POLITICAL ARENA

How about another free bus transfer?

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There aren’t enough ways to get around the city quickly and easily, and at least according to Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, it’s costing straphangers not only time — but money.

Dinowitz wants the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to give travelers not just one transfer per fare, but two.

“Our subway system is not ADA compliant. Bus service is in steady decline,” Dinowitz said, in a release. “Many low-income New Yorkers are trapped in transit deserts and face lengthy commutes with multiple transfers.”

Typically, when a traveler pays a $2.75 fare, that entitles them to one transfer within a specific time period to another route that would require payment. For example, riding the train and then connecting with a bus typically costs a single fare.

But if that rider needed to take a second bus on top of that, it would cost another $2.75.

Dinowitz and state Sen. Martin Golden have a bill on Andrew Cuomo’s desk that would provide two free transfers for riders instead of one. 

While it might not make much of a difference in Manhattan, it could certainly help people living and working in the outer boroughs, Dinowitz said — especially the Bronx.

“While our transit system is designed to connect New Yorkers to downtown and midtown Manhattan business districts, commuting patterns are changing in the other boroughs,” Dinowitz said. “The majority of job growth is happening outside of Manhattan, precisely where subway and bus service are the least adequate.”

Cuomo, who has not indicated one way or the other how he’ll decide, but he has until Dec. 18 to sign.

 

Get out, ICE

The federal government might be taking a hard stance on immigration, but borough president Ruben Diaz Jr., has had enough.

Diaz is demanding U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement leave all of the state’s courts. Having ICE in the courthouses are preventing people who might have immigration issues from having their day in court, out of fear they would be deported.

ICE’s “approach and its ideological roots would be problematic in any context,” Diaz said in a letter. “But when it is employed in a place that undermines our society’s pursuit of justice, the courthouse, it is no longer just a problem. It is an offense to decency.”

Jeffrey Dinowitz, MTA, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Martin Golden, Andrew Cuomo, Ruben Diaz Jr., Michael Hinman

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