Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s top aide has a personal stake in the company the city could hire as a public transit operator, as part of a federal grant that seeks to advance its plans to reduce congestion by getting people out of their cars.
Tiffany Chu, the mayor’s chief of staff, is the former CEO and co-founder of Remix, a past San Francisco transit planning platform that was acquired for $100 million in 2021 by Via Transportation, Inc. — a private operator that is poised to benefit from a roughly $14 million budget to operate five new fixed-route van shuttles and two “microtransit” service areas to supplement and connect to MBTA service.
The contract to Via — where Chu worked until joining the Wu administration in 2022 — would be largely paid through a $21.6 million congestion relief grant the City of Boston was awarded, in part, by the Federal Highway Administration last month, per a prior announcement from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which made the grant application.
The mayor’s office confirmed the connection, first reported by Streetsblog Massachusetts, to the Herald on Monday, stating that while Chu still owns shares in the company, she was not aware of Via’s involvement in the grant application.
“Chu founded her company Remix in 2014, a technology company that supports city transportation planning,” the mayor’s office said in a statement. “She sold the company to Via in 2021 and worked there until joining the City in 2022.
“From the sale of Remix, Chu owns a limited number of shares in Via, totaling far below 1%,” the city’s statement continued. “Chu had no involvement in the grant application and was not aware that Via consulted on the application until after the grant was awarded by the federal government.”
The mayor’s office also noted that Via has not officially been hired as a transit operator through the grant, given that the MAPC and its subapplicants, including the City of Boston, are still awaiting details from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“No commitments have been made, and no contractors or companies have been hired,” the mayor’s office said. “Any services procured under the grant would be done in accordance with all relevant state laws and bidding requirements.”
The new shuttle network funded by the grant would expand public transit in key Boston neighborhoods, including the Seaport, Charlestown and Allston-Brighton. It would also fund a significant Bluebikes expansion across the Greater Boston region, at a time when the Wu administration is investing millions to expand the city’s bike lane and bike sharing networks, to mixed reactions.