Copyright New York Daily News
Democratic mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani said he was taking MTA chairman Janno Lieber’s cautionary tone regarding the candidate’s free-bus plan “with a grain of salt.” “The MTA told us decades ago that we would have all-door boarding on local buses and we still don’t have that,” the candidate said. “So I take things that are said with a grain of salt about the lack of changing the way that we do things here in New York City,” he said. The mayoral front runner added that he was “excited” to work with Lieber on transit issues should he win. “…We’re seeing an unprecedented coalition demanding excellence in our public transit,” Mamdani said. Mamdani made the comment to reporters following a campaign stop at a senior center in Bedford-Stuyvesant Thursday. A day earlier, across a series of media interviews, Lieber expressed doubts in the Democrat’s signature transit plan to make buses across the city free to ride. The transit big said Mamdani’s cost estimate to subsidize free bus trips — between $700 million and $800 million a year — was off, in part because Lieber expects bus revenue to rise as the MTA continues to crack down on fare evasion. “Our projection is that bus revenue is going to start to push closer to a billion dollars a year in the next couple of years, as we’ve gotten customers back and, frankly, as we’ve pushed back on fare evasion on buses,” he Wednesday on NY1. “I continue to be confident in our cost estimates,” Mamdani replied when asked about Lieber’s statements Thursday. Cuomo backtracks Andrew Cuomo backtracked Thursday on a comment he’d made the night before that was critical of Mayor Adams during a joint appearance with the mayor, who recently endorsed the ex-governor’s bid for City Hall. “You know in some ways, the city hasn’t really had a competent mayor, a competent manager, since Mayor Bloomberg,” Cuomo said at a Wednesday night campaign stop in Queens. “Twelve years, you haven’t had a mayor. You had eight years of Bill de Blasio, I don’t want to say anything else. Four years of Eric Adams — good man, he endorsed me, friend of mine. But he never got his legs under him. So twelve years nobody has been running the city government, and it atrophies.” Asked about those comments at a joint Harlem appearance with the mayor Thursday, Cuomo said he had intended to praise Bloomberg, who Wednesday re-endorsed him and threw $1.5 million to a super PAC in the candidate’s support. “I do believe Mayor Bloomberg was a competent mayor,” Cuomo said. “I believe Mayor Adams has been a more than competent mayor, I think he’s has a legacy of accomplishments, and it is a legacy that I want to build on.” The former governor continued to say Adams had been “dealt a very difficult hand” from Washington with the migrant crisis, a frequent talking point of Adams’. Adams, standing behind Cuomo as he spoke, showed no expression. The mayor endorsed Cuomo’s campaign last week despite not long ago slamming him as a “snake and a liar.” The mayor dropped his own bid for re-election late last month amid low polling numbers. Countering criticism Cuomo also railed against divisiveness in the city at the appearance, at NYCHA senior center alongside Muslim community leaders including a radio host and religious leaders. The candidate has been on the receivong end of accusations of Islamophobia, with Mamdani holding a press coinference last week to talk about the issue. The ex-governor said that “Islamophobia is not real in this race.” “The worst politics is when you try to divide New Yorkers for political purposes,” Cuomo said. “… Shame on you,” Cuomo said. “To try to divide New Yorkers. It’s not who we are. You’re not going to do it, and we’re going to resent you for trying to do it, because it means you don’t understand the basic premise of being a leader of this great city that prides itself on diversity.”
