Coffee with Candidates: Michelle Wu

BOSTON — Our Coffee with Candidates series returns with conversations with the five major candidates seeking to be the next mayor of Boston.

Our mayoral series continues with Boston 25 News Anchor Kerry Kavanaugh’s conversation with Boston City Councilor, Michelle Wu.

They recently met up for coffee, juice, and dessert at Santias Bakery in Jamaica Plain.

FULL COVERAGE: Coffee with Candidates

Michelle Wu has served on the Boston City Council for 8 years. She’s the first Asian American woman to do so.

The daughter of immigrants from Taiwan, Wu grew up on the south side of Chicago. Her education at Harvard brought her to Boston and she said she fell in love with the city. She’s now raising her two young children here, ages 4 and 6. Her mother and sisters live here as well. Wu helped raise her siblings while caring for her mother during a mental health crisis shortly after her undergrad years at Harvard.

She spoke with Kavanaugh about how her lived experience helped shape her candidacy.

“As someone who came from an immigrant family and has known the challenges my whole life of what it means to not quite speak the language or fit with the culture, I know how big the gaps are,” Wu said. “And I’ve now raised my sisters in the city as my mom was struggling with mental illness. And today I get to live in a two-family home and Roslindale upstairs with my husband and two kids, my mom downstairs. I know what’s possible in our city for families, but how hard individuals have to fight for that.”

Kavanaugh also spoke with Wu about Boston’s affordable housing crisis, a top issue for voters. Plus, the key themes of her campaign including improving access to transportation and efforts to combat climate change.

Watch the video to find out how she’ll tackle that plus see the rest of the extended conversation.

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