MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is used to firsts. She is the primary lady to be elected mayor of Boston, first particular person of colour to be elected to the submit and, as of a few weeks in the past, the primary Boston mayor to offer beginning whereas in workplace – her third little one. On Tuesday, Mayor Wu was again at Metropolis Corridor, and as she set to work, her new child, Mira, was in tow.

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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Oh, wow.

MICHELLE WU: She’s been an amazing child – eats rather a lot, sleeps rather a lot.

KELLY: Eats rather a lot, sleeps rather a lot. Mayor Wu, welcome and congratulations.

WU: Thanks a lot. It is nice to be with you.

KELLY: How did that really feel to be again at Metropolis Corridor together with your latest new child babe in arms?

WU: (Laughter) It was nice to be again within the swing of issues. I had been collaborating with my group largely remotely up till that time, since we welcomed our pretty new bundle, and to simply be again in particular person felt actually good.

KELLY: Good.

WU: And Mira held her personal. She participated in Cupboard conferences…

KELLY: (Laughter).

WU: …And simply had one diaper subject that we wanted to deal with, however it bought taken care of fairly shortly.

KELLY: Is that this simply enterprise as traditional for you? I imply, you’ve got carried out this earlier than. I learn again if you had been on the Metropolis Council earlier than you had been mayor, so, like, a decade in the past, you’d come to work day-after-day carrying your then-infant son.

WU: That is proper. Mira has two massive brothers, and each had been born after I used to be already serving on the Boston Metropolis Council. And so it introduced again numerous reminiscences of being on the council flooring or having a child on my hip as we had been going by the enterprise of town.

We’re very fortunate in that Metropolis Corridor is a web site with onsite childcare, however there’s a little little bit of a lag time by way of when they are going to begin accepting new infants, and so for this transition interval, it is just a little little bit of contact and go, however we do our greatest. And now, with know-how, with Zoom, there are much more methods to be engaged.

KELLY: We had been going again by the archives, and I noticed that again if you first had been doing this with a child in your hip – this was, like, again in 2015 – you gave an interview to CBS and described a number of the pushback that you just bought for bringing your son to council conferences, council hearings on the time. Any pushback in any respect this time?

WU: Properly, I believe we’re nonetheless in a world the place typically there’s the expectation that it’s important to have very strict boundaries with the intention to be skilled – proper? – and that somebody’s house or private life ought to be saved very separate from what it means to be a working particular person.

KELLY: Yeah.

WU: And we all know from the overwhelming majority of jobs and industries that that synthetic separation is just not solely unimaginable, however it additionally actually holds us again as a society. Now we have come a great distance since my first little one was born. Again then, I had been main the cost, and we didn’t have paid parental go away in any respect in place in Metropolis Corridor. And so I authored the ordinance, handed that coverage, and within the years since then, we have now been capable of increase it to simply about each metropolis union as effectively, by collective bargaining. And so numerous these insurance policies have now newly been applied, and we’re seeing the advantages.

KELLY: Could I ask the plain query? You are speaking about serving to to steer the struggle for paid parental go away. It does not actually sound such as you’re taking it (laughter). Why not?

WU: Properly, I’ve a powerful, sturdy proponent that each single particular person ought to have the complete vary of choices to assist what their household wants, what their private well being wants and what their very own judgment is. The job of being an elected official is just a little bit distinctive and totally different. You are primarily on name, even on trip, even in the course of the night time, for vital choices that should be made. And so I am doing this in a means that works for my household, works for town and that I’ve, frankly, had a pleasure and simply an enormous privilege to have the ability to do as a result of we’ve got choices in place.

KELLY: So I am effectively conscious, Mayor Wu, that I may not have requested for this interview, that it will be much less newsworthy, if a male mayor of Boston had simply welcomed a 3rd little one to the household. I am additionally conscious, as a working mother myself, that the majority dads aren’t really in there doing the childbirth and breastfeeding. There’s some stuff you simply cannot delegate. I suppose it prompts the query. I imply, Mira clearly continues to be tiny. She’s – what? – 14, 15 days outdated as we’re talking.

WU: That is proper.

KELLY: However are you considering already about what you may want her to learn about what is feasible for a working mom?

WU: We’re in such an fascinating and in addition unpredictable and in some ways traumatic time. As a lady, as somebody who has a front-row seat within the workings of politics and authorities proper now, we’re seeing the push and pull of many adjustments and even rolling again of insurance policies that had been lengthy fought for to guard bodily autonomy or particular person rights and protections.

As I used to be working for mayor, in the direction of the top of that election, , there have been a variety of very sturdy girls concerned, and my boys had grown up seeing the ocean change of ladies in elected workplace that Boston had skilled over the past decade. And one in all my sons requested me if boys had been ever allowed to be mayor of Boston as effectively.

KELLY: (Laughter).

WU: And so I believe we’re seeing the influence that position fashions can have, and we need to guarantee that that additionally turns right into a tangible distinction and the influence in bettering folks’s lives.

KELLY: In order you and I converse, you might be working a reelection marketing campaign for one more time period. And as I need not let you know, we’re not residing by a quiet second for giant metropolis mayors in America. I used to be studying that you’re 1 of 4 mayors who has been known as to testify subsequent month – February 11 – on Capitol Hill for a listening to on so-called sanctuary cities. Do you intend to go?

WU: We’re nonetheless reviewing the communication that was acquired and searching for some steering from those that know the ins and outs of congressional insurance policies and all of that greatest. I do know that Boston has rather a lot to share in terms of how our insurance policies have been profitable at creating the outcomes that so many communities are calling for. We’re very proud to be the most secure main metropolis within the nation. We’re at file low ranges of gun violence, of murder, of all the general public security statistics which are tracked on an annual foundation. And that’s due to the belief that exists inside our neighborhood and the flexibility for everybody to be concerned and to have investments that enhance folks’s lives. So we’re nonetheless evaluating what the subsequent steps are on that entrance, and may it come to that, I believe I’d additionally want to grasp the breastfeeding insurance policies (laughter) for many who are testifying as effectively.

KELLY: What sort of questions are you getting, both from native legislation enforcement there in Boston or from folks in your metropolis with out authorized standing – questions in regards to the deportation threats coming from federal authorities officers.

WU: I believe we’re very clear in Boston that the outcomes we have achieved have been as a result of we create an area the place everyone seems to be a part of our neighborhood. That signifies that no matter your immigration standing or anything about your background, everybody must really feel comfy and secure reaching out to legislation enforcement, reporting crimes, calling 911 if you need assistance, taking your children to high school, being concerned in actions on the neighborhood middle, and we don’t ask about immigration standing in any of these settings. On the similar time, we’re very clear that there is accountability throughout the board as effectively for many who have dedicated a criminal offense or who’re perpetrating violence or hurt locally. And in order that’s the inspiration of how we’re constructing our metropolis right here.

KELLY: Boston mayor and mother Michelle Wu, thanks very a lot to your time.

WU: Thanks a lot.

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