is whether this is the moment the mayor finally started doing the math. For her progressive base, the signal is clear either way.

This is a developing story.