The Washington Post editorial board ripped Democratic socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for his pie-in-the-sky proposal to eliminate bus fares, warning the only beneficiaries would be the city’s homeless and drug users.
“Vagrants and drug addicts would camp out all day on New York’s buses, especially in the winter,” the scathing op-ed published Sunday read.
“Parents would grow afraid to let their children ride alone,” the board predicted.
The outlet also mocked Mamdani for brushing off the nearly $800 million his plan would cost the city each year, which he compared to “$50 million less than what New York spent on the new Buffalo Bills stadium.”
“Oh, is that all?” the board wrote sarcastically, noting that the candidate has proposed a number of pricey improvements to the Big Apple’s bus system he wants to implement if elected, including service upgrades and new loading zones and dedicated bus lanes city-wide.
“So add those costs onto the tab as well — assuming they aren’t stalled by political fretting over clogged roads, as happened under Mayor Eric Adams (D), who similarly sought to expand bus routes,” the board wrote.
The editorial points at widely criticized free-ride programs in other US cities that led to an uptick in “crime and vandalism,” such as in Portland, Oregon, which eliminated fare-free transit in 2012.
A similar plan in ultra-woke Olympia, Washington, raised local sales taxes when it axed bus fares in 2020, meaning riders and non-riders alike shouldered the cost.
“Quality inevitably declines when a service is offered for ‘free,’” the board said.
Saturday’s op-ed wasn’t the first time the left-leaning newspaper bashed Mamdani, which underwent a shake-up earlier this year after owner Jeff Bezos announced sweeping editorial changes, leading to several high-profile departures and the hiring of a handful of conservative columnists.
In June, the editorial board said Mamdani’s candidacy was “bad” for New York and Democrats alike.
“New Yorkers should be worried that he would lead Gotham back to the bad old days of civic dysfunction, and Democrats should fear that he will discredit their next generation of party leaders, almost all of whom are better than this democratic socialist,” it wrote.