He didn’t raise the fare, but it hardly mattered. The increase had been set in motion long before his first day in office, buried in budget documents and board votes. What people remembered was simpler: a man with a microphone, promising relief to the very riders now digging deeper into their pockets. Policy nuance never stood a chance against the feeling of being played.

On that single free bus, the Q70, he tried to reclaim the story. He listened, nodded, repeated his vision of a city where transit is a right, not a strain. Yet each vague assurance only underlined what was missing: dates, dollars, decisions. As trains roared past campaign posters fading on station walls, New Yorkers quietly recalculated their trust. Maybe he hadn’t broken the system. But for many who counted every swipe, it felt like he’d broken something harder to repair: the belief that this time might be diffe…