Exclusive | Dem pol blames congestion pricing for breakup after beau couldnt afford toll as she rips Hochul-backed tax
Thanks a lot, Kathy.A Democratic district leader and former state Assembly candidate claims congestion pricing, implemented by fellow Dem Gov.
Kathy Hochul, slammed the brakes on her six-year romance with a working stiff who could no longer afford interborough travel.Mariama James went viral on X when she revealed how the toll taxed her relationship with her bus driver beau.“We basically stopped seeing each other bc of Congestion Pricing,” she wrote this week.
“He already pays it plus bridge tolls to get from his home in East NY to the depot in Harlem where he works.Coming to visit me inside the zone a few times per week as well, not to mention driving for our formerly frequent weekend getaways to AC became a hardship & no way he’d ever let me pay instead.”The pair of toll-crossed lovers had a storybook beginning.
She met her “MTA man” in 2019 while she was walking on the street near her home in the Financial District.He chatted her up and then boldly followed her into a grocery store to get her phone number — and the two single-parent “workaholics” hit it off.They dated off-and-on until 2025, with the couple spending most of their time at her place since the traditional gentleman refused to let her take the train or drive to Brooklyn to meet him.“We would meet on his break.He’d take me to dinner, like park his bus and take me out,” James told The Post.The Romeo Ralph Kramden — whose real name James withheld — pulled out all the stops to impress his Alice.“He is the man,” gushed James, 55, “I didn’t carry a bag.
I didn’t pay a tab.I didn’t open the door.
I didn’t walk on the outside of the street.”James, who also advocates for 9/11 victims and their families and is on the board of a youth charity, welcomed the chivalry.“I have to be the ‘man’ in my life a lot of the time.
When you’re an activist, when you’re the leader, I’m in a lot of male circles..
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So when I’m with somebody that I’m dati...