THE TAKING OF GOTHAM 123: NEW YORK’S SUBWAYS HAVE BEEN HIJACKED BY CITY-STATE POLITICS.

It’s not coincidence that New York’s trains and its politics are both breaking down.

Our last mayoral election pitted a highly competent and experienced administrator against an ideologue with no executive experience. The administrator was a Republican and the ideologue was a Democrat and, after 12 years of Bloomberg proved four too many, voters didn’t see it as much of a choice.

As Ed Koch warned after he lost a 1989 primary fight paving the way for the horrors of the Dinkins years, “The people have spoken — and now, they must be punished.”