Wu, Kraft make final pitch to voters ahead of Sept. 9 preliminary election
With less than a week to go before Tuesday’s preliminary mayoral election, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and philanthropist Josh Kraft, seen as her top challenger, made their final pitch to voters Wednesday.
In addition to sharing their hypothetical walk-up songs if they played for the Boston Red Sox — Wu’s would be either George Gershwin’s classical piano piece “Rhapsody in Blue” or “any Beyoncé song,” while Kraft’s would be “Back in Black” AC/DC — the two candidates discussed some of the top campaign issues in a forum hosted by NBC Boston .
Protecting immigrant communities
As the city braces for a potential deployment of immigration enforcement and National Guard troops sent by the federal government, one of the top issues of Wednesday’s forum was immigration .
Wu has consistently defied the Trump administration by holding up Boston’s Trust Act , the law that limits police cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The mayor was called to testify before Congress in March about the law, which has led Trump to label Boston a “sanctuary city,” and has since continued to push against crackdowns from the federal government .
“Boston follows the law at the city level, the state level, and the federal level,” Wu said Wednesday. “What the Trump administration is trying to do now is to go beyond what they’re legally able to do and to say that police officers and city officials have to actually be pulled in to do their jobs for them. That cannot be legally required and it is against the law.”
She emphasized that despite some misconceptions, the Trust Act does not outright ban Boston police from working with ICE. Instead, it restricts them to only working on criminal cases, such as drug or human trafficking investigations, with the agency, and stops BPD from sharing information on suspects’ immigration status or working on strictly civil immigration enforcement.
Kraft said that he, too, supports the Trust Act, which was passed in 2018 under then-Mayor Marty Walsh. He said he would also like to see an easier, faster way for immigrants to get citizenship.
“I will always stand with, stand for and support our immigrant communities across the city of Boston. No matter where they come from, they’re integral parts of our communities, our neighborhoods, and our success,” Kraft said. “It’s outrageous that people can be pulled out of their homes, house of worship, or their place of work with no connection to violent crime.”
Differences on housing
Also at the top of the list of issues of the campaign is housing, a topic that Wu and Kraft have very different plans for addressing.
Kraft shared his proposal for what he calls “opt-in rent control,” which would be a tax credit offered to landlords who commit to keeping rents stable, with minimal increases, for ten years. To fund this, he said, he would “jump-start” the development of housing that has already been planned, but not constructed, which he has estimated would bring in an additional $125 to 140 million in property taxes.
“I would hope that in my four years as mayor, we produce 12,000 units of new housing for the city of Boston or more,” he said.
He also proposed expanding eligibility for first-time homebuyer programs, allowing households making up to 200% of the area median income to access assistance. This program, too, would be funded with new tax revenue, he said.
Wu, on the other hand, touted her administration’s accomplishments on housing, saying she had been putting “everything we’ve got” into addressing the high cost of housing. She said the city has invested in affordable housing, helped 1,000 first-time homebuyers purchase homes, contributed to the purchase of 1,000 apartments to keep them permanently affordable and offered vacant city-owned lots for the development of new affordable housing, among other programs.
However, the mayor said, she wants to do even more.
“I would say this is incomplete,” Wu said. “If I felt like our work was done, I maybe wouldn’t be putting myself forward to ensure that we keep going for four years.”
Fighting against rats
Part of that work, Wu said, is “fighting for Boston to be a home for everyone — except for rats." She acknowledged the problem of the city’s rodent population, which has gotten worse since the pandemic, with more people working from home.
To address it, the city has updated its pest control procedures significantly, Wu said, starting by consulting with national rodent experts and cooperating across city departments. New programs include sewer traps, preventive measures in residential alleys, rat-proof trash cans and installing monitoring systems to determine where there is the most rat activity.
“Our counterparts here on four legs are very innovative, very able to find every weakness that’s there,” Wu said. “The city really does have to have a comprehensive approach.”
Kraft said he would like to establish an Office of Rat and Pest Control, rather than spreading efforts across departments at City Hall. The office would provide financial help to residents and small businesses to help with pest prevention and also operate on-call vans that can be dispatched at any time to deal with infestations.
“Centralizing the unit focused in one department, so everybody knows where to go, is the number one step,” he said.
The preliminary municipal election will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 9, where the field of four mayoral candidates — including community activist Domingos DaRosa and Robert Capucci — will be narrowed to two. The general election will be held on Nov. 4.
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