Zohran Mamdani should get the hint and scrap his proposal for New York City.
The cities of Albuquerque and New York don’t have a great deal in common. One is a densely packed East Coast metropolis, while the other is a relatively spread out (and much smaller) city in the American Southwest.
But they do have one thing in common: Politicians in both cities have bought into the idea of making buses “free” to riders. Of course, we know that there is no such thing as “free,” and the costs are ultimately borne by taxpayers. Free fares were implemented in Albuquerque, N.M., as a pilot program on January 1, 2022, and then made permanent in November of 2023. In New York City, the idea has been put forth by self-avowed socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani…