Ex-Barrington resident Michelle Wu is first woman, person of color to be elected Boston's mayor
WASHINGTON - Michelle Wu, 36, won the Boston mayoral race on Tuesday, a quick rise for the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants born on Chicago's South Side, raised in Barrington and educated about bureaucracies when she wrestled with City Hall to get permits to open a tea house at 4229 N. Lincoln Ave., in North Center - to which she commuted from Barrington each day.
Wu will be the first woman and the first person of color elected mayor of Boston.
Wu beat Annissa Essaibi George, both at-large members of the Boston City Council and Democrats.
When Wu was a kid, her family lived in Bridgeport; her father, Han Wu, was a student at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
The family got by with the help of social safety programs like WIC, a federal food program for women, infants and children.
The family moved around the Midwest. Wu grew up mostly in Barrington. She attended the Roslyn Road Elementary School, Hough Street Elementary, Prairie Middle School, and the Barrington High, graduating in 2003.
From there she went to Harvard University. After graduation and a time in Boston, she returned to Barrington to care for her mother, Yu-min-Chen Wu, because her mental illness was worsening and her younger sisters needed her help. Then the tea shop came.
After a few years, Wu decided to leave the tea house behind and attend Harvard Law School. She moved her mother and siblings to Cambridge. Her mother lives with her in Boston. Her father lives in Florida.
• Read the full story at chicago.suntimes.com.