Many national news outlets, most of them conservative-leaning, have zeroed in on Mamdani\u2019s proposals for free bus fare and government-run grocery stores. And they\u2019re using Kansas City as a negative example of why Mamdani\u2019s policies won\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe this is Kansas City’s moment, and when it is your city’s moment, that means that you just get a lot more eyeballs, for better or worse,\u201d Mayor Quinton Lucas said. \u201cI wonder, had we not been in the national spotlight from, name your issue, Super Bowls, shootings, World Cup, Taylor (Swift), would we actually get the same attention for a grocery store?\u201d<\/p>\n
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Carlos Moreno<\/p>\n
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KCUR 89.3<\/p>\n
Kansas City started free bus fare in 2020. But without stable funding, the city plans to charge fares again next year. Conservative news outlets have used this as an example of why New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s bus plan wouldn’t work. <\/p>\n
Making Kansas City\u2019s free fare an example<\/p>\n
Kansas City was the first major city in the U.S. to implement free bus fare in 2020<\/a>. But without a sustainable funding plan, the city plans to end that program<\/a> for all but low-income riders and those already getting help from social service agencies.<\/p>\n The loss of Kansas City\u2019s free fare was largely due to a budget crisis<\/a> and funding feud<\/a> between the city and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, which does not have a stable regional source of funding.<\/p>\n In New York City, Mamdani led a fare-free bus pilot<\/a> on five bus lines across each of the city\u2019s five boroughs. Making bus fare free in New York City would require about $800 million, which comes from dedicated taxes and money from the city and state. That\u2019s more than eight times Kansas City\u2019s budget for buses.<\/p>\n The funding models, ridership levels and operations between bus systems in New York and Kansas City are vastly different.<\/p>\n But articles in conservative outlets like Fox News<\/a>, The Free Press<\/a> and the New York Post<\/a> posited that the end of free fare in Kansas City meant the policy wouldn\u2019t work in New York, where the daily bus ridership<\/a> is more than double Kansas City\u2019s population.<\/p>\n Julian Agyeman is a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University. He studies city interventions on affordability, like food and bus policies. He said he believes Kansas City is being used as a scare tactic because there is an \u201cabsolute fear\u201d among many voters of Mamdani winning the election and putting these policies in place.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s almost like pushing the ball up to the top of a hill,\u201d Agyeman said. \u201cIt’s a long journey, and it’s hard to get it there. But these popular policies, and they will be popular in New York, are very difficult to dislodge once they’re in place.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Apples and oranges’ in comparing grocery stores<\/p>\n Carlos Moreno<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n KCUR 89.3 <\/p>\n New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani wants to have city-owned grocery stores. Conservative pundits used the closure of a Sun Fresh supermarket in Kansas City as a reason that wouldn’t work.<\/p>\n A Sun Fresh off of Prospect Avenue in Kansas City closed in August<\/a>. Some national media picked up the story and contrasted it with Mamdani\u2019s proposal for city-owned grocery stores.<\/p>\n Most of the stories mischaracterized how the store was run<\/a> in Kansas City, which was a public-private partnership where the city leases a property to a grocer to run the store privately.<\/p>\n Fox News ran multiple articles on the grocery store, and said it serves as a \u201ccautionary tale<\/a>\u201d for New York. The National Review, a conservative editorial magazine, said the store\u2019s failure \u201craises doubts<\/a>\u201d about Mamdani\u2019s plan. And the New York Post<\/a> said the Sun Fresh \u201crenewed skepticism of Mamdani\u2019s signature plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Lucas said he believes the national attention accelerated the closure of that store.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that led to their frustration, of them throwing up their hands in connection with the grocery store investment, proving that it is fundamentally not government-run,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cThat was not a city council choice. It wasn’t us saying we can’t handle it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike Mamdani\u2019s plans for city-owned grocery stores<\/a>, Kansas City\u2019s Sun Fresh was a private grocery tenant on city-owned property. Agyeman said it\u2019s unfair to say Mamdani\u2019s plan won\u2019t work in New York just because one store closed in Kansas City.<\/p>\n \u201cThe scale of the city of New York compared to Kansas City,\u201d Agyeman said, \u201cthe location, the history, the demographics, the local politics, the state politics \u2014 there’s so many factors afoot that are so different in each place that it\u2019s apples and oranges. We need a very different analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n