Mayor Adams: I helped rolled out free NYC bus pilot program but Mamdani's lousy negotiating skills killed it
Socialists apparently don't understand the art of the deal.
Democratic mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani is a terrible negotiator unfit to lead NYC, according to Mayor Adams, who told The Post this week he witnessed his rival's political deal-making ineptitude firsthand.
Mamdani – whose Marxist pledge to provide free bus service citywide is a centerpiece of his mayoral campaign — asked Hizzoner for help bringing a pilot program for free buses during an April 2023 dinner at Gracie Mansion with the mayor, Adams recalled days after Mamdani shockingly won the Democratic mayoral primary.
Adams — a Dem seeking re-election as an independent — agreed to help convince Gov. Hochul to add funding for the five-borough pilot in the upcoming budget, and even let Mamdani post a video of him on social media gushing how much he loved the concept.
5 Mayor Eric Adams says he once played a huge role helping Zohran Mamdani score Albany support to bring a pilot program providing fare-free buses to the Big Apple – only to have it crash and burn the following year because the socialist Queens assemblyman and mayoral hopeful is a horrific negotiator unfit to lead the city.
ZUMAPRESS.com
'I have always told my team to work with anyone — regardless of their politics — if it meant improving the lives of New Yorkers,' Adams said.
'So when Zohran Mamdani came to me in 2023 asking for help pushing for free bus service in the state budget, it was my team that went to Albany and got it done.'
Days after the one-year, $15 million program expired Aug. 31, 2024, state Assemblyman Mamdani and state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) gushed it was a 'resounding success' in an op-ed they penned for The Nation.
5 The fare-free bus pilot programs on the Bx18A/B (Bronx)), B60 (Brooklyn), M116 (Manhattan), Q4 (Queens), and S46/96 (Staten Island) routes ended on August 31, 2024.
MTA
However, during 2024 budget negotiations, Mamdani ruined any chances of extending the pilot by butting heads with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and voting against the state budget in protest over a landlord-friendly measure that allowed home-repair costs to be passed on to rent-stabilized tenants, sources told The Post.
An irate Heastie reportedly threatened to pull the bus pilot if Mamdani voted against the budget, and it was ultimately excluded.
5 Mamdani has made bringing free bus service citywide a centerpiece of his NYC mayoral campaign.
Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Mamdani and Heastie have since denied the confrontation happened.
Adams – who has made 'Get Stuff Done' a motto of his three-plus years in office – said the 33-year-old socialist pol's failure to complete a layup and get the pilot program extended shows just how unprepared Mamdani is to run the city.
'Here's what Zohran doesn't want you to know: the only reason those free buses weren't renewed is because he failed to negotiate it back into the budget the following year,' said Adams.
'There is something so cruel about promising New Yorkers things you cannot — and have not — delivered on, which is precisely what Zohran Mamdani's entire platform rests on,' added the mayor, who has repeatedly ripped the millennial pol as a 'snake oil salesman' making progressive promises he can't keep.
5 Adams said it was him — not Mamdani — who convinced Gov. Kathy Hochul (pictured) in 2023 to fund a fare-free bus pilot program.
Robert Miller
Besides subsiding free buses citywide, Mamdani's Soviet-style proposals include freezing rents for regulated apartments, free child care and opening city-run grocery stores.
5 Mayor Adams holds Wednesday's New York Post with headline 'NYC SOS' following Mamdani's win in Democratic primary.
Brian Zak/NY Post
The long lefty laundry list — estimated to cost $10 billion— would be paid for by taxing the Big Apple's ultra-wealthy under Mamdani's plan, but critics say it's severely flawed because such action must be taken by state pols and not the sitting mayor.
Mamdani's campaign did not return messages.
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