{"id":970,"date":"2025-10-14T07:56:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T07:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/970\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T07:56:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T07:56:17","slug":"washington-post-roasts-mamdanis-free-nyc-bus-plan-says-itll-attract-vagrants-and-drug-addicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/970\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Post roasts Mamdani’s free NYC bus plan, says it’ll attract ‘vagrants and drug addicts’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Post editorial board ripped Democratic socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani<\/a> for his pie-in-the-sky proposal to eliminate bus fares, warning the only beneficiaries would be the city\u2019s homeless and drug users.<\/p>\n

\u201cVagrants and drug addicts would camp out all day on New York\u2019s buses, especially in the winter,\u201d the scathing op-ed published Sunday read.<\/p>\n

\"DemocraticWaPo\u2019s editorial board ripped Zohran Mamdani\u2019s fare-free bus plan, saying it would primarily benefit drug addicts and vagrants. Michael Nigro<\/p>\n

\u201cParents would grow afraid to let their children ride alone,\u201d the board predicted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The outlet also mocked Mamdani for brushing off the nearly $800 million his plan would cost the city each year, which he compared to \u201c$50 million less than what New York spent on the new Buffalo Bills stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, is that all?\u201d the board wrote sarcastically, noting that the candidate has proposed a number of pricey improvements to the Big Apple\u2019s bus system he wants to implement if elected, including service upgrades and new loading zones and dedicated bus lanes city-wide.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo add those costs onto the tab as well \u2014 assuming they aren\u2019t stalled by political fretting over clogged roads, as happened under Mayor Eric Adams (D), who similarly sought to expand bus routes,\u201d the board wrote.<\/p>\n

The editorial points at widely criticized free-ride programs in other US cities that led to an uptick in \u201ccrime and vandalism,\u201d such as in Portland, Oregon, which eliminated fare-free transit in 2012.<\/p>\n

\"MTAMamdani has proposed a series of pricey improvements to the city\u2019s bus system, while at the same time suggesting fares be eliminated. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuality inevitably declines when a service is offered for \u2018free,’\u201d the board said.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s op-ed wasn\u2019t 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<\/a> and the hiring of a handful of conservative columnists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In June, the editorial board said Mamdani\u2019s candidacy was \u201cbad\u201d for New York and Democrats alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew 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,\u201d it wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Post editorial board ripped Democratic socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for his pie-in-the-sky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1209,304,1208,57,9,56,63,65,64,1210,1211,58,1212,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-buses","9":"tag-editorial","10":"tag-media","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-nyc-transit","18":"tag-socialism","19":"tag-us-news","20":"tag-washington-post","21":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}