Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Participates in Central Brooklyn Bus Rider Town Hall
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Hello, everyone. It is such a pleasure to be here. I am Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani. I really just want to say — can we have a round of applause for our moderator, City Councilwoman Rita Joseph? Truly. And it is a pleasure. I know that the councilwoman has a number of questions that we can't wait to get into. I do just want to take this opportunity to, first and foremost, just say thank you to everyone for taking time out of your day to be here with us and to really build something new with all of us. And we have in this room leaders both inside and outside of City government. You've heard from those who are here on the stage, but I also just want to take a moment to acknowledge the president of New York City Transit, Demetrius Crichlow, who we have here as well. We have our Deputy Mayor for Operations, Julia Kerson, who is here with us. We have our DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn, who is here with us. We have our commissioner for the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, Nisha Agarwal, who is here with us. And we have our senior advisor for fast and free buses, Elizabeth Adams, who is here with us. And you've heard — you know — we have people on stage who come from and are also representing and are part of incredible labor unions, like 1199, like PSC-CUNY. I also really want to acknowledge Riders Alliance, who are here with us, and Transportation Alternatives. These are organizations — labor unions — really groups of advocates who have been on the forefront of pushing New York City to have world-class transit for a world-class city. So, with all that being said, thank you again for being here, and I'll pass it back to our councilwoman. Thank you.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI'm going to jump in with a couple of memories. If possible — you know, one of — you were asking earlier, councilwoman, of, "what does the bus mean to you?" I think to me, especially hearing from other riders that we have here on stage, it can mean multiple things. One level: the bus means family. On another level, a bus has meant frustration. Family because if you take a bus enough times and it's part of your day-to-day routine, you will start to recognize other people on the bus. Frustration because there have been many times in my life where I've looked at the bus time app, and I've thought the bus is coming in eight minutes, six minutes, four minutes, and then somehow that bus disappears as if it never existed. And I think that when it comes to my favorite memories, some of them just come from the sense that you are — when you get on that bus, you realize that so many other people are going through what you're going through. I don't know if others have seen this video. It's been on the internet for quite some time, where somebody's on the bus, and they're complaining, and then a guy looks at them, and he goes, "It's New York. We're all late." And I think that so much of my excitement about this evening is that we love the bus, and yet we also know that the bus could be better. And tonight is also part of what it can take to make that bus better because we don't want to have to love a bus that goes five miles an hour. We would love to love a bus that goes faster than we walk. And this is how we do it, so thank you.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, I think— I will jump in. I think what you're also hearing from a lot of people is that the schedule is planned out to the second. And I used to live in Astoria. My parents would live in Morningside Heights, and I would take the M60 to cut across. And if you miss that bus, there's, you know, you're going to wait a long time. And when you can just have the leisure, the privilege of just taking a breath, you know, calling your kids, going to the bodega, just not timing everything out to the second and making sure that you can run as fast as you need to, to catch that bus and slap the back door and hope that the driver pauses the bus and then opens it up. And I think that's what New Yorkers deserve.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, So I used to take the Bx10. And the Bx10 was so slow that I could see it from the bottom of the hill, two stops away, and I could catch up to it. And so, in that moment, it's a good thing to you, because you're like, I'm not going to be late for school. I can catch this. But there should be no bus that you can catch up to if it's two stops away. That's not a good thing for the city. And I think it's, you know, we as a city, we have a reputation for being fast walkers, the recognition that time is money. We have buses that travel at five miles an hour. We're talking about here on Flatbush, more than 130,000 people take the bus every day. And the bus can sometimes travel at five miles an hour. I think to your point, it's not just that it could be better; it's that the cost of it not being better is money out of your pocket.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceCan we have a round of applause for our panel over here? I'm just going to step up so everybody can see me. You know, I really just want to say thank you again to everyone for being here, because what we are looking to build is public transit that will make the entire world jealous of our city. And when I look in this room, I see all of the different ingredients we need to make it happen. I see the bus riders who have had to rush for that bus. I see the faith leaders that have had to counsel someone who missed that bus, the fact that there will be another bus. I see elected officials, I see MTA, I see the DOT, I see every single part of what we need. And what we're so excited about is that in a city where everyone deserves better buses, we are going to bring the first bus rapid transit route right here to Flatbush. And what that's going to mean is that you don't have to run that fast for that one bus you see, because you actually know that there will be another bus after that one. You know that, in fact, you will see a bus regularly. And that bus will move at a regular speed. And it will go so fast that it won't just be those who have no other option that are riding the bus. It'll be those who want to get where they're going that are riding the bus. That's what we want the bus to be. And we know that in a city where so much of our landscape is built for what the city was 100 years ago, 200 years ago, 300 years ago, buses are some of the most nimble things, the most flexible things that can go anywhere at any time. And now we can actually build a network, in partnership with leaders at every level, that could serve the people who live in this city today. So, thank you for being a part of this because none of this happens without you quite literally being at the table. Thank you so much. Thank you. And I am now going to pass it over to our senior advisor, Elizabeth Adams.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Participates in Central Brooklyn Bus Rider Town Hall.