A New York City Democrat is blaming Gov.
Kathy Hochuls congestion pricing scheme for wrecking her six-year relationship with a blue-collar bus driver who could no longer afford to keep seeing her.
Mariama James, a Democratic district leader, 9/11 victims advocate and former state Assembly candidate, went viral on X after publicly recounting how the new tolls helped derail her romance with a Metropolitan Transportation Authority driver from Brooklyn, according to The New York Post.
We basically stopped seeing each other bc of Congestion Pricing, she wrote this week, describing how the policy piled financial strain onto a man already stretched thin by his daily commute.
The pairs relationship began in 2019 with the kind of meet-cute that would make a Hollywood screenwriter blush.
She met her MTA man while walking near her home in the Financial District, where he struck up a conversation and then followed her into a grocery store to ask for her number.
Both were single parents and self-described workaholics, but they quickly clicked and began dating on and off.
They continued their relationship until 2025, with the bus driver typically making the trek to her apartment because, as James explained, he was a traditional gentleman who refused to let her take the train or drive to Brooklyn to see him.
We would meet on his break. Hed take me to dinner, like park his bus and take me out, James told The Post, recalling how he went out of his way to carve out time together.
The driver, whom she compared to a modern-day Ralph Kramden and whose real name she declined to reveal, pulled out all the stops to impress her.
He is the man, gushed James, 55, I didnt carry a bag. I didnt pay a tab. I didnt open the door. I didnt walk on the outside of the street.
James, who also serves on the board of a youth charity, said she welcomed his old-fashioned chivalry as a respite from her demanding public life.
I have to be the man in my life a lot of the time. When youre an activist, when youre the leader, Im in a lot of male circles. . . . So when Im with somebody that Im dating or my partner, I let myself be the lady. I let him be the man, she said.
For a woman immersed in politics and activism, the relationship offered a rare chance to embrace traditional roles that progressive elites often mock but many ordinary Americans still value.
Even before congestion pricing, the couple struggled to find time together as they juggled work and family responsibilities.
The bus driver was already paying more than $100 a week in tolls just to commute through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to his depot in Harlem, a burden that left little margin for extra trips.
He was doing that and subsisting and then here comes congestion pricing, she said, describing how the new levy landed on top of existing costs.
Congestion pricing, which took effect on Jan. 5, 2025, forces motorists to pay $9 to drive in Manhattan below 61st Street, a policy championed by Hochul and other Democrats as a way to reduce traffic and fund transit.
For James boyfriend, the governors toll was not an abstract environmental measure but a direct hit to his paycheck and their ability to see each other.
Hochuls plan did a number on his bottom line, James said, and ultimately on her love life as well.
Weve only seen each other like two times since 2025, James told The Post.
It just kind of became exhausting and we stopped doing it.
She emphasized that the financial pressure weighed heavily on a man already meeting serious obligations.
Im a mother of three. I know how it is for a man, a black man who is not married to the mother of his child who has him on child support.
This man is paying additional money to take me out. For that to be a barrier to meeting his obligations, and because of the kind person that he is I know that hes going to pay, she continued.
It was not fun for either one of us at that point because we had to figure out a master plan just to go out.
James also blasted the policys impact on her community, arguing that the supposed environmental benefits are not materializing where she lives.
I dont like it. Not for my district, she said, adding, All its done is push pollution on our neighborhood.
Her political fortunes have taken a hit as well, after she lost a Democratic state Assembly primary in June to Democratic Socialists of America candidate Illapa Saorotupac.
The defeat underscored the leftward drift of her party, even as working-class New Yorkers like her ex-boyfriend shoulder the costs of progressive experiments such as congestion pricing.
Online critics have mocked James for airing her personal story and for suggesting that Hochuls toll helped end her relationship.
You couldnt waterboard this out of me, one online sniper replied to her confessional post, sneering at the idea that government policy could have such intimate consequences.
Despite the distance and the financial strain, James is not entirely closing the door on the relationship.
Maybe well start up again one day, who knows? she said. Maybe there will be a change in circumstances.
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