‘Bold’ plans, hostile feds are part of terrain
Eighteen years ago, Michelle Wu, a Chicago native and recent Harvard graduate with a degree in Economics, was working in the private sector for a consulting firm when a family crisis changed the course of her life, calling her home to Illinois, then back to Boston, this time with a new sense of mission.
By 2021, the change of direction had made Wu a historical figure in local politics: the first woman and person of color to be elected as the city’s mayor. But, when she left Boston in 2007, it was as a crisis responder, helping a mother who, she said, had suffered a “nervous breakdown” and also caring for three younger siblings…