Who would've guessd?

[LGA Link N Train]

https://nypost.com/2021/03/07/these-new-yorkers-wont-forgive-cuomo-for-forcing-out-andy-byford/

Quote

These New Yorkers will never forgive Gov. Cuomo for forcing out Andy Byford

By David Meyer

March 7, 2021 | 7:25pm | Updated

Gov. Andrew Cuomo received a torrent of hate mail from New Yorkers in the days after his hand-picked subway boss Andy Byford quit the MTA.; Seth Wenig/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo, William Farrington

These New Yorkers were on the anti-Cuomo train early!

Gov. Andrew Cuomo received a torrent of hate mail from New Yorkers in the days after his hand-picked subway boss Andy Byford quit the MTA – with many of the missives blaming the governor’s notoriously ego-driven leadership for the popular Brit’s exit, the Post has learned.

The governor received around 225 angry emails and letters in the eight days after Byford’s Jan. 23, 2020 resignation, which the transit chief blamed on Cuomo becoming “intolerable,” according to correspondence obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

“I blame his leaving on your shortsightedness, your ego, your need to control and take credit for the progress made with our subway system,” Philipos Wander emailed Cuomo the day after Byford quit.

Under Byford’s leadership, the subways hit their highest on-time performance in six years. He also set in motion the MTA modernization plan currently being pursued by his successors.

Neither accomplishment was lost on New Yorkers.

“The man has accomplished a lot in his relatively short tenure with the NYC subway. Shame on you for interfering!” Mary Jane Wilkie told the governor in letter dated the day after Byford’s shock resignation last year.

“It appears that the political environment has become nothing more than a bunch of guys trotting around unable to control their testosterone.”

“It’s a shame you cannot share the spotlight,” wrote Malvina Nathanson. “You owe us all an apology.”

Byford blamed Cuomo for his departure from the MTA, which came less than two years after the governor brought him on to steer the subways out of the depths of the 2017 “Summer of Hell.”

Cuomo was never going to let Andy Byford fix New York City’s subway

Cuomo made the job “intolerable,” Byford said in an interview with WCBS-TV shortly before returning to the United Kingdom last March.

He accused the governor’s team of going behind his back and reducing his role after Byford called for an “independent review” of Cuomo’s plan to avert the L train shutdown.

“I found myself excluded from meetings that were absolutely about the day-to-day running of New York City Transit,” Byford said at the time. “The governor is the boss, the governor runs the MTA. But at the end of the day, I needed to be left to run the system.”

Letters sent to the governor alternatively castigated the third-term Democrat for letting his talented transit chief leave, begged him to get Byford to stay — or both.

“You are flailing as the bully in the MTA. You shoved out Byeford [sic] who is ideal for the job and has the workforce that can do it behind him… He who hires talent gets to shine with them. Undo that. Grovel [if] necessary,” wrote Barbara Charton.

“I am a Democratic always-voter, but I will always be against you in any future elected position you try for unless you meet with Byford and convince him to remain with the MTA,” emailed Joyce Stickney.

“As in the NY tradition of people like Trump and Giuliani, you are letting your obsession with getting credit and showing that ‘you’re in charge’ endanger the successes brought about by your appointee,” warned Rick O’Connell.

Cuomo’s leadership style has come under the spotlight again in recent weeks, after he was accused of threatening to “destroy” a state assemblyman for speaking out over the state’s decision to withhold data on thousands of nursing home deaths amid the pandemic.

Transit observers said that style was on full display with his treatment of Byford.

“Gov. Cuomo is incapable of recognizing the concept of reflected credit,” said David Bragdon of the Manhattan-based think tank TransitCenter. “If Andy C. had let Andy B. run the NYCT, Andy C. would have gotten far more credit than he gets for pretending to run it himself.”

“Andy inspired an unparalleled level of trust among riders and workers and New Yorkers, and that was by dint of his independent professionalism, expertise and commitment, and it’s not easily replaced, frankly,” said Riders Alliance rep Danny Pearlstein.

Governor Andrew Cuomo greets MTA Andy Byford after speaking to attendees; Robert Miller

“Because of his clashes with the governor, he was essentially demoted to running trains and buses daily, but not modernizing the subway as he had proposed.”

Speaking to WCBS-TV last March, Byford suggested that Cuomo, reputed for wanting to be the hero in every situation, may have been jealous.

“I didn’t seek the moniker ‘Train Daddy,’ I didn’t seek the publicity. But the fact is a good transit professional gets out and about,” he said. “We did over 100 public events. That garnered a certain amount of publicity. If others didn’t like that, well, that wasn’t my intention.”

Cuomo, for his part, claimed to have never told Byford what to do. When asked if Byford was “undermined,” the governor said: “If anything, he was over-mined because I dealt with his bosses.”

“I didn’t work with Andy Byford. I worked with [MTA boss] Pat Foye … I worked with his higher-ups,” the governor told reporters last March.

Neither the governor’s office nor Byford responded to requests for comment from The Post.

Everybody knows this by now (hopefully) but still a huge disappointment.

[trainfan22]

Didn't read the whole article but if I was to guess, most of that hate mail was from crazy foamers.

Edited March 8, 2021 by trainfan22

[Bay Ridge Express]

Posted 2 days ago? That's how you know they really wanna spread anti-Cuomo sentiments.

[R10 2952]

I wonder how many of these people complaining had the resolve to vote for Zephyr Teachout or Cynthia Nixon in the primaries; if they decided that Andy Boy was the best we can do for governor, then they have no right to complain IMHO.

Vote for a jerk, reap the rewards.

Edited March 10, 2021 by R10 2952

[QM1to6Ave]

How did they get ahold of those names? Did they ask permission before publishing? 

[bobtehpanda]

On 3/10/2021 at 1:56 PM, R10 2952 said:

I wonder how many of these people complaining had the resolve to vote for Zephyr Teachout or Cynthia Nixon in the primaries; if they decided that Andy Boy was the best we can do for governor, then they have no right to complain IMHO.

Vote for a jerk, reap the rewards.

How many of those people are old enough to vote? Someone calling Byford "Train Daddy" is probably at least under mid-20s.

[B35 via Church]

There's something about this article that doesn't sit well with me....

[CenSin]

19 hours ago, bobtehpanda said:

Someone calling Byford "Train Daddy" is probably at least under mid-20s.

Under mid-twenties… calling a 55-year-old “train daddy”…

[Lex]

4 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

There's something about this article that doesn't sit well with me....

I mean, it's more than a year after the relevant event being used to attack someone who's in a weaker position for (serious but) unrelated stuff, and all because that person is a Democrat.

Considering the fact that the same organization endorsed a bigger idiot with many of the same traits -- including an (apparent) inability to have any decency around women -- with a slogan so bad it's gut-busting, it really only serves to show how ridiculous this piece really is.

[bobtehpanda]

10 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

There's something about this article that doesn't sit well with me....

The chickens are coming home to roost, but hearing it from the NY Post is a bit rich given that NY Post will attack Dems for literally anything.

I think the NY Times put it best:

Quote

Be it his self-regard, his disdain for fellow Democrats or his imperious demeanor, Mr. Cuomo alienated allies and enemies alike on his way up in politics, and now finds himself sliding from hero-level worship to pariah-like status with the kind of astonishing speed that only the friendless suffer. It is a downfall foretold in a decade-long reign of ruthlessness and governance by brute force, according to interviews with more than two dozen lawmakers, elected officials, current and past Cuomo administration officials, political activists and strategists in the state.

For Mr. Cuomo, politics has always been a zero-sum game: For him to win, someone else must lose, whether it is the legislator whose idea he is taking credit for, or Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose initiatives he routinely stomped. The same domineering approach that won plaudits in the depths of the coronavirus crisis has bruised a generation of Mr. Cuomo’s peers, such that many were ready to turn on him once vulnerable.

Really, this is just Chris Christie all over again, which is apropos because they used the same playbook to gain power (domineering tough guy prosecutor comes in to steamroll the establishment and puts on a show of bipartisanship)