Thanks a lot, Kathy. <\/p>\n
A Democratic district leader and former state Assembly candidate claims congestion pricing<\/a>, implemented by fellow Dem Gov. Kathy Hochul, slammed the brakes on her six-year romance with a working stiff who could no longer afford interborough\u00a0travel. <\/p>\n Mariama James went viral<\/a> on X when she revealed how the toll taxed her relationship with her bus driver beau.<\/p>\n \u201cWe basically stopped seeing each other bc of Congestion Pricing<\/a>,\u201d she wrote this week. \u201cHe already pays it plus bridge tolls to get from his home in East NY to the depot in Harlem where he works. Coming to visit me inside the zone a few times per week as well, not to mention driving for our formerly frequent weekend getaways to AC became a hardship & no way he\u2019d ever let me pay instead.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrat Mariama James, 55, tells The Post that a six-year relationship with an MTA bus driver was killed by congestion pricing. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post<\/p>\n The pair of toll-crossed lovers had a storybook beginning. She met her \u201cMTA man\u201d in 2019 while she was walking on the street near her home in the Financial District.<\/p>\n He chatted her up and then boldly followed her into a grocery store to get her phone number \u2014 and the two single-parent \u201cworkaholics\u201d hit it off.<\/p>\n They dated off-and-on until 2025, with the couple spending most of their time at her place since the traditional gentleman refused to let her take the train or drive to Brooklyn to meet him.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would meet on his break. He\u2019d take me to dinner, like park his bus and take me out,\u201d James told The Post.<\/p>\n The Romeo Ralph Kramden \u2014 whose real name James withheld \u2014 pulled out all the stops to impress his Alice.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is the man,\u201d gushed James, 55, \u201cI didn\u2019t carry a bag. I didn\u2019t pay a tab. I didn\u2019t open the door. I didn\u2019t walk on the outside of the street.\u201d<\/p>\n James, who also advocates for 9\/11 victims and their families and is on the board of a youth charity, welcomed the chivalry. <\/p>\n The congestion pricing toll went into effect on Jan. 5, 2025, charging $9 to anyone who drives into Manhattan below 61st Street. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n \u201cI have to be the \u2018man\u2019 in my life a lot of the time. When you\u2019re an activist, when you\u2019re the leader, I\u2019m in a lot of male circles. . . . So when I\u2019m with somebody that I\u2019m dating or my partner, I let myself be the lady. I let him be the man,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The busy pair were already stretching thin to see each other prior to the new tax, with the bus driver shelling out over $100 a week for tolls during his commute through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was doing that and subsisting and then here comes congestion pricing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Congestion pricing went into effect on Jan. 5, 2025, forcing motorists to pay $9 when they drive in Manhattan below 61st Street.<\/p>\n Hochul\u2019s toll did a number on her man\u2019s bottom line \u2014 and James\u2019 love life.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve only seen each other like two times since 2025,\u201d James told The Post. \u201cIt just kind of became exhausting and we stopped doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n She continued: \u201cI\u2019m a mother of three. I know how it is for a man, a black man who is not married to the mother of his child who has him on child support.\u201d<\/p>\n James tells The Post that she and her former flame was hit with a massive bill shortly after congestion pricing came down which put a damper on their relationship. Helayne Seidman for the NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cThis man is paying additional money to take me out. For that to be a barrier to meeting his obligations, and because of the kind person that he is I know that he\u2019s going to pay,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was not fun for either one of us at that point because we had to figure out a master plan just to go out.\u201d<\/p>\n She also flamed the Hochul-backed tax.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t like it. Not for my district,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cAll its done is push pollution <\/a>on our neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a rough year for James, who in June lost a Democratic state Assembly primary race to Democratic Socialists of America candidate Illapa Saorotupac.<\/p>\n Online trolls have had a field day bashing James for \u201cgetting dumped\u201d over Hochul\u2019s toll.<\/p>\n