Quinn Jumps Off the Bloomberg Bus
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Striking an aggressive tone, the City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, yesterday criticized the Bloomberg administration’s school bus cuts, marking one of the few times she has openly sparred with the mayor.
It may not be the end of their political love affair — like a public couple, Ms. Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg have rarely disagreed since she became speaker last year. But as she jumped into the fray over the Department of Education’s decision to reduce the number of school bus routes to save money, it was clear the honeymoon is over.
“Obviously there have been some tremendous, tremendous problems with how the bus route changes have been implemented,” she told reporters. “Had there been earlier and more thorough dialogue, we would know the answers to those questions. We wouldn’t be asking them now because parents had stepped forward with reports of problems.”
In December, in an effort to save $12 million annually, the Department of Education required all students to register for bus service in advance of eliminating service for children that are ineligible and cutting underutilized bus routes. After a series of delays, the department implemented the new bus routes on Monday. The cuts denied bus service to 7,000 children who had requested it, and the department was bombarded with more than 13,000 calls from parents reporting problems. Yesterday, the number of calls had dropped to 2,356 by 4:30 p.m., but was still above the average 1,000 calls received at this time of year.
Ms. Quinn said she would hold an oversight meeting in the next two weeks to question how the department implemented the program, and said she would particularly focus on why it chose to launch the new routes, which stranded some children outside in the cold, during January.
During a hastily organized meeting with reporters yesterday, Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott defended the bus cuts and the administration’s response, blaming part of the uproar on school bus companies.
“Bus companies have a vested interest to make sure they have as many routes as possible,” he said, but added later, “We don’t want any child stranded in the street.”
