The Trump administration’s scathing letter resurrecting Mayor Michelle Wu’s “morally repugnant” whites-not-allowed vacation social gathering and concluding her DEI insurance policies are discriminatory is the newest escalation of the town’s battle with the Republican president.
“The Metropolis has been very public about its intention to discriminate on the premise of race,” Housing and City Growth 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 costs 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 costs might give Wu a short-term victory, they arrive with critical long-term danger.
The brand new investigation by the feds might result in a prison referral to the Division of Justice and penalties in opposition to fiscally-challenged Boston, like withholding federal funding.
The letter additionally raises some uncomfortable points just like the mayor’s notorious “electeds of colour” vacation social gathering which banned white elected officers and outlined her nationally.
Wu was pilloried by some media for the social gathering and it didn’t play properly in lots of quarters of the nation.
The invitation to the social gathering was mistakenly despatched out to your complete Metropolis Council, which Wu known as a “mistake.” Wu received Black elected leaders like Council President Ruthzee Louijeune to defend the social gathering, saying they wanted “an area…to come back collectively.”
The HUD letter cited the social gathering for instance of the town implementing “racially discriminatory plans.”
The brand new HUD probe was launched as a result of “Metropolis officers have openly endorsed, outlined and carried out a city-wide system for allocating scarce housing sources based mostly on race, colour 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 reasonably than advantage or want.”
“This warped mentality can be totally uncovered, and Boston will come into full compliance with federal anti-discrimination legislation,” Turner added.
A Wu spokesman on Friday remained defiant, saying “Boston won’t ever abandon our dedication to truthful and inexpensive housing, and we are going to defend our progress to maintain Bostonians of their houses in opposition to these unhinged assaults from Washington.”
However Wu is ready to boost property taxes for Boston residents one other 13% and might little afford to see funding slashed from housing and different applications.
Trump has introduced Harvard to its knees, so he might attempt to do the identical factor to cities like Boston.
Politically, the housing investigation could possibly be an try by the Trump administration to neutralize Wu, who has been a constant thorn of their facet.
However it’s a victory of types that Trump is now recognizing Wu sufficient to single her out. She will now even fundraise off the HUD letter whereas complaining Boston is beneath assault, a line that performed properly in her mayoral marketing campaign.
