The New York Evening World, recognizing their resentment, denounced the charge. On June 9, 1906, it established the Five-Cent Fare League, inviting readers to join. The 10-cent fare to Coney survived.

no one here has said otherwise

Yet another reason why Hylan's the winner. Both Hylan's critics and Mamdani's so accused them, often with a zealous dogmatism all their own.

@evanmanvel.bsky.social , you are so right: Just like you said, people are constantly asserting something's happening for the "first time" ever, and that nearly always means we just forgot something.

And like Mamdani he was both controversial and popular. John F. Hylan was elected in 1917 and reelected in 1921, running largely on the 5-cent fare.

Mayor Hylan was also a former transit employee, having served as an engineer on Brooklyn’s elevated railroad. Much like Mamdani’s critics, Hylan’s enemies said he a socialist. They called him “Red Mike,” claiming that had been his sobriquet when he was an engineer on the L.

The winner is John F. Hylan, mayor from 1918 to 1925. A century ago the analogue to fare-free transit was the 5-cent fare, and that cause was Mayor Hylan’s obsession. He campaigned almost exclusively on the 5-cent fare – to the point of being ridiculed for it.

The stated word is “unrealistic,” which does not excuse.

Until recently, the example depicted here was unimaginable. What damage has it already done? How much lower will we go? Is there no bottom to this descent?

President McKinley, who enjoyed cigars, always put his cigar down whenever a photographer appeared. “We must not let the young men of this country see their president smoking,” he told them. He recognized that as president, he was example-setter-in-chief.

Until recently, Americans of diverse convictions agreed that the president sets an example. Outgoing presidents of both parties, from GHW Bush through Obama, left polite, handwritten letters for their successors to find in the Oval Office desk. I assigned these notes to students as needed examples.

My task becomes harder when some holders of the highest offices in the land set contrary examples, engaging in or excusing disgraceful effrontery. I fear the consequences of the examples they set. I fear for my students and for other young people who are still learning what it means to be an adult.

I teach professional ethics. The first lesson I have to offer my students is that professional ethics begins with professional courtesy, mutual respect, and a capacity to disagree without being disagreeable. To teach them this lesson I need, above all, examples students will recognize.

In this case, “Abby” is the American people.
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All his quotes are real.