"Free buses" is one of the big ideas that helped Zohran Mamdani win the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City. But in Kansas City, the bus system is going the opposite direction after years of free fares — mostly because of a lack of transit funding.

NEW YORK — If you ask people in the Bronx what they think about making the bus free, you get a lot of versions of yes .

"Why not? Yes, it definitely should," said Melanie Marrero, as she waited for the Bx18 bus with her two young children. "Because, as you see, it's like almost $3, and it's going to go up."

Today the bus costs $2.90 per ride for adults. For a while last year, this bus line was free for everyone — thanks to a temporary pilot program supported by an obscure state assemblyman from Queens named Zohran Mamdani, who made

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