She also authored ordinances to have the city protect wetlands, support adaption to climate change, enact a plastic bag ban, adopt Community Choice Aggregation, and provide paid parental leave to municipal employees.

[8][9] Wu's family is of Taiwanese waishengren descent; her grandparents had left mainland China during the Kuomintang retreat to Taiwan,[9] and her maternal grandfather was a general in the National Revolutionary Army.

[7] Due to transgenerational trauma from the Chinese Civil War, her parents had a negative view of political involvement as dangerous and corrupt and Wu had not originally considered a career in it.

[37] Wu had conceived this legislation after her own first pregnancy when she learned firsthand (after giving birth in December 2014) that municipal employees were not being offered paid child leave.

[41] In November 2017, the Boston City Council unanimously passed an ordinance written by Wu and fellow councilor Matt O'Malley, which implemented a plastic bag ban.

[42][44] In December 2019, the Boston City Council passed an ordinance that Wu had introduced with Matt O'Malley that protects local wetlands and promotes adaption to climate change.

[50] The proposal calls for creating "just and resilient development" through the establishment of affordable green overlay districts and standard community benefits agreements;[49][50] priority planning zones informed by urban heat island maps, in order to expand the urban tree canopy;[49][51] and a "local blue new deal" for coasts and oceans, using coastal and ocean resources for clean energy generation, sustainable food systems, carbon capture, and jobs.

[52] Wu pushed for increased restrictions, including the elimination of investor units, and faced targeted criticism from short-term rental platform Airbnb for this.

This ordinance guaranteed healthcare (including gender reassignment surgery, hormone therapy, and mental health services) to transgender city employees and dependents.

[106][108][109] Wu ultimately placed first in the nonpartisan primary and advanced to the general election, where she faced fellow city council member Annissa Essaibi George.

[112] Wu was viewed as the front-runner in the general election campaign, with advantages in endorsements, including from cultural groups,[113] Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, both of Massachusetts' U.S.

[126] She has supported the resolution authored by Senator Ed Markey and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to recognize a duty of the federal government to create a Green New Deal.

[129] She then unveiled a proposed home rule petition in August 2022 that would see the city request entrance to the state's pilot program for municipalities to ban fossil fuels from most new buildings, with the exception of labs and hospitals.

[132] In 2024 Wu's climate push had mixed results, including winning a $10 million federal grant for climate-related job training and a failed vote with the Boston Zoning Commission to accelerate the net-zero requirement for all new buildings.

This plan centers on combatting the impacts of rising heat extremes, focusing on the "environmental justice communities" of Chinatown, Dorchester, East Boston, Mattapan, and Roxbury.

In December 2021 Wu extended the fare-free pilot program for the MBTA Route 28 bus that was started under the acting mayoralty of Kim Janey by two months.

[165] On February 9, 2022, Wu and MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak announced that the two-year program for the three routes to be fare-free was officially agreed to and would be launched on March 1, 2022.

Yawu Miller of the Bay State Banner described it as being, "the first [contract] in which [Boston] city officials have managed to secure significant reforms from the Patrolmen’s union.

The contract has also been credited as helping to achieve the goals of the Good Food Purchasing Program that was created by an ordinance that had been authored by Wu as a city councilwoman.

In May 2023, Brian McGrory of The Boston Globe observed that Wu has given greater precedence toward attending to other municipal concerns than she does to giving an audience to the city's business elites.

"[185] Also in May 2023, Shirley Leung (also of The Boston Globe) similarly observed that, "previous mayors have welcomed tête-à-têtes with real estate developers and other captains of industry to discuss projects or other matters.

[...] Instead, she prefers to assemble groups of leaders to help shape specific policies and forge public-private partnerships...the noticeable change in approach continues to ruffle the feathers of those who are used to having the ear of the mayor, all of which is perpetuating a narrative that Wu is indifferent to business interests.

"[186] It has been also been observed by The Boston Globe that Wu grants substantially fewer meetings to real estate developers than her processors had, giving them less opportunities to directly lobby her.

[208] As City Councilor, Wu voiced support for a "fair work week", $15 minimum wage, paid family and medical leave, protections for freelancers.

[35] Before the passage of the ordinance by the City Council, Wu and Mayor Mary Walsh co-authored an op-ed in The Boston Globe that called paid parental leave, "a must for working families".

[70]She further argued that Boston should set an example for the rest of the county in free access to transit, likening it to past municipal innovations the city introduced.

[49] Wu has supported federal legislation on the matter of fare-free public transit, including helping Senator Ed Markey and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley in 2020 to promote their proposed "Freedom to Move Act".

[220] In 2019, Wu partnered with attorney general Maura Healey, congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, and fellow city councilor Lydia Edwards in a digital campaign urging the state government to adopt the Roe Act.

[7] While attending Harvard College, Wu began a long-distance relationship with Conor Pewarski, having been introduced by mutual friends at a Harvard–Yale football game party that she hosted.

[233] She took refresher lessons at Berklee College of Music prior to performing George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue as a guest soloist with the Boston Pops in September 2024.