With the Long Island Rail Road on the brink of its first strike in more than 30 years, Gov. Kathy Hochul warned Wednesday that the MTA and riders on the country’s largest commuter railroad “have to be ready for whatever happens.”

Leaders from the MTA and a coalition of five LIRR unions resumed labor negotiations Wednesday in advance of the 12:01 a.m. Saturday strike deadline that could leave close to 300,000 riders from Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan working from home or in search of alternative commutes.

Those could include driving, carpooling or taking shuttle buses between six LIRR stations and a pair of subway stops in eastern Queens: Jamaica-179 Street on the F line and Howard Beach JFK Airport on the A.

“It’s probably going to take me two and a half hours to get to work, so I’m dreading it,” Rossella Mitolo, a legal assistant who commutes between Midwood, Brooklyn and Mineola, said Wednesday morning while waiting for an eastbound LIRR train at Jamaica. “I’m praying that it does not occur — please, please, please, I’ve been so stressed all week.”

At the core of the labor standoff is the unions’ push for 5% worker pay raises to counter inflation and the increased cost of living, with Hochul saying she is committed to keeping the trains running and sparing riders from “unnecessary fare hikes or higher taxes.”

“Yes, workers deserve to be paid fairly for their work, but at the same time, we must be responsible with public funds and the fares paid by Long Island residents,” Hochul said Wednesday at an unrelated event at Jones Beach. “I believe that a deal can be reached here and I’ll continue to urge both sides to work together to avoid a strike.”

Union leaders described Hochul’s recent remarks on avoiding a strike as “encouraging,” but countered that there is still a gap in labor talks between the two sides. Meanwhile, Gary Dellaverson, labor counsel for the MTA, said the latest round of talks marked “the first time that [the unions] actually made a move.”

“To say that we’re close is far-fetched,” said Kevin Sexton, a spokesperson for the LIRR union coalition and a vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen.

LIRR workers last went on strike in June 1994, shutting down service for two days. More recently, New Jersey Transit workers struck for three days last May.

Rob Free, president of the LIRR, said at a Wednesday afternoon briefing that a strike is “the last thing we want.”

“We are trying to negotiate in good faith … we’re making offers, that’s what this is about — negotiations,” Free said. “You may not like the initial offer, but that’s why there’s give and take, alternate proposals.”

Caught in the middle are employers in the city and on Long Island, commuters and businesses that depend on them — especially on the eve of Memorial Day weekend.

“Having no railroad available — which would exacerbate our traffic congestion problem on Long Island — would just be a confluence of many factors that would really be damaging to our economy in the tone of like tens of millions of dollars per day,” said Stacey Sikes, acting president of the Long Island Association, which represents the island’s business community.

According to the MTA, Nassau County accounted for approximately 37% of LIRR ridership in the first four months of 2026, with another 15% from Suffolk County. In the city, Manhattan made up 26% of the ridership, compared with 20% from Queens and 3% from stations in Brooklyn.

If the strike goes through and lasts more than a few days, it could run up against another big to-do directly upstairs from Penn Station: the Knicks playing in the NBA Conference Finals at Madison Square Garden.

Maulin Mehta, New York director of the Regional Plan Association, said a short-term shutdown would be less likely to have “major repercussions” across the regional economy, but warned of the potential fallout of an extended walkout.

“The challenge is more so felt if this drags on for any long period of time,” Mehta said. “That could put jobs in jeopardy if people are starting to spend more time calling out of work because they don’t want to deal with the commute or are unable to get to work because the options that are in place are not sufficient.”

At the commuter railroad’s Locust Manor stop in southeast Queens, rail commuter Maurice Moore said that should a strike happen, he will likely drive his van to overnight shifts as a patient care technician at NYU Langone Health in Manhattan.

“I take the train to save on the cost of fuel,” he said. “If there’s a strike, I still have to go to work, so I will have to take my ride.”

Everyl McMorris, who commutes on the LIRR between her home in Suffolk County and her job in Manhattan, said she was taking some comfort in past labor battles that went down to the wire but didn’t result in a strike.

“We sort of plan for the worst and hope for the best,” said McMorris, who works as a physician’s assistant. “I’ve seen discussions in the past about potential strikes and it hasn’t happened, so I’m hoping that this is just one of those things.”

At the newsstand he operates inside Jamaica Station, Mandeep Talwar said he’s dreading the potential for a subdued Monday morning rush in the transit hub that also features connections to the subway and the JFK AirTrain.

“The strike must not happen, it would be like hell, no person in the station,” said Talwar, who estimated that 70% of his customers take the LIRR. “It will be maybe me alone in the station and no customers.”

“And if there are no customers, what will I do, sit in the station the whole day long? I’d have to close the store.”

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A month before the first World Cup soccer match takes place at Met Life Stadium across the Hudson River, only 25% of the available rooms in New York City hotels have been booked for the six weeks when matches will be held.

FIFA says demand is unprecedented and that every one of the 104 matches across the country will be sold out, even as it continues to release tickets as match days approach. Meanwhile, resale prices for every match are falling in a sign of weak demand.

The sky high cost of actually getting to Met Life stadium and rapidly rising air fares as a result of the Iran war are two more blows to the event’s prospects.

The result is that an economic boost that FIFA claimed would exceed $3 billion for the New York area is likely to fall well short, leaving the city to spend far more on managing the event than it will receive in tax revenue and economic activity.

“The branding effect of the World Cup was always overstated because New York and New Jersey already have a lot of visibility internationally,” said Danielle Zanzalari, assistant professor of economics at Seton Hall University. “Places like Cincinnati and Kansas City would benefit more from the international exposure.”

No one has a single explanation for the disappointing hotel bookings and weak demand. High prices are one factor. A seat purchased directly from FIFA for the first match on June 13 for the lower bowl — where the views of the field are the best — originally cost $640, when the teams that would be playing had yet to be announced.

In the last two weeks, resale prices for that match between two highly ranked teams, Brazil and Morocco, have fallen by 9%, according to TicketData.com, which tracks that market.

Another complication is the unprecedented plan for the World Cup to hold matches in three countries — the United States, Mexico and Canada — which may be depressing visitors, says Julie Coker, CEO of New York City Tourism + Conventions.

“We can’t ignore the broader environment,” added Virginia Maloney, the chair of the City Council’s economic development committee, which has held hearings on the World Cup. The war with Iran has made international travelers nervous and the Trump administration has made it difficult for visitors from many countries to get visas.

Big events like the World Cup or the Olympics need to generate enough demand that they  overcome the loss of tourists who avoid that city because of high prices or fears of overcrowding. But biggest declines in occupancy compared with 2025 occur on the eight days of matches being held at Met Life, showing that tourists are especially avoiding New York on those days.

According to CoStar, which tracks hotel occupancy and room rates, only a third of New York City rooms are spoken for on June 13 — 12 percentage points below the year ago. Even for the much anticipated World Cup final on July19, only 20% of rooms are taken.

Those vacancies will take a toll on the city budget – which is already in the grip of a $5.6 billion shortfall.

Earlier this spring, city Comptroller Mark Levine estimated that even if FIFA’s prediction that 1.2 million people would visit New York for the event came true, the additional tax revenue would be no more than $55 million, while the city is expected to spend $70 million in additional costs for the NYPD, emergency management, and small business support. 

If the number of visitors falls short, the gap between added tax revenue and costs will widen.

Councilmember Maloney notes that legislation pending in Albany that would allow bars and restaurants to expand outdoor activities during the matches could help increase economic activity. She is also lobbying the Mandani administration to reconsider a policy that will restrict some event permits for city parks during the six weeks of the World Cup, which was instituted to conserve police resources.

“Our neighborhood-level, community-run, often free programming that serves the people who live here has been shut out in the process,” she said in a letter to the mayor and police commissioner. “Give New Yorkers back their summer.”

Some officials like Coker note that New York is actually doing better than other host cities in terms of rooms booked and she says the trend is improving. “In March, we were down 11 percentage points for those weeks compared to 2025. Now we are down only 6 percentage points,” she told THE CITY.

Hotels have begun to reduce rates. The bellwether Midtown Hilton on Sixth Avenue is currently asking $490 a night for its least expensive room for the four days before the first match on June 13, down from $533 a month ago. It is not sold out.

City Hall didn’t return a mesage seeking comment. 

In the meantime, even those who purchased tickets are waiting for FIFA to send them the actual tickets – with their actual seat numbers — and, with no parking at Met Life and a rail ticket to Met Life from Penn Station costing $110 a person, wondering what they are in for and how much it will cost.

“My spouse is going to the June 16 match and he’s not even sure how to get there,” said Zanzalari, who lives in Summit, N.J. — which is only 20 miles from the stadium.

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As Mayor Zohran Mamdani pushes a transit agenda centered on speeding the country’s slowest buses, he has less than a month to fill a pair of longstanding vacancies on the MTA board.

The mayor has just four seats on the panel that sets fares, operating and capital budgets for a regional transportation authority that is largely under the control of Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Mamdani’s recommendations must be submitted to Hochul, who appoints the head of the MTA and has six board members of her own, and then approved by the State Senate before the Albany legislative session ends June 4.

The new mayor has already tapped a new “bus czar” to lead his pro-bus agenda at City Hall. Now, he has to make his first appointments to the MTA board.

“Having someone who is reflective of his values and adding another member of his administration to voice his interests and his concerns is going to be helpful to the many people who are depending on buses,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.  

The 23-member board also includes members selected by each of the county executives from the seven suburban counties served by the MTA’s commuter railroads, as well as six non-voting representatives from labor unions and commuter councils.

Polly Trottenberg, who was on the MTA board from 2014 to 2019 while she led the city’s Transportation Department, said the mayoral appointments play a vital role even if they are outnumbered.

“Who the mayor picks is important,” Trottenberg said. “What I found in my time is that you don’t always have the votes, but you always have the bully pulpit.”

Once confirmed, Mamdani’s recommendations would fill spots that have been vacant for months. Meera Joshi, a former deputy mayor under Eric Adams, left last June, while another Adams pick, Midori Valdivia, resigned in March, after Mamdani appointed her as commissioner and chair of the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission.

Even with the competing interests on the board, Mamdani’s picks are seen as key to advancing his top transportation priorities, including transit affordability and the acceleration of slow-moving buses, which plodded along at a citywide average of 8.3 mph in March, according to MTA data.

The new board members would join mayoral holdovers David Jones, who has been on the board since the de Blasio administration, and Dan Garodnick, the former director of the Department of City Planning who was recommended for the MTA board in 2024 by then-Mayor Adams.

Jones, chief executive of the nonprofit Community Service Society, began pushing more than a decade ago for the creation of Fair Fares, the city-run program that launched in 2019 offering half-off fares to low-income New Yorkers. Jones also frequently uses his spot on the MTA board to speak out against alleged racial disparities in the NYPD’s policing of fare evasion in the transit system.

But even with the deadline fast approaching, Mamdani isn’t tipping his hand on his own picks or the fine print of his transit plans, even as the city’s Department of Transportation has launched a series of bus- and bike-lane expansions that had been languishing under the previous mayor.

“New Yorkers deserve a public transit system that is affordable, reliable and accountable to the people who depend on it every day,” Mamdani spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said in a statement. “Dan Garodnick and David Jones have been important partners in advancing that work alongside the city and we’re grateful for their service to the MTA board.”

“We’ll have more to share soon about the future of these appointments and our broader vision for public transit in New York,” he added.

Advocates and former MTA board members said there is a vital role for the mayoral picks, especially when the city’s priorities clash with those of the governor.

“It clearly is a place where the mayor can make the case for what he wants to do and argue forcefully and be able to engage in a discussion over how the transit should be delivered in the city,” said Bob Linn, former commissioner of the city’s Office of Labor Relations, who was on the MTA board from 2019 through 2022.

Veronica Vanterpool, who served on the MTA board from 2016 to 2019, said that the elected officials who pick prospective MTA board members must focus on “selecting the right individuals” to be “vocal advocates” for whatever transit issues they wish to champion.

“It’s not useful if whomever is put on the board is not a vocal advocate for the priorities,” Vanterpool said.

The latter half of Mamdani’s transit priorities — to eventually eliminate bus fares — has been met with resistance from Hochul as well as MTA Chairperson and Chief Executive Janno Lieber, even as the transit chief has praised Mamdani for being a “truly pro-transit mayor.” Some City Council members have also pushed to expand Fair Fares over the fare-free buses proposal.

But overall, the dealings between the state and the city on transportation matters are in contrast to those under previous administrations in Albany and at City Hall.

“It could be contentious between the mayor and the governor,” Trottenberg said, recalling the frequent clashes between former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and de Blasio. “It’s a much more collaborative relationship now between the city and the state and that, I think, is reflected in the MTA board.”

When Cuomo was governor and a forceful presence at the MTA, de Blasio’s board members frequently pushed back against some of his priorities. That included criticism of the costs for a Cuomo plan to overhaul Penn Station and several subway station renovations that did not include the installation of elevators.

“None of us were shy about taking a difficult stance or position on an action,” Vanterpool said. “None of us were shy about asking questions that were challenging. None of us were shy about indicating what the priorities of New York City were.”

Andrew Albert, who has sat on the MTA board since 2002 as a non-voting representative for the New York City Transit Riders Council, said that even occasional flare-ups between board members can be useful for the transit network and its riders.

“Everyone wants to see the best system that we possibly can,” he said. “And everyone wants to have it financed the best that it can be.”

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Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced a $268 billion state budget deal but the state assembly speaker shot back, saying there was no agreement.

Hochul said the disputed New York state budget agreement included a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes, investments in universal child care and more money for police officers on the subway. Her budget did not appear to include additional additional cash to help New York City fix its $5.4 billion deficit.

But Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie later told reporters Hochul had jumped the gun.

“There is no budget deal,” Heastie said, adding, “I don’t care what the governor says.”

“I said to her last night I was comfortable with her saying to y’all we were close  — it is close,” Heastie, of The Bronx, said. “But this is what’s wrong with this process. It’s like, ‘I’m gonna only talk about policy and when I think the legislature is giving me what I want on policy, then we’ll talk about money.’”

Heastie said he planned to send his members home on Thursday.

“We signed off on nothing major,” he said. “I’m never doing this again. Budgets are supposed to be about money, not policy.”

Hochul had no immediate comment.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Hochul’s Republican challenger, said the budget snafu reminded him of the reality show “Deal or No Deal.”

“This is the left hand not knowing what the left hand is doing,” he said of the intraparty squabbling. “The fact of the matter is it’s the height of incompetence, it’s a lack of leadership.”

Budget One Month Late

Hochul’s budget, which was due April 1, is $13 billion more than last year’s and $8 billion more than Hochul initially proposed.

The “general agreement” on the budget was still light on details as the legislature will continue to go over the proposal in the coming days, the governor said.

“I’m not going to mince the words. The negotiations were not easy,” Hochul said.

“There were very substantive disagreements, tough choices and powerful special interests trying to influence the outcome, and the dysfunction out of Washington certainly doesn’t help.”

Here’s what we know about the state budget deal:

• The governor said legislators are finalizing details of on a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes to help “close the city’s budget gap without eroding its tax base or burdening hard-working New Yorkers.”

• Hochul said the budget includes her proposal to streamline environmental reviews for housing developments, letting some projects skip a 51-year-old state law requiring an extensive review that often holds up construction. 

• And the budget includes a “super speeder” bill which would require drivers with 16 or more speed-camera tickets over a year to install a device that would limit the car’s speed based on the local speed limit. 

Unanswered Questions

While the top question on Thursday was what led to the public breakdown between Hochul and Heastie — and when a proper deal might emerge — the details of key provisions were still up in the air.

• That second-home tax: It remains to be seen how the pied-à-terre tax would work. Specifically, how would the “value” of a second home be measured? Market values change, and assessed values are wildly out of whack, which could leave many lux pads out. There’s also a question about how to tax second homes owned by LLCs or shell companies. 
• Pension reforms: Hochul teased that she was scaling back plans to enact sweeping pension reform for the more than 700,000 public sector workers on what is called Tier 6, who receive smaller pension benefits than employees hired before 2012. Unions want changes that would cost $1.5 billion a year. It’s not clear how much — or how little — Hochul and the legislature are prepared to expand Tier 6 benefits. 
• Climate law: With qualms about affordability and facing headwinds from the Trump administration’s hostility to renewable energy projects, Hochul has made no secret that she’d like to weaken the state’s ambitious 2019 climate law. Under the budget deal, the governor can now implement those regulations in 2028, while using a different formula to count emissions — making it easier for the state to hit its reduction targets.

Hochul to City: I’ve Done Plenty

Hochul’s announcement did not include additional commitments of state funds for the cash-strapped city. 

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin last week pitched the state on a change to the pass-through entity tax, or PTET, which lets some business people keep state and local tax deductions that were limited by a 2017 federal law. They believe those changes could bring in $1 billion in revenue.

Hochul, who is running for reelection in November, immediately shot it down, and didn’t say whether the proposed budget includes any more of a bailout for the city. 

On Friday, she defended what she’s already doing for the five boroughs, pointing to more than $1 billion to support universal childcare and another $1.5 billion to help close the gap.

“We’ve been asked to do a lot for the city, we’ve given unprecedented amounts of support for the city,” she said.

The City Council approved an extension for Mayor Mamdani’s executive budget, which was due around May 1, because of the tardiness of the state’s budget. 

On Thursday, the mayor – a former state assemblymember –  said he planned to release his executive budget next week as planned. And he expected the city would get what it needed to help close the budget gap.

“I’m feeling hopeful about the direction of those negotiations,” he said at an unrelated press conference. “Those were productive conversations.”

Contributing: Samantha Maldonado, Claudia Irizarry Aponte.

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New Yorkers who use the city’s Fair Fares program to ride buses, trains and Access-a-Ride are still struggling to afford transit despite receiving half-off on fares, according to a new analysis.

Fair Fares is a city-run program that reduces the cost of transit rides by half for adults under 65 who make less than $23,940 a year.

A report from the nonprofit Community Service Society surveyed 1,616 adults under the age of 65 who already receive public benefits, a population that overlaps with those eligible for Fair Fares. Almost two in three of the survey’s respondents said it is still difficult to afford transit when they need it, and a third who were eligible for Fair Fares are unenrolled. 

Citywide, less than half of eligible New Yorkers participate in the program with an overall enrollment rate of approximately 40%, or 379,910 people, according to March data from the city’s social services agency.

The report comes as the City Council considers bills that would automatically enroll eligible individuals in city benefit programs like Fair Fares and automatically give the Fair Fares discount to an individual earning as much as $31,920. Council members will discuss those proposals at a committee hearing on Wednesday. 

One in five New Yorkers struggled to afford subway and bus fares, according to the Community Service Society’s latest survey. A person unable to afford a ride may try to beat the fare — a perennial problem for the MTA that has cost it $1 billion in lost revenue before, according to the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit watchdog.

Despite robust outreach efforts by the city to promote the program, researcher Rachel Swaner said survey respondents called the application process “complicated and slow.” 

“People have to apply for it separately, even though they have already reported the same info for programs like SNAP or cash assistance,” she said. 

Fair Fares riders must also renew their enrollment each year by resubmitting proof of income eligibility. 

The report calls for automatically enrolling residents when they are approved for other public benefits, and to expand Fair Fares by making transit free for those at or below 150% of the federal poverty level. 

“Fair Fares has yet to achieve its promise of lower transit costs for millions of New Yorkers,” said Danny Pearlstein, policy director for the transit-advocacy organization Riders Alliance, who was not involved with the survey. 

“The city should expand it both to reach more people and to deliver more affordable fares,” he added, calling for eligibility to expand to those making 300% of the federal poverty level — up to $47,880 for an individual or $99,000 for a family of four — and for current enrollees to receive free transit rides. 

City Council Speaker Julie Menin supported free fares for currently eligible New Yorkers in her response to the mayor’s preliminary budget in April, calling Fair Fares a “lifeline for working New Yorkers.

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Here’s what brown can do for you: turn commuting on the country’s pokiest buses into even more of a slog.

UPS trucks were flagged more than 25,000 times last year for obstructing New York City bus lanes, MTA data reveals. That’s nearly twice as many as Amazon, whose 12,975 violations ranked second.

The images of bus-lane blockers were captured by automated camera enforcement, a system now in use on buses that run along 60 MTA routes.

The penalties against UPS — whose slogan was once “What can brown do for you?” — far outnumber Frito-Lay, Verizon, FedEx and Con Edison on the list of businesses caught obstructing bus lanes the most.

“These companies seem to have made illegal parking — especially blocking the bus lanes — part of their business model,” Janno Lieber, MTA chairperson and chief executive, told THE CITY. “It’s time to motivate them to get over that bad habit.”

UPS did not respond to requests for comment, nor did representatives for most of the other companies. 

The push to get vehicles out of bus lanes comes as Mayor Zohran Mamdani has repeatedly pledged to make buses faster and after he brought in a new adviser for his “fast and free” buses campaign this week.

The top 25 bus-lane intruders last year combined for close to 130,000 violations, according to numbers provided to THE CITY. Frito-Lay trucks received 6,740 violations, Verizon vehicles were caught by the cameras 5,669 times, while FedEx and Con Edison were respectively hit with 4,240 and 3,546 violations.

In all, 843,000 violations were issued for bus lane blockers in 2025, according to a September report by the city Department of Finance.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company works with more than 40 locally owned and operated delivery service partners that are responsible for day-to-day operations. The independent businesses employ more than 5,000 workers to make deliveries across the city.

“We expect all delivery partners to comply with local traffic regulations, and we’re investing in long-term solutions, including fleet electrification, e-bike and walker programs to reduce our impact on city streets and be a good neighbor,” said spokesperson Leigh Anne Gullett.

A Con Edison spokesperson noted that the utility’s crews operate around the clock as part of the city’s emergency response network.

“At times, that work requires prioritizing safety access over parking regulations,” said spokesperson Anne Marie Corbalis. “While safety always comes first, we work to minimize disruptions whenever possible.”

When buses on a route are equipped with cameras, there is a 60-day warning period before motorists begin racking up fines. 

The violations were most common along the M101, where more than 50,000 violations were issued along the route that runs between the East Village and Upper Manhattan. Just under 41,000 bus-lane blockers were flagged along the M15, which links East Harlem and South Ferry. On the Bx19, which runs between the New York Botanical Garden in The Bronx and Riverbank State Park in Manhattan, close to 23,000 violations were cited. 

“Our hope is that the [automated camera enforcement] program won’t be just another fee that these companies see as a cost of doing business in New York,” said Brian Fritsch, associate director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA. “I hope that they realize these are their workers trying to get to and from work.”

The penalties kick in once a vehicle is caught on camera twice for standing in a bus lane for longer than five minutes, with the initial $50 fine matched for each additional violation, up to a maximum of $250. Vehicles can also get flagged if they are observed blocking bus stops twice for more than two-and-a-half minutes.

A Fine Mess

Altogether, the city issued $54.9 million in fines for bus-lane violations in Fiscal Year 2025, just under 5% of the $1.1 billion in overall penalties for parking and camera violations.

That’s a fraction of the $244.1 million in fines issued for speeding in school zones, according to the September Department of Finance report. 

Department of Transportation officials said that ongoing and planned street redesigns — including some that will place bus lanes in the middle of busy thoroughfares and not at curbside — are key factors in curbing bus-blocking violations and accelerating service.

“ACE enforcement is remarkably successful at changing driver behavior, with just 5% of vehicles receiving more than two violations, but delaying bus riders and creating dangerous street conditions cannot be written off by these large corporations as the cost of doing business,” said Vin Barone, a DOT spokesperson.

Mamdani has committed to speeding buses by expanding the reach of bus lanes citywide and embarking on a series of street redesigns. One street overhaul announced this week for Flatbush Avenue will eventually have buses running in the center lanes. Buses along Flatbush can crawl as slowly as 4 mph, according to DOT.

“New York City DOT is working to improve our street designs to better keep bus lanes clear for the more than 1 million daily riders and recently launched a new Curb Management Unit to improve how the city handles the increasing number of deliveries on our streets,” Barone added. 

Still, the number of violations points to some of the obstacles in the way of Mamdani’s fast buses commitment, which the mayor has paired with his hope of eventually securing fare-free service. According to MTA data, buses last month moved at a citywide average of 8.3 mph, including a low of 6.2 mph in Manhattan.

The Bronx was a tick higher at 6.6 mph. In contrast, Staten Island buses traveled at an average speed of 15.2 mph.

Donald Yates, a vice president with Transport Workers Union Local 100, cited taxis, for-hire vehicles, ice cream vendors and delivery trucks as roadblocks in bus lanes. He’s skeptical about vehicles clearing out of the way.

“There’s not enough real estate to make things change,” said Yates, who represents Manhattan and Bronx bus operators. “The city’s got to run, and I guess these deliveries help with commerce. I just don’t see it changing.”

The TWU Local 100 official acknowledged that vehicles for Con Edison sometimes land in bus lanes while crews are on emergency duties and also expressed sympathy for drivers of delivery trucks.

“They have to do their deliveries,” Yates said. “Anybody with common sense has some sympathy for that.”

As Olga Villate waited for a southbound M15 bus at Second Avenue and East 50th Street, she said she is sometimes frustrated by what she encounters in the bus lane.

“You say, ‘Why? Why is someone in the bus lane?’” said Villate, 45. “Drivers see the signs for not going into the bus lane, and they just keep going in there.”

“I don’t understand why they don’t respect it,” she added. “No respect for the bus lane.”

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It’s near-impossible to ride public transit without encountering splashy ads from attorneys who, as the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority puts it, “seem to think the MTA is actually spelled ATM.”

Janno Lieber has repeatedly backed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s push for auto insurance reforms that are designed to cut costs and fraudulent claims, citing how the MTA is frequently targeted as a “deep pocket” in costly personal injury lawsuits.

The MTA paid $561 million in claims in 2025, up from $454 million one year earlier. Budget documents do not spell out how much personal injury cases accounted for that more than half-a-billion dollar sum.

But as transit officials and the governor talk tough against court claims and “billboard lawyers,” personal injury firms plaster splashy ads on subway cars, in train stations and at bus stops, turning their lawyers into familiar faces while trolling for clients in the very system they sue.

There’s “Michael the Bull,” whose ubiquitous ads show Brooklyn-born lawyer Michael Lamonsoff flexing in a superhero costume with a bull on his chest and another on a Captain America-like shield. His website boasts of $12 million in payouts for clients injured in a train derailment and other seven- and eight-figure settlements.

“I’m someone who is confident enough to portray myself as a person equivalent to a superhero,” Lamonsoff told THE CITY. “I feel like the work I do is that of a superhero.”

While Lamsonsoff — who says he has an “infinite” number of cases against the MTA — casts himself as a Superman-type hero in his subway ads, transit officials contend he and other personal injury lawyers are better off as villains. 

“When there’s an auto accident, the lawyers tend to look around and say, ‘Was there an MTA bus anywhere nearby?’” Lieber said at a January committee meeting of the authority’s board. “Because if we can be made responsible for even 1% of that crash, there are all of a sudden very big potential payouts because we are the deep pocket.”

Often inside the same subway car, ads for Harris Keenan & Goldfarb hover over straphangers’ heads, with partner Seth Harris glowering next to the words, “Nice on the outside. Killer in the courtroom.” 

Then there are the spots for “America’s Largest Personal Injury Law Firm,” some of which feature a cartoonish image of a man in a suit and atop a pigeon flying above Manhattan.

“That’s me,” chirped John Morgan, whose ads appear in Yankee Stadium, on Times Square billboards and across the subway system.

“I look at advertising kind of the way I look at a meal — you need some greens and you need some starch and you need a protein and you need a dessert,” Morgan told THE CITY. “I’ve got outdoor, I’ve got radio, I’ve got television, I’ve got social, it’s just part of the meal.”

After co-founding the namesake firm nearly four decades ago in Orlando, Fla., Morgan is unapologetic about the approach to putting its name in front of millions of New Yorkers during their daily commutes. He said he does not “give a f— about pissing off the MTA” through advertisements or lawsuits, and trashes the subway as “filthy.”

“Where accidents happen is where there is lack of maintenance, a lack of cleaning, failure to inspect, poor lighting, poor security,” Morgan said. “And when you get down in the bowels of the subway, you’re in a real cesspool.”

The MTA pulled in an estimated $183 million in advertising revenue last year, according to the office of State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. That’s up from $173 million in 2024, $136 million in 2019 and $115 million going back 15 years.

The numbers do not break down how much of that money comes from personal injury lawyers, who purchase ads through the advertising giant Outfront Media.

“Advertising at the MTA is an important revenue generator and ad placements in our system are surging in popularity,” said Mary John, the authority’s director of commercial ventures. “We get a range of advertisers from financial institutions, universities, cultural programming, all the way down to laser hair removal and ambulance chasers.”

Morgan — whose image also appears over the face of Lady Liberty in another subway ad for his firm —  said he also can’t pinpoint how much money he throws at transit advertising. 

“I’ll just say this, they’re not giving it away,” he said. “The MTA is not giving it away.”

Morgan laughed off the “billboard lawyers” label, even as an American Tort Reform Association report last year found that the firm dropped more than $218 million on ads in 2024, outspending its closest competitor by a more than 4-to-1 ratio.

“Guess who else is on billboards?” he said. “The makers of unsafe products and drugs — it’s ok for them to be on selling their s— drugs and s— products, but God forbid somebody comes in to say ‘I’m going to hold them accountable.’”

Lamonsoff, who said he was nicknamed “The Bull” by clients for going after adversaries “like a bull would,” has a collection of bull statues and figurines from all over the world. He said the lawsuits his firm files are an outgrowth of conditions within the transit system that can include staffing shortfalls and a lack of attention to safety protocols. 

“At the end of the day, lawsuits are not the problem, they are the result of the problem,” he said. 

Lamonsoff brashly warned of “more trouble ahead” for the MTA if conditions within the transit system that lead to lawsuits are not addressed.

“Let me be clear,” he said. “To the MTA and to Lieber: If you mess with ‘The Bull,’ you get the horns.”

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As Midori Valdivia takes the wheel of the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission, she is encountering an industry with other women in key leadership roles — and where the number of trips with females in the driver’s seat is growing.

Valdivia is the fourth woman to serve as commissioner and chair in the 55-year history of the TLC and her arrival comes as agency data shows that female operators complete 6% of all monthly trips by the more than 178,000 TLC-licensed drivers who ferry passengers for livery bases, yellow taxis, green cabs and app-centered ride-hailing services such as Lyft and Uber.

That is a marked increase from just over a decade ago, when there were more than 140,000 TLC-licensed operators across the various for-hire vehicle classes as app-based services were in their infancy. 

“The hours are so long and the conditions can be dangerous and risky,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. “All of that makes it more difficult for women who are usually primary caregivers.”

According to the 2016 TLC Factbook, agency-licensed female operators completed 4% of trips by for-hire vehicles, which offer pre-arranged services through licensed bases, with 3% completed by women driving for the apps. For yellow taxis, female drivers completed not even 1% of all trips, a number that, a decade later, stubbornly remains in the same range.

“Everybody was like, ‘Oh my god, a woman cab driver!’” recalled Dorothy Leconte, who has been a yellow taxi driver since 1987. “Until today, I still hear that.”

“But years ago, it was more often like people were surprised that they had been living in New York for 20 years and this was the first time they had ever had a woman cab driver.”

Industry leaders said the changes to the industry are striking as female drivers account for a higher share of all rides, while also acknowledging that their numbers are still dwarfed by those of their male counterparts.

“It shows how much we have moved forward — that would have been impossible 20 years ago,” said Cira Angeles of the Livery Base Owners, an association that represents more than 300 bases and close to 20,000 affiliated drivers. “It was a man’s industry and it really still is.”

Women in Driver’s Seats

As Valdivia settles into her second week as head of the agency that regulates New York City’s taxi and for-hire vehicles, the new TLC head said she admires the “hard work and strength” of women who succeed in the industry.

“You can see that intrepid and independent spirit in many of our female licensees,” said Valdivia, who served as TLC deputy commissioner of finance and administration under Meera Joshi, who led the agency during Bill De Blasio’s two terms as mayor. “They make up some of the safest drivers and most conscientious base operators out there, a mighty force who deserve our respect and support.”

Women are already in leadership and advocacy roles at several industry groups in the city.

Since the 1998 founding of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, Desai has been a labor leader in the group representing more than 20,000 yellow taxi, green cab, app-based, livery and corporate black car drivers. Angeles is the spokesperson for the Livery Base Owners group and the co-founder and chief executive of L.A. Riverside Brokerage, a taxi and livery insurance broker. 

Then there is Diana Clemente, president of the Black Car Assistance Corp., which represents drivers of those cars. She also serves on the board of the Black Car Fund, which provides workers’ compensation coverage and other benefits. 

Clemente entered the business in the 1980s while she was in college studying to be a certified public accountant. 

“I am a CPA, I never really expected to go to a car company,” said Clemente, the chief executive of Big Apple Car, a base in Brooklyn. “But sometimes a door opens in life and you walk through it.”

Clemente recalled how her parents made what she described as a “small investment” in Big Apple Taxi, the yellow cab company that preceded Big Apple Car — and which introduced her to the business. 

“My mom was despondent over the fact that they had made an investment with their savings — which was quite minimal, but all they had — and she begged me to come on board with the company,” she said. “I resisted because I went to school for public accounting.”

Decades later, Clemente is still there as the industry grapples with competition from new app-based rivals such as Empower and the prospect of autonomous vehicles potentially entering the fray in New York City among for-hire vehicles, as they have in other cities.

“It’s been a pretty amazing journey,” Clemente said. “It’s had its ups and downs, but I wouldn’t change it.”

Former factory worker Carmen Cruz shifted to driving for Uber several years ago after she began working in 2001 for a black car base in Brooklyn. To this day, a higher proportion of women drive for livery bases than the other vehicle classes.

As of February, female drivers completed 5.9% of monthly trips for the bases, TLC data shows, compared with 3.6% for Uber and Lyft. Uber last month expanded its “Women Preferences” program to New York City and across the country, giving female drivers and passengers the option to request trips with others from their gender.

“I’m happy that I came through all of this with my three kids,” said Cruz, 53. “I got to see them grow up and they know everything I have gone through in this business.”

She acknowledged the difficulty of being a single mother, noting how she regularly drives seven days a week to make ends meet. 

Cruz said she supports Valdivia, expressing hope that having a female TLC commissioner and chair will be beneficial for women drivers whose on-the-job barriers include access to parking spaces for bathroom breaks and personal safety.

“For me, it was so strange when I went to work as a driver — and it scared me, too,” Cruz said. “But you know that necessity only makes you stronger.”

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After more than five years of prodding from local residents, elected officials and the MTA, Columbia University will partially pay for accessibility upgrades to the No. 1 line’s towering 125th Street station, THE CITY has learned.

The Ivy League school will contribute $33 million for an elevator linking the street with the stop’s mezzanine level and to widen escalators at the southwest corner of Broadway and West 125th Street. The MTA will cover the costs for two other lifts that will connect to station platforms, along with additional station repairs.

A formal announcement will be made at a later date.

The total price tag for the project has yet to be determined, officials said, with the design process to begin this year and the start of construction targeted for 2028. Similar accessibility projects typically take two years to complete, according to MTA officials, with costs ranging between $70 and $80 million.

“We’re making this unprecedented push across the entire system to add accessibility in all places where it’s possible,” Sean Fitzpatrick, deputy chief of staff at MTA Construction & Development, told THE CITY. “We’re thrilled to be able to do it here.”

The MTA has committed to making at least 60 more stations come into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 as part of its nearly $70 billion 2025-2029 capital plan for systemwide upkeep and improvements. 

Since 2020, the transportation authority has fast-tracked ADA work, adding elevators or ramps at 57 stations while facing a court mandate to make 95% of all stations accessible by 2055.

The agreement between the MTA and Columbia marks a major step forward in the years-long campaign by local residents and elected officials to make the 121-year-old station next to the university’s Manhattanville campus fully accessible. The university had previously said “public investments” should fund additional improvements at the station beyond the widening of the escalators.

“All of our advocacy efforts take a long time,” said Dave Robinson, president of the Morningside Heights Community Coalition, which has pressed for the upgrades alongside the Elevator Lobby advocacy group. “This one has been particularly frustrating.”

As part of the 2007 Manhattanville Campus land-use approval process, Columbia was required to widen the escalators at one corner of the 125th Street station.

“It’s a contribution that should help with accessibility for people with disabilities and the accessibility for folks at this point who have to go up a very narrow and aged escalator,” said Robert Kasdin, senior executive vice president at Columbia. “So we’re very excited to do this.”

The 50-foot-tall station — which has escalators leading to a level with staircases that connect with both platforms — is near the NYCHA Grant Houses development and the Morningside Gardens co-op complex.

“That’s honestly sort of the underpinning of this,” said Robinson of the Morningside Heights Community Coalition. “Both complexes have elderly and disabled populations and they have this ridiculously difficult subway station to navigate.” 

MTA data shows that the escalators at the 125th Street stop were in service just over 88% of the time from January 2021 through February, with that number falling as low as 51% in February 2021. The authority’s own numbers show that station escalators had 48 outages last year, including 41 that were unscheduled. That marked the station’s highest number of escalator outages in a decade.

“Seven days a week, 365 days a year, I’ve been wishing for an elevator at this station,” Rodolfo Serrano, 72, said last month as he walked out of the station with a cane on a day when its escalators were out of service.

Local residents and elected officials have repeatedly rallied for enhanced accessibility at a stop that serves 6,500 riders daily and which sits along a stretch of the No. 1 line whose closest set of subway elevators is four stops south at 96th Street.

To the north, the MTA is presently adding elevators at the No. 1 line’s 137th Street-City College station, with that work set to be completed this summer. The transit authority’s current five-year capital plan also calls for elevators to be added to the Cathedral Parkway-110th Street station on the B and C lines.

Fitzpatrick said the involvement of advocates from the Elevator Lobby and several elected officials amounted to critical support that made the MTA and Columbia “make sure we were prioritizing getting to an agreement.”

Kasdin said the accessibility upgrades are central to Columbia’s expanding presence north of its main Morningside Heights campus, which extends between 114th and 120th streets. The Manhattanville campus opened nearly a decade ago and houses the university’s business school, a science center, a center for the arts and more.

“As our presence in West Harlem has started and grown, we have committed to make sure that not only do we do no harm, but that we continue to improve the lives of our students, our faculty, our staff and, importantly, the community,” he said.

Additional reporting by Kennedy Sessions.

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani won City Hall on a pledge to make New York City more livable and affordable. 

His promises of a rent freeze for stabilized tenants, no-cost universal childcare, and fast and free buses resonated with more than a million voters — and created giant expectations in a city hungry for change. 

It’ll take more than 100 days to transform New York City’s housing, transit and public safety, but the democratic socialist has found unlikely allies.

Mamdani met with President Donald Trump — who has called him “my little Communist” — for the second time in February, where Trump was receptive to the mayor’s pitch for federal money for a massive, previously abandoned housing development plan for the Sunnyside Yards in Queens. (He also persuaded the president to release students and others detained by ICE.)

In Albany, Gov. Kathy Hochul provided state money for a free childcare pilot — but has refused Mamdani’s push to raise taxes on the wealthy. 

The new mayor has faced challenges in his pivot from campaign to governing, from a gaping budget hole that threatens his affordability agenda to subzero temperatures that left 19 New Yorkers dead of hypothermia.

In a city that can swiftly turn on its mayors, Mamdani’s popularity appears to have  dipped since a late February poll from Siena University had his approval rating at 63%.

A Marist Poll released this week found the mayor’s approval at 48% — although 60% of polled New Yorkers felt he was fulfilling his campaign promises, and 56% said the city was moving in the right direction. 

“I will always leave the grades to New Yorkers themselves,” the mayor said when asked about the most recent poll. 

The first few months of the Mamdani’s mayoralty were a crucial answer to critics who said the 34-year-old was all flash and no substance, said Tess McCrae, chief operating officer for political consultants The Parkside Group.

“I think he has a lot of goodwill from most New Yorkers and I don’t think he’s abused that good will,” McCrae said. “He hasn’t gotten the free buses or the tent poles that were so much a part of his campaign, but I think most people understand that takes time.”

Here’s where some of Mamdani’s biggest initiatives stand:

Fast, Free Buses

As a longshot candidate, Mamdani pledged to speed buses that are among the slowest in the nation — and to make them free. MTA officials have questioned the “free” part of his “fast and free” slogan.

“We are working with the city to do fast — that discussion is well underway and I credit the new DOT team and the mayor and the mayor’s team for stepping up on that,” Janno Lieber, MTA chairperson and chief executive, told the City Council. “So, let’s get going in doing fast. We have a lot of questions relevant to the second half of that sentence.”

A study of a free bus pilot program on several routes that ended in 2024 found that fare-free service did not improve speeds. 

“I think the key thing that everybody was looking at was: ‘Will this make buses run faster?’” MTA policy chief John McCarthy said. “And it didn’t.”

Mamdani told Politico this week that he is “absolutely committed to making buses fast and free,” while acknowledging it won’t happen this year.

Freezing the Rent

Mamdani promised to freeze the rents of tenants living in the city’s nearly one million stabilized apartments. The mayor appointed six of the nine members of the independent Rent Guidelines Board, who have officially begun a process that could result in no rent hike for the first time since 2021. A vote on a possible increase is expected in June.

Mamdani’s administration also hosted rental rip-off hearings, where tenants could vent to city officials about their lousy landlords. A report, along with Mamdani’s plan to address the housing crisis, is forthcoming, officials say.

Free Childcare

Mamdani notched an early win only a week after taking office when Gov. Hochul committed funding for two years of a free childcare program for 2-year-olds in New York City. The program will begin in the fall, with 2,000 seats for toddlers in Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn and The Bronx, expanding to 12,000 seats in its second year. How the subsequent years of the 2-Care program will be funded, though, remains unclear.

Homelessness

Mamdani campaigned on a commitment to expand the city-funded rental voucher program, known as CityFHEPS, in line with laws the City Council passed in 2023. As mayor, Mamdani has walked away from that promise.

Those laws would make more New Yorkers eligible for the rental subsidy, which covers two-thirds of the rent paid by about 68,000 tenants. Mayor Eric Adams declined to implement the new requirements — which would have added an estimated $1 billion in costs by 2030 — and challenged the City Council measure in court.

Mamdani’s administration appealed a court order directing the city to implement the laws, while indicating openness to  compromise with the Council and housing advocates.

This action did not endear Mamdani to advocates for the homeless — especially combined with the mayor’s revival of the sweeps of homeless encampments, which he’d promised he would not do.

“The Mamdani administration has yet to really articulate a plan for how it is addressing homelessness and the housing crisis for extremely low income New Yorkers,” said Alison Wilkey of the Coalition for the Homeless. “What we’ve seen is disappointing.”

City-owned Grocery Stores

Candidate Mamdani promised to open five city-owned grocery stores, one in each borough, in an effort to make food more affordable. Mayor Mamdani devoted $70 million in his proposed budget for the task. Jeanny Pak, the city Economic Development Corporation’s interim director, said officials are working on the “public grocery plan.”

Balancing the Books

Mamdani faces a $5.4 billion budget hole, which he has called a “poisoned chalice” from his predecessor.  

To close the gap, Mamdani threatened to raise property taxes if Gov. Hochul doesn’t increase taxes on the wealthy. The ultimatum did not go over well, especially since the mayor hasn’t reformed the city’s wildly unequal property tax system — another campaign promise. 

The mayor has ordered every city agency to find savings to show they can rein in spending. In March, he announced about $250 million of identified cuts – well short of the $1.7 billion he promised to slash. Budget director Sherif Soliman said there’s more to come.

Mamdani and the council are squared up for brutal budget negotiations. At the start of April, the council presented their preliminary budget plan which they said finds savings without taking money from reserves or raising property taxes. The mayor called it “unrealistic” and will lead to slashed services. The budget is legally required by June 30.

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