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    Mamdani’s Win Has Put Buses in the Spotlight. Should They Be Free?

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    The lowly New York City bus is getting new attention thanks to Zohran Mamdani’s vow to make the service free for all. But can free also mean fast?New York City buses are slow, often crowded and overshadowed by the subway. But thanks to a surprise role in the mayoral election campaign, the humble bus is suddenly in the spotlight.Zohran Mamdani, the Queens assemblyman who in the Democratic primary last week roundly defeated a crowded field that included former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has vowed to make the city’s bus service — a network of 348 routes that carries 1.4 million passengers a day — free for all.The promise marks an unlikely star turn for a branch of the transit system that generally serves passengers who are older and poorer than those riding the subway. At Mr. Mamdani’s rallies about the high cost of rent and child care, the bus fare has become a symbol of the city’s affordability crisis, especially for residents of neighborhoods with limited access to trains.Nearly one in five New Yorkers said they struggled to pay for subway and bus fare in 2023, according to a report by Community Service Society of New York, an anti-poverty group. And the fare, currently $2.90 for both buses and subways, is expected to increase to around $3 early next year.Mr. Mamdani is now among the most high-profile supporters of the idea, popular among some left-leaning transit advocates, that the bus system should be treated as a tax-funded service like public schools and law enforcement.But the plan has split transit supporters who disagree on whether subsidizing the bus system is worth forgoing more than $800 million a year in fare revenue from bus riders, at a time when federal funds for New York State could prove unreliable. And for passengers who have stood in a packed bus, the concern is simpler still: Can free also mean fast?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Andrew Cuomo’s Complicated Legacy in New York City

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      Mr. Cuomo, the front-runner in the mayoral race and former governor, has a long — and, his critics say, mixed — record handling important issues in the city.As Andrew M. Cuomo runs for mayor of New York City, his prevailing argument to voters has focused on his experience in government, including his nearly 11 years as governor.Mr. Cuomo has highlighted the infrastructure projects he championed as governor, like LaGuardia Airport and the Second Avenue subway, and his role in raising the minimum wage and approving gay marriage.But his tenure, which ended in 2021 after he resigned following a series of sexual harassment allegations that he denies, also included decisions that critics say hurt the city.They contend that Mr. Cuomo was vindictive toward the city as part of his bitter feud with Mayor Bill de Blasio, and that he should have done more to protect the city, especially its lower-income residents, from budget cuts and the pandemic.Here is how Mr. Cuomo handled five key issues.Many New Yorkers blamed Mr. Cuomo for policies that they believe worsened mass transit, even though he helped usher in the new Second Avenue subway line.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesA Beleaguered Transit SystemWhen subway delays began to soar in 2017, Mr. Cuomo remained mostly silent even though he was responsible for the system through his control of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Video Shows Fiery Fatal Crash After Police Chase

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      Francisco Guzman Parra, 31, died after crashing a stolen Honda in Upper Manhattan. Two officers chasing him drove away after the car caught fire, according to video surveillance footage.Video surveillance footage obtained from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority shows the incident in Upper Manhattan in April.Jeremy G. Feigenbaum via MTAIt was still dark when the driver of a stolen Honda CRV sped down a ramp off the Henry Hudson Parkway and careened out of control into a building in Upper Manhattan.Flames immediately erupted from the rear of the vehicle, according to video surveillance footage released by a lawyer for the driver’s family on Thursday. About 10 seconds later, at 4:40 a.m. on April 2, the police car that had been chasing the S.U.V. drove down the same ramp. The flames had diminished but still appeared to be flickering when the cruiser, its siren lights off, reached the bottom of the ramp.The officer driving the cruiser slowed down, but instead of turning toward the Honda he turned left on Dyckman Street in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan and left the wreckage behind. The driver, Francisco A. Guzman Parra, 31, died from blunt impact injuries to the head and torso and “thermal injuries,” according to the medical examiner’s office.The video, which the family obtained from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, gave the first visual account of a crash that is now being investigated by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and led to the suspension of the two officers in the cruiser. Mr. Guzman Parra’s family said the video confirmed what they had feared for months: that the police left him to die.“They could have helped get him out,” said Carmen Colon, his stepmother, who, along with Mr. Guzman Parra’s sisters, spoke with reporters after watching the video at their lawyer’s office in Lower Manhattan.“I think that when we see that video we’re seeing a crime being committed,” she said.About 16 minutes after the crash, firefighters and officers from the 34th Precinct, which covers Inwood, received a 9-1-1 call about a car on fire. When they arrived, they found the Honda fully engulfed in flames.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Congestion Pricing Will Live On for Several Months After Court Agreement

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      State and federal officials agreed to a timeline in their court dispute over the tolling program that is likely to leave it in place until the fall. Other threats to the program still loom.The federal government and New York transit officials have agreed to allow congestion pricing, the tolling program opposed by President Trump, to continue until at least midsummer, and most likely into the fall, according to a new court filing.But it remains unclear whether the federal Department of Transportation, which has raised the specter of defunding mass transit projects in the state, could exert pressure outside the court system to try to force the program to end sooner. Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, has said he wants the toll to end by April 20.The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the program, declined to comment on the letter that detailed the agreement. The document was filed on Friday in federal court in Manhattan as part of a lawsuit by the M.T.A. against the Department of Transportation over the government’s efforts to kill the toll. The letter said that the authority and federal officials would abide by a timeline that would not resolve the dispute until at least late July. It also noted that the federal government does not currently plan to seek an injunction, which could have potentially halted the program in the meantime.The Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The agreement signals another temporary reprieve for the M.T.A. and Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has vowed to keep the tolling cameras on. Congestion pricing, which charges most drivers $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street during peak traffic times, began in January, with the goals of reducing traffic and raising $15 billion for critical mass-transit upgrades in the region.Sam Spokony, a spokesman for the governor, declined to comment on the court document, but reiterated Ms. Hochul’s support for the program. “Since congestion pricing took effect three months ago, traffic is down and business is up — and that’s the kind of progress we’re going to keep delivering for New Yorkers,” he said.For months, President Trump has promised to kill congestion pricing, claiming, without offering evidence, that the toll is harmful to the city’s economy.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump Wants Congestion Pricing Dead by March 21. Not So Fast, M.T.A. Says.

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      Court filings revealed that President Trump is seeking to end the New York toll program within weeks. Legal experts say the deadline is not enforceable.In the furor and confusion over the Trump administration’s move to kill congestion pricing in New York City, a major question remained unanswered: If the president had his way, when would the tolling program end?Federal officials, it turned out, had a date in mind: March 21.The battle over congestion pricing, which the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority is counting on to fund billions of dollars in mass transit repairs, is expected to play out in federal court in Manhattan. While many legal experts say that the March deadline is not binding, some question whether President Trump might resort to other tactics, including withholding federal funding for other state projects, to apply pressure.In a letter last week to New York transportation leaders, Gloria M. Shepherd, the executive director of the Federal Highway Administration, said they “must cease the collection of tolls” by that date. The letter was included in court papers filed on Tuesday in a federal lawsuit brought by the State of New Jersey seeking to stop congestion pricing.Ms. Shepherd requested that New York leaders work with her agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, “to provide the necessary details and updates” regarding the halting of toll operations.In response, the M.T.A., which operates buses, trains and commuter rail lines in New York and manages the tolling program, vowed to keep collecting the tolls unless a federal judge instructs it otherwise.“We’re not turning them off,” Janno Lieber, the chief executive and chair of the M.T.A., said at a news conference on Wednesday. “In the meantime, everything is steady as she goes.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      16 Are Hospitalized After Smoke Fills an Upper Manhattan Subway Station

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      Investigators believe the smoke was caused by a moving train striking an object on the tracks, officials said.Sixteen people were hospitalized on Tuesday after a subway train hit an object on the tracks at an Upper Manhattan station, causing a fire that filled the station with smoke, according to fire and transit officials.A total of 18 people sustained what fire officials described as minor injuries. Two declined medical attention, officials said. The conditions of those who were hospitalized were not immediately clear Tuesday night.The episode occurred shortly before 1 p.m. at the 191st Street station at St. Nicholas Avenue in the Fort George neighborhood, officials said. The fire was brought under control within an hour, they said.Service was temporarily suspended on the No. 1 line between 145th and Dyckman Streets as a result of the fire, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.By Tuesday evening, workers had replaced a rail damaged by the fire, and trains were running in both directions with delays, officials said.The 191st Street station is 173 feet, or roughly 17 stories, below St. Nicholas Avenue, making it the deepest station in New York City’s subway system. Riders enter and exit via either elevators to St. Nicholas or a 1,000-foot-long tunnel that runs to Broadway. More

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      Trump Says He Might Use U.S. Transit Agency to ‘Kill’ Congestion Pricing

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      In an interview with The New York Post, President Trump said that congestion pricing hurt New York City but indicated that he was still talking with Gov. Kathy Hochul.President Trump said that he was considering using the federal Department of Transportation to “kill” congestion pricing, which he claimed was deterring people from coming into Manhattan.But Mr. Trump, in a weekend interview with The New York Post, was vague about how he might try to stop the program. Options could include withholding federal transportation funds or revoking a key federal authorization to toll drivers. He also said that he was still in discussions with Gov. Kathy Hochul about the future of congestion pricing and other matters.The president also vowed in the interview to eliminate bike lanes, which are approved by the New York City Department of Transportation. “They’re dangerous. These bikes go at 20 miles an hour. They’re whacking people,” he said.Charging most vehicles a $9 fee to enter Manhattan below 60th Street is “destructive” to New York, the president said.“If I decide to do it, I will be able to kill it off in Washington through the Department of Transportation,” Mr. Trump said.Mr. Trump, a lifelong New Yorker before he moved to Florida, maintains a deep interest in the city’s affairs and complained about trash and public safety in the subway, “sidewalks in the middle of the street” and New York’s sanctuary city policies during his interview with The Post.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Will NYC Revive Congestion Pricing After Trump’s Victory?

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      Gov. Kathy Hochul, facing pressure from supporters of the contentious tolling plan, is said to be exploring options for adopting it in some form.Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York is exploring options for reviving a congestion pricing plan for New York City before President-elect Donald J. Trump has a chance to kill it, according to four people familiar with the matter.Ms. Hochul’s move to salvage the contentious plan comes as she faces pressure from various corners, including a group that represents transit riders and is planning to start an advertising blitz on Monday in support of the tolling program.The plan that Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, is now exploring differs slightly from the one she halted in June. She is trying to satisfy opponents who had complained about the $15 congestion-pricing toll that most motorists would have had to pay as well as supporters who want to reduce car traffic and fund mass transit improvements.The governor has talked to federal officials about the possibility of a $9 toll and about whether such a change might require the lengthy, involved process of additional environmental review, according to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member familiar with the matter. The discussions were first reported by Politico.Mr. Trump, a Republican, has said he opposes congestion pricing, and his victory on Tuesday has apparently pushed Ms. Hochul to try to find a compromise.“The timing is everything,” said Danny Pearlstein, a spokesman for Riders Alliance, the riders’ group that is planning the ad blitz. If congestion pricing has not started by January, he added “it’s very unlikely it would start.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      NYPD Officials Defend Shooting on Brooklyn Subway That Wounded Bystanders

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      “We are not perfect,” said John Chell, the Police Department’s chief of patrol, as protesters gathered in Union Square.New York City police leaders said Wednesday evening that officers had done the best they could when they shot a man wielding a knife, also hitting a fellow officer and two bystanders — including one who suffered a grave head wound.Police officials said that in the “next couple of days” they would release body-worn camera footage captured by the officers who fired their weapons Sunday at the man they said had the knife, Derell Mickles, 37. He was hit in the stomach and is expected to recover.Also shot was Gregory Delpeche, a 49-year-old hospital administrator who was on his way to work and in an adjacent car when officers firing struck him in the head. He was in critical condition. A 26-year-old woman was grazed by a bullet, the police said. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office is investigating the actions of the officers.John Chell, the chief of patrol, said that despite those injuries, the officers had acted according to the department’s guidelines, which allow officers to use deadly force when they believe their lives are in danger.“We are not perfect and every situation is not the same,” he said. “This is a fast-moving, fast-paced and a stressful situation, and we did the best we could to protect our lives and the lives of the people on that train.”The shootings were the violent culmination of a confrontation that started after Mr. Mickles twice evaded the fare to get into the Sutter Avenue L train station in Brooklyn, the police said. The officers’ response has set off criticism that the police are being too aggressive when trying to stop fare evaders and has led to demonstrations, including one Wednesday night in Manhattan.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More