Andrew Cuomo \u2014 who infamously paraded around his control over the MTA while governor \u2014 proposed City Hall take over the reins of the transit authority as he tries to revive an independent bid for mayor following his embarrassing primary loss. <\/p>\n
\u201cI know the MTA very well. It\u2019s a behemoth. It\u2019s bureaucracy on top of bureaucracy,\u201d Cuomo said Wednesday on Fox 5\u2019s Good Day NY.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would propose that New York City take over management of the New York City Transit Authority. \u2026Let the mayor manage the New York City Transit Authority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuomo said that the mayor should have control over the subway rather than the MTA. Fox5NY<\/p>\n
The campaign proposal quickly drew snickers and eye-rolls from transit advocates and election rivals who called out the disgraced ex-gov\u2019s transit controversies<\/a> while at the agency\u2019s helm. <\/p>\n Cuomo\u2019s notable moves steering the MTA include driving out beloved transit chief Andy Byford<\/a>, using $5 million of the cash-strapped agency\u2019s funds to bail out upstate ski resorts<\/a>, spending more than $100 million <\/a>on decorative lights and tiles on bridges and in tunnels, and the notorious \u201csummer of hell\u201d transit service in 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cAndrew Cuomo had a decade as governor \u2014 and complete control over the MTA \u2014 to make changes. If he believed in letting New York City take over the Transit Authority, he could have done it then. But instead, he played politics with our transit system, centralized power in Albany, and micromanaged from afar while subway service suffered and riders paid the price,\u201d said Mayor Eric Adams, who is running for re-election as an independent.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, years after he walked away, he suddenly has ideas? It\u2019s a little late for that. \u2026Cuomo\u2019s comments are nothing more than political theater from someone who had his chance and failed to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n Cuomo\u2019s oversight of the MTA as governor makes him a bad pitchman for giving City Hall control of the subways and buses, said John Kaehny, director of the watchdog group Reinvent Albany that monitors transit service.<\/p>\n Andy Byford, Chief Executive Officer of the New York City Transit Authority, announced he will be leaving the MTA at a board meeting thursday. William Farrington<\/p>\n His handling of the MTA was \u201cendless drama,\u201d Kaehny added. <\/p>\n Cuomo spent more than $100 million on vanity projects to erect decorative lights on the MTA bridges and tens of millions of dollars more to retile two city tunnels \u2014 the Brooklyn Battery and Queens Midtown \u2014 in the state\u2019s blue-and-gold color scheme, instead of using the dough for desperately needed subway repairs, he said.<\/p>\n