Creating a city with a good quality of life, where working-aged people can live and raise families, is the is the key to the economic future of Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu told an AIM Commonwealth Conversation Thursday.

Mayor Wu, speaking to 200 business leaders gathered at M&T Bank, said the traditional model of cities in which large buildings draw employers who in turn draw workers has been replaced by one in which “companies are picking up and moving …to cities where people want to live.”  That, she said, means creating affordable housing, lowering crime rates and providing access to early education and care.

“(The companies) are following the talent and the workforce. What people need in their lives is, in some ways, feeding the ability for everyone to thrive, including the commercial sector,” Mayor Wu said during a fireside chat with AIM President and CEO Brooke Thomson.

The mayor said that an affordable and workable quality of life is particularly important at a time of pervasive uncertainty.

“The pandemic, the return to work the reshaping of society and certainly business, economics, the new federal administration, the climate instability, on and on…every hour there is something new and our families are feeling it,” Mayor Wu said.

Mayor Wu was elected in 2021, the first woman and first person of color to hold the position. A lawyer and politician, she previously served on the Boston City Council from 2014 to 2021, including a term as its president from 2016-2018.

She spent much of Thursday’s conversation reviewing key initiatives on issues ranging from housing to transportation to business regulation. Those initiative include selling unused city parcels of land to local developers to build housing units, creating training and development programs for high-growth industries like life sciences, and streamlining regulatory red tape for new and existing businesses.

“We are doing everything possible to focus on making it easier to do business in Boston, aggressively recruiting businesses to come to Boston, or if you have a business in Boston to open up your second or third location,” Mayor Wu said.

Part of her administration’s focus on business development, Mayor Wu said, has been to support child-care resources that allow employees to remain on the job while raising families. The city has updated zoning and funding for child-care providers and recently launched Great Starts, an online platform that allows residents to review child-care centers and determine which have open slots.

The mayor urged employers to contact her office on child care, economic incentives or any other issue that affects their growth.

Addressing the controversial imposition of bike lanes in the city, Mayor Wu noted that the city began creating the lanes a decade ago under former Mayor Thomas Menino. She said a small majority of city residents support the lanes but acknowledged that the process involves some trial and error to determine the best way to design the system.

Mayor Wu was introduced by Grace Lee, Eastern Massachusetts Regional President and Group Lead of New England Government Banking at M&T Bank. Following the speech, Mayor Wu spoke individually with numerous AIM members.