Getting on the Bus
free elevators are socialism for the rich
It’s election day in the US, and though I don’t think there’s anyone of my friends who will be swayed by analysis, I had set on my publication schedule that I would write about the mayoral race in NYC and specifically buses, and there are only a few more hours to weigh in.
As someone who grew up in the wind, New York City remains a social locus for me. Though no individual city contains more than maybe 10% of my friends, more of them live in NYC than in any other city. I lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn in 2022 and 2011, and back when Airbnb was widely available in the city, I made an effort to spend a week or so in a couple dozen neighborhoods across all five boroughs. It’s close to my heart even though I can tell it’s not my home.
In sampling out around a hundred global cities trying to decide where to live, I developed a framework for the kind of place I want to live, which I call “a good city & a good place”. A “good place” is mostly about kind people, strong neighborhoods and green/blue spaces; it’s often not as immediately responsive to mayoral policy.1 But a “good city” very much is within governmental control, and I have some thoughts and hopes for the future of the city.
Mostly though this is just a chance to share some pictures of me on buses.
Let’s get into it!
Getting There, Staying There, Getting Around
a framework for assessing urban functionality
As a globalist vagrant, my priority in evaluating any city is how inclusive and open a city is to the people of the world. From one angle, New York City is one of the most diverse cities on the planet with nationalities and linguistic diversity galore. But from another angle, it’s made one of the most profoundly exclusive cities by its high cost of living. So how can we understand inclusiveness/exclusiveness in a city context?
I group three questions under the umbrella of “urban functionality”:
Can you get there?
Can you stay there?
Can you get around?
“Getting There” is a mix of geography, immigration restrictions and state capacity. “Staying There” is driven by cost of living, and the cost of housing in particular. And “Getting Around” is all about cost and quality of transportation.
Though Middling Content is mostly about understanding how media creates this space for people to interact, functioning global cities are a critical piece of this as well. And thus, I’m deeply interested in how NYC and other large cities can really flourish and create a space for the world’s people to interact.
I think this framework is actually front-loaded in difficulty, so let’s start at the end with “getting around” and work our way backwards.
Getting Around
While I love all transit, I really have come around on buses. I’ve had a long affection for them, since taking one to prom my senior year in high school2. And the fact that Zohran Mamdani has been able to take an often ignored topic like buses into national conversation is my favorite part of his campaign. I’ve evolved through all major transit life stages, starting as a “bike lane advocate”, becoming a “train snob”, but I’m convinced “bus stan” is where I’ll stay.
If you don’t like buses, you probably just haven’t found the right bus yet. And that’s okay, because I’m going to talk about some of my favorite buses and maybe one of those buses can show you the magic of buses too.
Houston:
People don’t think of Houston as a strong urban transit city, and in most senses it isn’t. But from a cost perspective, I brag to people about the Houston METRO Bus system because it is the cheapest per-minute public transit system I have taken in the US. For $1.25, you have free transfers for up to three hours. That is less than a penny per minute! I once took a bus to the movie theater, watched M. Knight Shyamalan’s Old, and then returned home on the same fare. Does your bus system let you do that?
Jakarta:
The first BRT system I ever took was the Transjakarta and it blew my mind. BRT is “Bus Rapid Transit”, and Jakarta has the largest in the world. It is at the same time just a bus but designed to operate so much more effectively; a mix of small rider experience improvements like a dedicated lane, off-board fare collection and platform-level boarding make for a much better experience, and many of these BRT lines have buses running every minute or faster at peak times.
Mexico City:
I rode the Metrobús BRT system in CDMX and it was the main reason I was rooting for Claudia Sheinbaum to be elected president of Mexico. (As Mexico City’s Secretary of Environment from 2000 to 2006, she oversaw its development and its first line launched in 2005.) I ended up seeing Sheinbaum’s acceptance speech in the Zócalo and I was thinking about the BRT the whole time.
Luxembourg:
This past July, I was lucky to ride my first free bus in Luxembourg; an alternative to collecting bus fare prior to boarding, as is done in the BRT model, is to just not collect fare at all. The route is faster and people get where they’re going sooner. Luxembourg’s GDP per capita as reported by the UN is around $128k, the second richest country by this measure. The state of New York reports a GDP per capita of $117k, so it’s not preposterous or unprecedented to have a system operate in this way. I personally found the buses in Luxembourg pleasant!
Pittsburgh:
Pittsburgh has a great BRT line, and it’s the only one I’ve taken in the US. I don’t have a picture of it though.
If you have never taken a BRT, I highly recommend it. I will write more about BRTs in the future.
The idea that NYC could become a sort of bus capital of America is very exciting, but it’s also true that NYC is easily already the best city in the country for “getting around”. When it comes to being an affordable place to stay, though, it’s at the other end of the list.
Staying There
A city can only be as inclusive as its cost-of-living is low.
The Mamdani platform here is a bit quirkier and less how a neoliberal-sympathetic wonk like myself would approach it, but I think he has identified the right goals. I’ll talk through these quickly, but I’m hopeful he can knock out a couple of these.
Grocery Stores:
I’m currently in Bengaluru, and one of my favorite aspects is that I can go to a grocery store and buy a small candy bar. I have a sweet tooth, and it’s nice to be able to satisfy it without having to buy a “mega share-pack” of sweets, which I will probably compulsively eat in one sitting. It is not an act of compassion that grocery stores here offer smaller candy bars; it is because purchasing power levels here make it advantageous to sell a low-volume low-cost option. In the US, everyone can afford the bigger option so giving the customer an option that results in less spending. A privately run store needs to profit-optimize, which pressures it to overserve customers; it would be appealing to be able to get my food from a place that isn’t just trying to shake me down for as much money as it can.
At the same time, I get how some people are triggered by the suggestion of a government-run grocery store since centrally planned food systems have killed millions of people. A few new stores in NYC will not destabilize the food system, and even if these stores are popular, we seem far from any risk of a collapse in resilience within food supply logistics.
I am excited to see how this experiment plays out, and its low cost should make it an easy win!
Rent Freeze:
While this won’t work as a long-term solution, I think it can provide some instant relief for specific communities. And in trying to drive cooperation across constituencies to create more units and decrease costs, using all available tools is appropriate.
Real estate developers will be most willing to go along with the mayor’s plan if the mayor has an alternative plan that excludes them entirely. If they think they have leverage, they hold out and try to extract as much as they can from the city. The goal should be to replace the old machine that has taken on decades of bloatware with a nimbler efficient people’s machine.
Free Childcare:
This is a wonderful idea, and the main challenge will be funding it. I often hear that the mayor can’t raise taxes, but that’s only partially true; the mayor can’t raise the tax rate, but he can impact the amount of taxable income within the city, and more income in the population means more revenue for the city.
The wealthy are the wealthy often in part because they love money, but it’s seldom the only thing they love. Wealthy people give money to all sorts of things without a financial return. I’m hopeful there’s a path to funding this project, whether it’s through working with Governor Hochul or creating a vision of NYC that is attractive to the right kind of high-income professional to live in a high-functioning city.
Getting There
A good city is a city you can get to. Some of this is geographical, but beyond the considerable cost issues preventing people from being able to visit NYC from all over the world, there is also the fact that many people who want to visit NYC can’t get the needed approval from the federal government to do so. And even with approval, there is currently an elevated threat of soldiers kidnapping visitors at gunpoint and taking them to detention centers.
The relevant Mamdani pledge on his platform website is “Trump-Proofing NYC”, which is an important part of keeping the city functioning and accessible. That said, the nature of the American political system could make this a real challenge. Any time I think about strategy for handling the Federal Government, I always think back to Trump’s “you don’t have the cards” quote in his Oval Office meeting with Zelensky. In this case, what are the game conditions and who has what cards? I think NYC has real cards to play here, more than most cities, but an honest assessment of the situational dynamics will help drive the desired outcome.
In the hopes that maybe I can help communities navigate these current bleak circumstances, I will focus next on sharing some polling work I’ve been conducting about American perceptions of immigration. Ultimately, if Mamdani is able to create an accessible and functioning city, he can make NYC not just a great place but also a great city.
Though the strength of neighborhoods and kindness of residents is certainly downstream of policy in the long-term.
As transit, not as a date. It was a sort of protest against the ostentatious use of limos by my classmates I think? Honestly I’m not even sure, it was a while ago.
so much content today!!