Socialists apparently don\u2019t understand the art of the deal.<\/p>\n
Democratic mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani is a terrible negotiator unfit to lead NYC, according to Mayor Adams, who told The Post this week he witnessed his rival\u2019s political deal-making ineptitude firsthand.<\/p>\n
Mamdani \u2013 whose Marxist pledge to provide free bus service citywide is a centerpiece of his mayoral campaign <\/a>\u2014 asked Hizzoner for help bringing a pilot program for free buses during an April 2023 dinner at Gracie Mansion with the mayor, Adams recalled days after Mamdani shockingly won the Democratic mayoral primary.<\/p>\n Mayor Adams says he once played a huge role helping Zohran Mamdani score Albany support to bring a pilot program providing fare-free buses to NYC \u2013 only to have it crash and burn the following year. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n Adams \u2014 a Dem seeking re-election as an independent \u2014 agreed to help convince Gov. Hochul to add funding for the five-borough pilot in the upcoming budget, and even let Mamdani post a video of him on social media <\/a>gushing how much he loved the concept.<\/p>\n \u201cI have always told my team to work with anyone \u2014 regardless of their politics \u2014\u00a0if it meant improving the lives of New Yorkers,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when Zohran Mamdani came to me in 2023 asking for help pushing for free bus service in the state budget, it was my team that went to Albany and got it done.\u201d<\/p>\n Days after the one-year, $15 million program expired Aug. 31, 2024, <\/a>state Assemblyman Mamdani and state Sen. Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) gushed it was a \u201cresounding success\u201d in an op-ed<\/a> they penned for The Nation.<\/p>\n The fare-free bus pilot programs on the Bx18A\/B (Bronx)), B60 (Brooklyn), M116 (Manhattan), Q4 (Queens), and S46\/96 (Staten Island) routes ended on August 31, 2024. MTA<\/p>\n However, during 2024 budget negotiations, Mamdani ruined any chances of extending the pilot by butting heads with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and voting against the state budget in protest over a landlord-friendly measure that allowed home-repair costs to be passed on to rent-stabilized tenants, sources told The Post.<\/p>\n An irate Heastie reportedly threatened to pull the bus pilot<\/a> if Mamdani voted against the budget, and it was ultimately excluded.<\/p>\n Mamdani and Heastie have since denied the confrontation happened.<\/p>\n Follow The Post\u2019s coverage of the NYC mayoral race<\/p>\n Mamdani has made bringing free bus service citywide a centerpiece of his NYC mayoral campaign. Kyle Mazza\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Adams \u2013 who has made \u201cGet Stuff Done\u201d<\/a> a motto of his three-plus years in office \u2013 said the 33-year-old socialist pol\u2019s failure to complete a layup and get the pilot program extended shows just how unprepared Mamdani is to run the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s what Zohran doesn\u2019t want you to know: the only reason those free buses weren\u2019t renewed is because\u00a0he failed to negotiate it back into the budget the following year,\u201d said Adams.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is something so cruel about promising New Yorkers things you cannot \u2014 and have not \u2014 delivered on, which is precisely what Zohran Mamdani\u2019s entire platform rests on,\u201d added the mayor, who has repeatedly ripped the millennial pol as a \u201csnake oil salesman\u201d making progressive promises he can\u2019t keep. <\/a><\/p>\n Adams said it was him \u2014 not Mamdani \u2014 who convinced Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2023 to fund a fare-free bus pilot program. Robert Miller<\/p>\n Mayor Adams holds Wednesday\u2019s New York Post with headline \u201cNYC SOS\u201d following Mamdani\u2019s win in Democratic primary. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n Besides subsiding free buses citywide, Mamdani\u2019s Soviet-style\u00a0proposals\u00a0<\/a>include freezing rents for regulated apartments, free child care and opening city-run grocery stores.<\/p>\n