The Trump administration’s scathing letter resurrecting Mayor Michelle Wu’s “morally repugnant” whites-not-allowed vacation occasion and concluding her DEI insurance policies are discriminatory is the newest escalation of the town’s struggle with the Republican president.
“The Metropolis has been very public about its intention to discriminate on the idea of race,” Housing and City Improvement Assistant Secretary Craig W. Trainor mentioned in a letter to Boston’s Democratic mayor, opening up an investigation of the town’s housing coverage that favors Black and Latino residents.
However the prices went far past simply her housing coverage, opening up one other main entrance within the battle with Wu, which has launched her into nationwide prominence.
Wu has basked and even benefited from the eye from Trump however whereas the HUD prices may give Wu a short-term victory, they arrive with severe long-term danger.
The brand new investigation by the feds may result in a prison referral to the Division of Justice and penalties towards fiscally-challenged Boston, like withholding federal funding.
The letter additionally raises some uncomfortable points just like the mayor’s notorious “electeds of coloration” vacation occasion which banned white elected officers and outlined her nationally.
Wu was pilloried by some media for the occasion and it didn’t play effectively in lots of quarters of the nation.
The invitation to the occasion was mistakenly despatched out to the whole Metropolis Council, which Wu known as a “mistake.” Wu obtained Black elected leaders like Council President Ruthzee Louijeune to defend the occasion, saying they wanted “an area…to come back collectively.”
The HUD letter cited the occasion for instance of the town implementing “racially discriminatory plans.”
The brand new HUD probe was launched as a result of “Metropolis officers have overtly endorsed, outlined and applied a city-wide system for allocating scarce housing sources primarily based on race, coloration and/or nationwide origin,” the letter says.
In a separate assertion, HUD Secretary Scott Turner blasted Boston’s “social engineering mission that deliberately advances discriminatory housing insurance policies pushed by an ideological dedication to DEI moderately than advantage or want.”
“This warped mentality will likely be absolutely uncovered, and Boston will come into full compliance with federal anti-discrimination regulation,” Turner added.
A Wu spokesman on Friday remained defiant, saying “Boston won’t ever abandon our dedication to truthful and reasonably priced housing, and we’ll defend our progress to maintain Bostonians of their properties towards these unhinged assaults from Washington.”
However Wu is about to boost property taxes for Boston residents one other 13% and may little afford to see funding slashed from housing and different packages.
Trump has introduced Harvard to its knees, so he may attempt to do the identical factor to cities like Boston.
Politically, the housing investigation may very well be an try by the Trump administration to neutralize Wu, who has been a constant thorn of their facet.
But it surely’s a victory of types that Trump is now recognizing Wu sufficient to single her out. She will be able to now even fundraise off the HUD letter whereas complaining Boston is beneath assault, a line that performed effectively in her mayoral marketing campaign.
