Lhota Resigns From MTA; Will Explore Run For Mayor (as a republican)

[Renew Deal]

On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board approved a major fare and toll increase, but attention was focused instead on the political future of its chairman, Joseph Lhota, who used the occasion to express his interest in running for mayor. NY1's Bobby Cuza filed the following report.

The timing was peculiar. Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota talked about a run for mayor Wednesday minutes after presiding over the most politically unpopular move imaginable: a fare hike.

"Mr. Lhota, if you’re a Republican candidate, will you stick to the doctrine of no new taxes?" said one person who spoke at an MTA board meeting Wednesday. "What else is a fare hike but a new tax on working people?"

Fare hike notwithstanding, Lhota, a Republican, is now poised to make a splash in next year’s mayor’s race. A former deputy mayor under Rudolph Giuliani, his handling of the MTA’s post-Sandy recovery won him high marks and prompted talk of a run, though it’s also now opening him up to criticism.
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http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/174223/lhota-resigns-from-mta--will-explore-run-for-mayor

[hrmjustin]

1. He raises the price of a metrocard on the same day he announces he wants to be mayor.

He is going nowhere! The only people who have heard of him are the people who do not like him.

[Renew Deal]

2. I never liked him

And I didn't understand his recent popularity.

[hrmjustin]

3. I think he might have mistook his popularity for the facts he had the answers about mass transit

after sandy. The media and NYers paid attention because they needed the info. Any goodwill he might have had from that was lost on the fare hike today.

[Renew Deal]

4. I agree

And Bloomberg deserves more credit for shutting down the subway that Lhota.

[hrmjustin]

5. I can tell you from what I learned from my councilman Cuomo pushed Bloomberg to shut down

the system. Cuomo also pushed him on the schools.