Ex-FTC chair Lina Khan joins Mamdani's transition team
businessinsider.com
businessinsider.com
There was a lot of doom and gloom around his potential election, but reality is likely more that it’s quickly demonstrated that the things promised can’t be delivered and then everyone sighs and moves on.
From the article someone linked to below:
Speaking on Oct. 30, MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber didn't seem amenable to the idea of making buses free for all riders.
"I want to make sure that people of limited income get priority in this discussion, that we're not just giving a ton of money to people who are riding the 104 on the Upper West Side, where I grew up, the bus on Broadway," Lieber said.
So the guy who might hold sway, hasn't been convinced yet its something he would be immediately on board with. The MTA is also still struggling financially, so losing even more revenue by giving away free bus trips isn't something the MTA will be cool with.
And then of course what nobody wants to talk about is how they would offset the losses in fair revenues? Why increases taxes of course:
Mamdani told CBS New New York back in September that he would pay for free buses, along with his other democratic socialist policies, in part, by increasing the corporate tax rate to 11.5% -- the same as New Jersey -- and instituting a flat 2% tax rate for individuals earning $1 million or more.
"My vision for making the most expensive city in the United States of America affordable is actually one that benefits all of us," he said.
The MTA needs money and so making busses free for everyone is silly when many riders can certainly afford to pay. Various means tested approaches are in place and are the sort of thing that generally gets broader support.
The whole “tax the rich” line makes for good stump speeches but doesn’t work in practice. The rich have good accountants that let people avoid most of these ideas.
My brother in christ, this took less than ten seconds to Google ("Zohran Mamdani free bus plan").
>Are free buses in NYC feasible?
Political expert J.C. Polanco, a professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx, recently told CBS News New York the biggest hurdle Mamdani would face in making free buses a reality is the MTA, because it controls the cost of bus fares.
"[Mamdani] would need the support of those members of the MTA, which means you need the support of the state and those officials that appoint those individuals to the MTA," Polanco said.
He added that, because congestion pricing is the law of the land and the transit agency has a massive deficit, he believes the odds of New Yorkers getting to enjoy free buses are "slim to none."
>As mayor, he would need the help of Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature to raise taxes.
[1] New Mexico is first state in US to offer universal child care - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45182372 - September 2025
[2] Colorado Proposition LL passes: $12.4M will fund school meals - https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-proposition-l... - November 5th, 2025
These are the comments that remind me of the core user base of out of touch SF people.
The concept of soft power, where you have power through friendship, influence, and relationships is a surprisingly difficult concept for a lot of folks. It's a nuanced concept and it takes nuance to pull off, but when done right it's far more effective than hard power. Hard power is people do it because you tell them, soft power is they do it because you get them to want to do it. Informal arrangements make some people uncomfortable.
100%, because he's mayor. He has real power, and you use that to create soft power. Nothing else matters now, he's mayor. They have to deal with him, and by trying to make that easy and being gracious with the people who were against him, he can gain a LOT of soft power.
They raised ticket prices a few weeks ago, fwiw. He has a bully pulpit, but that's about it.