Can a former governor accused of slashing transit funding — and triggering the “summer of hell” — rebrand himself as a mayor who innovates and invests on transportation points?
His critics are skeptical.
“Andrew Cuomo doesn’t wanna run on his record,” Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a candidate for Mayor, stated Friday. “He wants to run on mine.”
Mamdani proposed the free bus pilot that led to 5 fare-free routes within the 5 boroughs from the autumn of 2023 to the top of summer season 2024. He stated the pilot led to a rise in ridership and a lower in assaults on bus operators.
However the pilot ended when state funding ran out.
Cuomo’s newly launched mayoral coverage paper on reasonably priced transportation consists of the important thing bullet factors: “Expand Fair Fares” — the half-priced MetroCard for low-income New Yorkers — and “Evaluate the Expansion of Fare-Free Bus Pilot.”
Mamdani referred to as that fairly a shift from a governor who famously clashed with NYC Transit Authority President Andy Byford earlier than the pandemic.
“[Cuomo] led us to what was described as the summer of hell, all but chasing out one of the most talented executives in the MTA,” stated Mamdani.
A spokesman for Cuomo dismissed the criticism.
“Governor Cuomo oversaw the largest MTA capital plan in history and built the 2nd Ave subway and the Moynihan Train Hall and fixed the L train without the long-term closures that the experts swore we needed,” stated spokesman Wealthy Azzopardi. “These anonymous faceless politicians — all of whom have been in workplace for years who’ve been in workplace for the reason that Nineties — are attempting to rewrite historical past as a result of they haven’t any report to talk of. “
However one other mayoral candidate, Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander, pushed again on Cuomo’s report.
“Andrew Cuomo’s transit legacy for NYC is working the subways into the bottom so unhealthy we had 70,000 delays a month, individuals getting their heads caught in trains, rampant sign malfunctions, and relentless crowding. Cuomo reduce thousands and thousands in funding to the MTA 12 months after 12 months, and a famend subway skilled stop his job as a result of Cuomo’s unbearable ego was unattainable to cope with,” stated Lander.
Azzopardi stated Cuomo will launch a extra in depth mass transit plan within the coming weeks. His emphasis is affordability.
On Thursday, at his first question-and-answer session with reporters since coming into the race, Cuomo reminded critics he led the passage of the first-in-the-nation congestion pricing program. Though in latest months, he’s referred to as for a delay within the tolls.
“There’s no doubt it’s the right policy,” stated Cuomo. “My question was: is it the right time for the policy?”
