Staten Island: For decades, the MTA followed a straightforward practice: keeping the express bus fare at double the cost of a local bus or subway ride. If the local fare was $1.50, the express bus was $3. At $2.25 locally, the express was $4.50. Staten Islanders, who lack subway access but rely on express service into Manhattan, paid more, but not disproportionately so.

That balance has been broken. The MTA is proposing $3 for a local fare and $7.25 for express buses. This isn’t just another fare hike. It’s the widest gap in the system’s history, and it unfairly targets Staten Islanders, whose only land connection to the rest of the city is the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. While other parts of the city discuss free bus service, no one is talking about relief for the 40,000 Islanders who depend on express buses. For us, there’s no alternative. Staten Island is a transit desert.

The impact on students is especially severe. Families already make sacrifices so their children can attend specialized schools outside the borough. Today, CUNY students and young people traveling to high schools like Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, Brooklyn Tech and LaGuardia, or private schools, must pay full price on express buses and fast ferries. The same holds true for working families. Staten Islanders who commute daily already shoulder some of the highest transportation costs in the city. Many spend thousands of dollars a year just to get to work. Yet, the MTA continues to celebrate “fare capping” on subways and discounts on commuter rail, with no comparable relief for our borough. That is not equity. Restoring fairness is not complicated. The MTA should return to its long-standing practice of tying express bus fares to the local fare. Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks

Brooklyn: Congestion pricing is a scam approved by your incompetent governor. While trying to find a parking spot, I mistakenly ended up in the congestion pricing zone! I am sure that happens daily to many. There is still tons of traffic and no end in sight! Maria Ciarametaro

Brooklyn: Councilwoman Inna Vernikov should be impeached and removed from office because she is no help to her community, and........

© NY Daily News