Top 66 Michelle Wu Quotes

Growing up, I never ever thought that I would or could or should be involved in politics. I didn’t see anyone who looked like me in spaces of power.

We’ve got to change the culture of riding the T. It is a civic space for community conversations, but everyone’s always really quiet on there.

Every municipality in the MBTA’s service area has a role to play in driving expanded transit access and equity.

Entrepreneurs are resourceful, resilient, and make such a difference in anchoring our neighborhoods.

Boston has jobs… And we have plenty of talent in our communities, who either physically can’t get there because the transportation system isn’t working well or need a little bit of a boost in terms of training and access.

I reject the notion that Boston is a city hopelessly divided by neighborhood, income level or political outlook.

We need a T governance structure capable of responding to the depth of our regional transportation crisis while tearing down silos that keep municipal leaders and state officials from working together with urgency on shared goals.

Business as usual has been failing Bostonians since well before the pandemic, and COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated deep inequities across our city.

Investing in free public transportation would establish a right to mobility – the right of every person to access every part of our city, regardless of income level, race, background, or home zip code.

Everything that I do is shaped by the experiences that I’ve had with my family and that I’ve heard in families all across the city who share the same struggles and dreams.

Mobilize your friends and neighbors to understand that your day-to-day involvement with local government matters far more than a referendum on the White House every four years.

Contact your local legislators to talk about your community’s needs. Show up at City Council hearings and demand change.

My boys, Blaise and Cass, run Halloween at our house with the help of my sister who always makes their costumes.

When we fall short of meeting community needs – for stable housing, safe streets, open space, reliable transportation, food access, a healthy environment – everyone faces greater vulnerability.

You can have great ideas, and you can have all the right policy goals. But unless you’re expanding who is included in the political process, you won’t connect the two.

It is not enough to simply dismiss policy, because it’s too complicated or we’re scared about what the unintended consequences might be.

We need federal legislation guaranteeing paid family and medical leave.

When people know and care about their neighbors, they show up for each other in tough times and work together more effectively to boost quality of life in all the times in between.

There’s magic in seeing slightly familiar faces become new neighborhood friends over ice cream and cold drinks.

We have lived through so much alone and isolated.

So many of our large anchor institutions also have tremendous purchasing power. If we were coordinating that and incentivizing good food procurement across the board, that’s a tremendous impact that the city can drive.

We are ready to become a Boston for everyone.

I put my name out there and ran for public service because I want more inclusion, diversity, and opportunity… I will fight for those values.

Our continued economic growth depends on solving our transportation crunch.

In bringing my baby to work, I am happy to be a visible reminder of how messy and difficult it is to be a working parent.

During natural disasters or emergencies, the most resilient communities – places that suffer the fewest casualties and rebuild more quickly – are not the wealthiest neighborhoods or ones that have spent the most on physical infrastructure, but rather the communities with the strongest social infrastructure.

We need bold proposals to make public transit the most reliable, convenient, and affordable transportation option.

The success of Boston’s economy is intertwined with the health and well-being of every neighborhood.

We should be aiming for our entire system to reflect that public transportation is a public good.

We love our history in Boston.

Working families need daily access to affordable, quality early education and childcare, not just an annual tax break for wealthier families.

As a newborn, my older son could sleep through anything so long as he could sprawl out on a flat surface, arms and legs splayed out on either side.

There’s always a way to make progress.

Our family tradition is to make a trip up to Acadia and do some hiking and enjoy the outdoors there.

I think if we’re going to be serious as a city, as a country, about addressing climate change, addressing inequality and racial disparities, we have to start taking action at the scale that matches the urgency of the problems.

We do the big things by getting the little things right for our communities.

I remember very vividly being little and bringing my lunch to school and taking out what was my to-die-for treats from home, whether it was pig ears or dried seaweed, and the reactions of my classmates just hurt, down to my core.

We can solve the car-bike conflict, and the solution unlocks a brighter, more inclusive economic and environmental future for Boston.

I am painfully familiar with the impossible juggle for caretakers trying to navigate language and cultural barriers, insurance pitfalls, and their own unyielding work schedules – only to be heartbroken by the limits of medical treatment.

To reverse the decline of our public transit system and end the transportation disparities that divide our city and region, we must channel calls for change into changed governance.

On the fourth Thursday in August, my neighbors and I cordon off the ends of our block and take over the street for an evening. The annual Augustus Ave. block party is an exercise in teamwork and deep democracy.

The first time my mom was hospitalized, she was forcibly sedated before I was admitted to see her. When I arrived, someone handed me a plastic bag containing her belongings: the ruined clothes that had been cut off her body with scissors.

Carving out space for protected bike lanes is the most cost-effective way to increase our transit capacity and move more people on our streets.

When new moms and dads can better support their families and give our youngest Americans the healthiest, most loving start to life, we all benefit.

We can’t afford to just nibble around the edges of the status quo. We need to take the actions to secure our neighborhoods, to make sure that everyone has opportunity.

If you focus on the very narrow, myopic interaction between students, their teachers, and the curriculum, you are ignoring 90 percent of what’s affecting that student’s ability to learn and be ready to absorb that curriculum and perform well in school and reach their potential.

Free public transportation is the single biggest step we could take toward economic mobility, racial equity, and climate justice.

We should be increasing our investment in the infrastructure for public safety and public health. But when we talk about those as two distinct and separate departments or budgetary items, we’re missing out on the ways in which we should be most effectively using our resources and serving our residents.

When it comes to fighting for progress in Boston, there’s a long history of people in power trying to label advocacy and hard work as being political in order to avoid accountability and distract from community demands for better leadership.

We are redefining what leadership looks like and pushing for every single person to be part of that conversation.

Food justice must be incorporated into the city’s long term and big picture planning efforts.

Our economic competitiveness turns on a thriving, inclusive culture grounded in racial and economic justice.

When I first ran for City Council in 2013, I was told over and over again that I would likely lose, and for reasons beyond my control: I was too young, not born in Boston, Asian American, female.

I will stand on the side of moving forward and ensuring that we are putting in place the changes and the policies to aim for our brightest future.

When we talk about big issues like climate justice, of course that involves global and statewide implications. But it’s also how we double our street-tree canopy to clean the air. It’s converting to electric school buses. All of these issues at the city level start from the day-to-day impacts on people’s lives.

There’s a lot that the city can do, and it depends on having a partnership with community members who are living the realities.

We must center restaurants, bodegas, and other food businesses as critical food infrastructure for racial and economic justice.

We must build a thriving and inclusive arts, restaurant, and nightlife scene to reflect Boston’s culture and diversity.

When Boston harnesses the collective energy, activism, and joy of all our communities, we will make the change we need and deserve – at scale and at street level.

Our public schools are an area where I will be rolling up my sleeves and spending a lot of my time, pushing for political will.

City government is the level closest to the people, so our charge uniquely embodies the big and the small.