If the plan had been presented last year as a major change in the lives of those struggling to make ends meet in New York City, the reality, announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker, is far less than anticipated: Only 30,000 New Yorkers — those who already receive cash assistance from the city and are employed — will be eligible for the cards starting this month.
The pool of eligible New Yorkers would expand in April to about 130,000 people who receive federal food stamps and are working, de Blasio and Johnson said — still a far cry from the 800,000 New Yorkers estimated by advocates to live below the federal poverty line of $25,000 a year for a family of four.
The city has no mechanism for people to apply for the discounts; only those who receive cash benefits or food stamps can get the half-priced MetroCards.
Appearing at a news conference at a Harlem subway station Friday, de Blasio chose to characterize the rollout as “a major step to a fair and just society,” even as he and Johnson faced repeated questions about the program’s initial limited scope.
“This is a good start,” Johnson said. “Could things be done in a more perfect way? The mayor and I can always Monday-morning quarterback and figure out ways that we could get it done in a better way.”
A sticking point had been both logistical and ideological: Could the city, which would administer the program, provide the discount for pay-per-ride MetroCards or just for those that provide unlimited use for a week or 30 days? Anti-poverty advocates argued that the program would be much more useful to low-income riders if the pay-per-ride card was included.
The initial launch will include only the half-priced unlimited cards, which are priced at $16 for a week, or $60.50 for the 30 days and look like ordinary MetroCards. City officials were working with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to add the pay-per-ride option in April, de Blasio and Johnson said.
Originally planned for a start date of Jan. 1, the program officially began Friday, a blown deadline that de Blasio seemed to casually dismiss in a radio interview earlier in the day.
“It’s January 4 today. I am precisely three days late. I apologize for that three-day delay,” the mayor said.
But many who cheered its adoption into the city budget last year criticized the limited scope as well as the lack of a timeline beyond April or of any public messaging by the city about the program so far, saying it appeared that some at City Hall were not taking the issue seriously. Some critics were more pointed.
“That was NOT the deal,” Councilman Francisco Moya of Queens wrote on Twitter to the mayor. “We did our job, now it’s time for you to do yours.”
Punctuated by the shouts of hecklers and the constant chime of riders swiping into the system, de Blasio, who struggled to swipe an ordinary MetroCard at the station, defended the program’s rollout, comparing it to a trial run. “We’re trying to use the first 30,000 to make sure the whole system works,” de Blasio said.
The mayor suggested at one point that constructing the bureaucracy for reduced-fare MetroCards had been more challenging than creating a universal prekindergarten system — something he accomplished during his first year as mayor. “Pre-K had an existing application process,” the mayor said; fair fares, by contrast, “was creating a brand-new initiative that never existed before.”
For eligible New Yorkers, getting the discounted MetroCards will be a two-step process at first: They must go to designated offices to pick up the special cards. Then, they must add money to them at MetroCard vending machines, which will be programmed to charge half-price. City officials hope that by April, eligible New Yorkers can sign up online for cards to be mailed to their homes.
Some anti-poverty advocates, invited to participate in the news conference, offered praise for the two leaders for getting the plan started, even as they criticized its slow start. David Jones, president of the Community Service Society of New York, expressed concern at who was left out of the initial rollout.
“Now it is up to the mayor to make good on his side of the bargain,” he said, and deliver the program. “Progressive rhetoric, that all of us use, always has to meet the rubber to the road of getting it done.”
The city budgeted $106 million to cover the expense of the first fiscal year of the program, although de Blasio has promised to fully fund the program to meet demand. Any leftover funds would be rolled over to cover costs next year, he said.
De Blasio originally did not support using city funds to pay for the subsidized rides, saying he preferred instead a dedicated tax on high-income earners to fund the program. Such a tax would need to be approved by the state, which controls the subway and bus system. Ultimately, he came around to the idea after being pressed by Johnson and others on the City Council.
“This one was real slog with no understanding of why it became a slog,” Jones said after the news conference. “I think the mayor feels that maybe we’ve dragged him kicking and screaming into something he didn’t want to do on this scale.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.