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, mentioned 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 mentioned 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 inexpensive 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,” mentioned Mamdani.
A spokesman for Cuomo disregarded 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,” mentioned 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 Nineteen Nineties — are attempting to rewrite historical past as a result of they don’t have any document to talk of. “
However one other mayoral candidate, Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander, pushed again on Cuomo’s document.
“Andrew Cuomo’s transit legacy for NYC is operating 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 lower hundreds of thousands in funding to the MTA yr after yr, and a famend subway knowledgeable give up his job as a result of Cuomo’s unbearable ego was unimaginable to take care of,” mentioned Lander.
Azzopardi mentioned Cuomo will launch a extra intensive 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,” mentioned Cuomo. “My question was: is it the right time for the policy?”
