Monday Headlines: Free Bus Back Edition

The NYC Democratic Socialists of America kicked off a “Fast & Free Buses” organizing campaign this weekend, rallying riders and elected officials before canvassing along the B25 and B46 routes. It’s a bet on reviving the fare-free half of a promise that’s had a strange life in Albany. When New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office, free buses looked like a real fight — then state Sen. Mike Gianaris pushing it, the Senate floating a $50 million pilot, Gov. Hochul staying deliberately vague. 

By this year’s budget hearings, Mamdani was still pitching it, now priced at $600-700 million. Then it just faded — Hochul told reporters in May that Mamdani had put the idea on the back burner in favor of speed-only fixes, and it’s been “dangling,” in Gianaris’s words, ever since. DSA’s rally is an attempt to drag it back into the conversation before budget season returns. 

“New Yorkers deserve a world-class bus system that is fast, reliable, and accessible, and that centers courtesy, dignity, and respect for riders,” said NYC-DSA Transit Working Group co-chair Alex Morano.

Elsewhere in the Empire State:

• Cornell Graduate Students United led a rally of local unions and elected officials demanding Cornell increase funding to Ithaca schools, Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit and international graduate workers, arguing the university’s tax-exempt status shifts a disproportionate tax burden onto local residents while its endowment tops $11.8 billion. (Ithaca Times)
• Ithaca officials are now seeking a mixed-use development — not a new garage — to replace the condemned Seneca Street Parking Garage, with the Common Council directing the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency to find a developer. (The Ithaca Voice)
• GOP congressional candidate Anthony Constantino, the brash Sticker Mule CEO known for his combative social media presence, is facing a new lawsuit as his online feuds with rivals continue to escalate ahead of the 21st Congressional District race. (The Times Union)
• Red Hook celebrated the opening of a new 20 mph school speed zone near Linden Avenue Middle School, the product of a village trustee’s yearslong push to get state DOT sign-off. (The Daily Catch)
• Starting Tuesday, drivers caught speeding more than 10 mph over the limit in work zones on MTA bridges and tunnels will get mailed tickets instead of warnings — the MTA has already issued over 15,000 warnings since the cameras went live in June. (Gothamist)
• The UN General Assembly’s high-level week brings a maze of street closures, rolling FDR Drive shutdowns, and single-digit Midtown traffic speeds through Sept. 28, with Trump’s Tuesday address expected to be the worst gridlock day. (The New York Times)
• Republicans who once saw Mamdani as their ideal 2026 foil are instead centering attacks on Gov. Hochul, betting her middling approval ratings will drag down Democrats in competitive House districts even as Mamdani polls well citywide. (Politico New York)
• Two lanes of eastbound Sunrise Highway between the Queens/Nassau border and Harrison Avenue will close overnight (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.) for about four weeks starting Sept. 22 for pavement work. (Newsday)