The mayor’s new push to engage with civic groups across the city has met a decidedly mixed reception, with final judgment hinging on whether officials actually follow through on commitments made in their first foray.

The mayor’s office began by meeting with a wide variety of South End civic groups on June 24, and now says it plans both follow-ups addressing South End issues and a whole series of meetings covering each of the city’s neighborhoods in turn.

Despite taking place down the hall from the mayor’s office, Michelle Wu did not make an appearance herself, instead representing the city with a range of officials like Director of Stakeholder Engagement Mohammed Missouri, Chief of Staff Tiffany Chu and Mike Brohel, the mayor’s advisor on city services.

Civic group responses in the days after were sharply divided. Routinely ignoring community input during her tenure has cost the Wu administration plenty of goodwill, and depending on who you ask, simple actions like the city’s representatives checking a watch or typing on a phone were interpreted as either signs officials weren’t really listening or signs they were studiously taking notes and keeping meeting on time.

A particularly positive response came from the Ellis South End Neighborhood Association (ESENA), whose vocal support of the Wu administration hasn’t been stymied by the BPDA all but leaving the group out of a recent funding disbursement.

“I felt very positive about the meeting.

The Ellis Neighborhood Association's relationship with the city of Boston grows every day. Is it perfect? No, but we appreciate the ongoing process and the opportunity to engage and connect with different members of the mayor's team face to face,” said ESENA chair Julie Arnheiter in a statement.

Other responses were decidedly negative, though more common by far was simple caution.

The Wu administration has plenty of ground to recover among civic groups, particularly in the South End after years of Mass and Cass disappointments. The refrain among almost all groups interviewed was that their ultimate judgment of this new engagement push would depend on whether officials continue to hold meetings and actually follow through in addressing resident concerns.

“We appreciate that the mayor’s office reached out, but we didn’t get any answers. The consistent theme was that there is a lack of communication from the city to its residents and stakeholders. The city gives superficial support, but we really don’t feel like we were heard, like what we said resonating. Everybody’s sitting back to see the follow-up and there isn’t a lot of confidence,” said Elizabeth Beutel, president of the South End Business Alliance.

“I’m reserving judgment,” said George Stergios, vice president of the Worcester Square Area Neighborhood Association (WSANA). “It’s promising they actually brought us in and listened to us. The question is what this will amount to. Our suspicion is that Michelle Wu just wants to check off the community engagement box, but it could be that she’s had enough problems that she’s ready to actually listen to the neighborhood. I’d like to be hopeful.”

“It was good to meet everyone, and the moderator did a reasonably good job of getting different topics covered. What was disappointing was that there weren’t decision makers there who could answer real specific questions. The city promised to get back to us on everything, but I’m not anticipating anything coming from that, other than a ‘thank you for your input,’” said WSANA secretary Andy Brand.

The mayor’s office itself didn’t have much to say on the subject. There’s no timeline at this point for either those meetings with other neighborhoods or follow-ups to address South End concerns, or details about what form those meetings will take.

“The mayor's office convenes meetings with community and small business leaders across every neighborhood to create space for them to raise questions and concerns to city leadership. These conversations are an opportunity to maintain open communication with neighborhood stakeholders and hear feedback from our residents to inform our future work and constituent service needs,” read the only statement from the mayor’s office.