Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been on an anti-New York Metropolis subway system tirade.
In one in all his many Fox Information interviews, Duffy mentioned on Thursday that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, cares extra about “homeless and mentally ill” individuals than the “riding public of New Yorkers.”
“We don’t care about the green, we don’t care about the social justice. We care about the projects and the safety of the American people,” he mentioned.
And whereas working on a platform of security appears like a very good method, Duffy’s monthslong standoff with Hochul and New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams is lacking some key data. Regardless of his crying about NYC crime charges within the subway system, information says that crime is definitely declining.
Main crimes on the subway fell by 18% within the first three months of 2025 in comparison with final 12 months, in response to police statistics obtained by The New York Occasions. And whereas Duffy and President Donald Trump have been disparaging and threatening NYC’s congestion pricing plan, information reveals that it has been working.
The plan, supposed to make it simpler for New Yorkers to get round by up-charging drivers coming into Manhattan at sure instances, has seen success and raised funds that shall be used to restore the very subway system that Duffy claims is a “shithole.”
“If you want people to take the train, take transit, then make it safe, make it clean, make it beautiful, make it wonderful. Don’t make it a shithole, which is what she’s done,” he mentioned whereas touring the subway with Adams earlier this month.
“[Hochul] could fix it, and she chooses not to,” he added.
Throughout his journey with Adams, Duffy advised that the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity take a crack at chopping down the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s price range.
He additionally threatened to withhold federal funding if New York couldn’t present proof that they have been making the subways safer. One way or the other, in the identical breath, he additionally managed to check the subway system to a homeless shelter.
However as Duffy and Trump hack and haw a couple of subway system they’ve not often used, even the New York Police Division and MTA’s prime officers are confused in regards to the narrative they’re portray.
“Over the past two months, we’ve seen a 28.2% reduction in crime, which amounts to 110 fewer victims compared to the same period last year. I mean, those numbers speak for themselves,” Chief Joseph Gulotta mentioned final month.
And Haeda Mihaltses, chair of the MTA board’s New York Metropolis Transit Committee, identified that, whereas the information reveals a transparent decline in crime, Trump and Duffy are “saying something else.”
“I mean,” she mentioned, “where are they getting their numbers from?”
