NEW YORK (WABC) — All three candidates for New York City mayor attended a forum with business leaders in Manhattan where Andrew Cuomo unveiled his plan to keep Rikers Island open.
Following the announcement, Curtis Sliwa and Zohran Mamdani criticized Cuomo for reversing his stance on the notorious jail complex.
Meanwhile, Mamdani rode a bus in Manhattan on Wednesday to push his plan for faster and free buses.
Mamdani says there’s no excuse and that buses in New York City can and should move faster. Scrapping the fare, he says, would fix that.
“If you had free buses, you’d be able to board and disembark from any one of the doors on that bus,” Mamdani said. “That speeds it up.”
Mamdani rode the M57, the slowest bus in the city, with transit union leader John Samuelsen — who told reporters that he supports free buses.
“There’s a load of reasons to do it, perhaps the biggest reason for the Transport Workers Union is it would dramatically reduce the assaults on our members,” Samuelsen said.
Earlier, Mamdani appeared at a forum for business leaders in Midtown where he sought to reassure skeptics about his agenda.
“What I want my policies to do is not only to make it easier for working people to afford this city, but also to ensure that businesses are able to attract the top talent to this city,” Mamdani said.
Cuomo boasted about his experience and announced that he would reconstruct Rikers Island rather than close it.
“We should rebuild new state-of-the-art jails on Rikers Island, provide free bus service, and use those existing sites for housing and commercial development,” Cuomo said.
Sliwa promised to slash taxes and regulations, then blasted Cuomo on Rikers Island.
“In 2019, he has a press conference, ‘We must close Rikers Island,’ two weeks ago, he once again reiterated that it should have been closed a long time ago,” Sliwa said.
Support in the business community is crucial and not just election day, but in the weeks before where funding from super PACs could supercharge the campaign.
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