Socialist mayor continues transit publicity campaign; New York Post covers this differently than the Times; observers note both are doing their jobs
NEW YORK CITY
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was inaugurated in January after defeating the Democratic primary field on a platform that included transit equity, free bus service, and the conviction that a socialist can win a major American city election if he rides the subway enough during the campaign, has continued to use public transit for his work commute, a practice that has now been photographed, live-streamed, and written about so extensively that MTA commuters have begun recognizing him at stations and providing unsolicited feedback about the service, which was not always the feedback he was expecting but which he has been receiving with apparent good humor.
“He was on the Q at Queensboro Plaza,” reported one transit rider who encountered the mayor on Tuesday. “He was reading his phone. Someone came up and told him the R train hasn’t had an air-conditioned car at that station in three weeks. He said he’d look into it. She said she’d been told that before. He said he understood. She said she hoped so. They were both very polite. He got off at Court Square.”
This is approximately what it looks like when a mayor who genuinely uses public transit encounters the public who genuinely uses public transit.
The Media Coverage: Divided Along Predictable Lines
New York’s media ecosystem has covered Mayor Mamdani’s transit habits according to the ideological framework each outlet was already operating with before he took office. The New York Times has covered the transit commutes as evidence of a mayor who is genuinely committed to public transit and who is putting his commute where his policy is, with occasional notes about what this style of governance means for the city. The New York Post has covered the same commutes as evidence of a mayor who is using public transit as a political photo opportunity while pursuing policies that the Post considers economically irresponsible, with occasional notes about what this style of governance means for people who own things.
Both of these frames contain accurate observations. The mayor does use public transit genuinely and has done so for years, predating his political career. The mayor’s transit commutes are also documented and communicated in ways that maximize their visibility, because he is a politician and politicians document things that serve their narrative. These are not mutually exclusive. A person can genuinely believe in something and also be strategic about how they communicate that belief. This is called “governing while communicating,” and it is what all successful politicians do, which does not make it cynical so much as competent.
The Policy Questions Behind the Commutes
Mayor Mamdani has proposed free bus service in New York City, funded by alternative revenue sources that his administration is “fleshing out.” This proposal, if implemented, would expand transit access to low-income New Yorkers who currently find the $3 fare a meaningful household expense, reduce boarding times at bus stops (eliminating fare payment speeds up boarding), and make the bus a competitive transportation option for trips where the subway is not available or convenient.
The counterarguments include: the revenue required to replace fare income is substantial and must come from somewhere; free transit attracts riders who were previously driving, which is good for emissions but increases crowding, which requires increased service frequency, which costs more money; and the political difficulty of identifying a funding source that can survive multiple mayoral administrations and Albany budget cycles. These are real obstacles. They are the same obstacles that have prevented free transit from being implemented in any large American city. They are also the obstacles that transit advocates argue can be overcome if the political will exists. Whether Mamdani’s administration constitutes that political will will be determined by whether the policy passes or doesn’t, which will be determined by factors including but not limited to bus ridership data, budget negotiations, council votes, state funding formulas, and whether the R train at Queensboro Plaza gets its air conditioning fixed.
The Broader Question: Does the Mayor’s Commute Matter?
The symbolic value of a mayor who takes the bus — as opposed to the mayoral SUV motorcade that many cities provide and some mayors use even when they’ve campaigned on transit equity — is not zero. It signals something real about the administration’s stated values. It also puts the mayor in the same physical environment as the people his transit policies affect, which creates the conditions for encounters like the one at Queensboro Plaza, where a commuter can tell the mayor directly that the R train air conditioning hasn’t worked in three weeks.
Whether that encounter produces a fixed air conditioning unit in a reasonable timeframe is the actual test of whether the symbolic transit commute translates into substantive transit improvement. The MTA operates independently of the mayor on day-to-day maintenance, which is funded by a combination of fares, state subsidies, congestion pricing revenue, and the federal capital program. The mayor influences MTA policy through appointments to the MTA board and advocacy with Albany. He cannot personally fix the R train air conditioning. But the person at Queensboro Plaza may not have known that, and the mayor did not say it. He said he’d look into it. Sometimes that is the right answer.
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SOURCE: https://bohiney.com