The Backseat Hypocrisy of NYC’s Progressive Leaders
While the mayor of America’s largest city might reasonably require secure transportation, there’s no compelling justification for any other New York City official to travel with a taxpayer-funded chauffeur in a metropolis renowned for its public transit system. Yet on a sweltering July morning in 2022, barely six months after taking office, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine settled into the backseat of his chauffeur-driven car to deliver an important message: New York City needs congestion pricing to reduce traffic and get more people onto public transportation.
The irony is rich. A newly elected progressive official advocating for reduced car usage, all while being driven through Manhattan’s congested streets. It might seem like perfect political satire. But in New York City, it’s business as usual. It’s part of a sprawling system of official privilege. According to payroll data from Checkbook NYC, this system cost taxpayers at least $38.2 million from 2010 to November 12, 2024. Recent years show significant spending: $1,937,816 in 2021, $2,128,723 in 2022, $2,435,063 in 2023, and $2,917,613 in 2024 to date. And these figures only represent chauffeur salaries. They don’t include the costs of vehicles, maintenance, gas, tolls, and other expenses.
A Transit Paradise… For Everyone Else
In Levine’s Manhattan, public transit isn’t just available – it’s almost impossible to avoid. The borough squeezes 151 subway stations into its modest 22.8 square miles, creating a transit density of 6.6 stations per square mile. Approximately 3,500 bus stops dot the island’s streets, averaging 153 stops per square mile. Levine’s own office at 1 Centre Street sits at what might be called the transit capital of the transit capital – thirteen subway lines, multiple bus routes, and several Citi Bike stations all within a six-minute walk.
Yet since taking office in January 2022, even as he champions public transportation and congestion pricing, Levine’s office maintains two chauffeur positions with remarkable consistency. The combined salary figures for both drivers tell the story: $140,036 in 2019, $139,959 in 2020, $124,167 in 2021, $125,825 in 2022, and $134,854 in 2023. Each dollar represents not just an expense, but a choice – to stay above the transit system he and other officials so frequently champion.
Cross-River Contradictions
Cross the East River to Brooklyn, and you’ll find similar contradictions multiplying. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who also took office in January 2022 as part of a new wave of progressive leadership, oversees a borough that spreads 170 subway stations across its 69 square miles, creating a transit density of 2.46 stations per square mile. Yet his office continues a tradition that has cost over $1.8 million in chauffeur salaries since 2010, maintaining car services even as the borough advocates for better public transit access and sustainability.
In Queens, the story takes an intriguing turn. Borough President Donovan Richards, who assumed office a year earlier in January 2021, saw his office’s chauffeur expenses mysteriously vanish from the books after 2020. Did Queens officials suddenly embrace the borough’s 81 subway stations (0.74 stations per square mile) or its 5,158 bus stops (47.3 stops per square mile)? Hardly. Their drivers now come courtesy of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), their salaries buried in different bureaucratic books – a shell game that helps obscure the true costs of official transportation.
Following the Money Maze
This shell game extends far beyond Queens. The city operates a carefully crafted dual system of chauffeur services, each branch helping to hide the full price tag from public view. DCAS, the largest visible spender, has poured over $32 million into providing drivers for various agencies from 2010 to 2024 year to date. As more agencies shift their chauffeur services to DCAS, their individual transportation costs disappear into the department’s larger budget, making it increasingly difficult to track who’s being driven where, and at what cost.
Meanwhile, the NYPD’s Executive Protection Unit maintains a separate fleet of drivers and security details for high-ranking officials. Each protected official requires 12 to 14 officers to provide full coverage, including vacation and sick time. These costs remain buried deep within police budgets, virtually impossible to separate from other expenses.
The Champions of “Do As I Say”
The contradictions echo across city leadership, particularly among the new class of officials who took office in January 2022. City Comptroller Brad Lander, who once penned an impassioned letter titled “My commitment to working to defund the NYPD” and called for cutting the police budget by $1 billion, immediately accepted an NYPD security detail upon taking office that includes a personal driver. This is the same official who was caught speeding in school zones eight times while crusading against reckless drivers – now chauffeured by the very police department he wanted to defund.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who also began his term in January 2022, performs a similar dance of contradiction. A vocal supporter of both congestion pricing and police budget cuts, Williams maintains his NYPD security detail while living on a military base. When confronted with such contradictions, officials often respond like Lander’s office did: “There’s no contradiction between believing that some of our public safety dollars would be better spent on supportive housing, mental health services, and restorative justice programs — and following longstanding NYPD protocol regarding safety for elected officials.”
An NYPD source with more than two decades on the job sees it differently. “If you don’t like cops, don’t use them,” the source told the New York Post, referring to Lander, referring to Lander. “Crime is at an all-time high, and you’re going to assign him 12 to 14 cops? They’ll need vacation and sick time. All those resources for this guy, who nobody really knows.”
Williams’ driving record adds another layer of irony: according to the New York Post, Williams received his 28th traffic violation since 2013 in July, when he was caught on camera speeding through a Brooklyn school zone. Yet rather than face these consequences or use public transit, he continues to enjoy chauffeur service from the police department he wants to defund.
The True Cost of Comfort
A 2020 City & State investigation revealed at least 59 public servants had assigned chauffeurs – far more than appear in public salary records. The $38.2 million in tracked chauffeur salaries from 2010 to November 12, 2024 represents only the visible portion of a much larger expense. Not captured in the data: vehicle costs, fuel expenses, maintenance, insurance, parking fees, administrative overhead, environmental impact, and those costly NYPD security details.
A Tale of Two New Yorks
While this new generation of city leaders floats above the fray in chauffeur-driven comfort, everyday New Yorkers navigate a different reality. Seventy-three percent of workers commute without cars, spending an average of 41 minutes each way on their commutes. They battle delayed trains, crowded buses, and service disruptions while the MTA faces perpetual budget challenges and climate change demands reduced car usage.
The Manhattan Borough President’s combined driver salaries alone – $134,854 – could fund 45,000 subway rides, enough for 123 New Yorkers to commute for a year. The cost of a full NYPD security detail with a dozen officers could fund even more public transit improvements for the constituents these officials claim to serve.
The Few Who Walk the Walkover
Not all officials embrace this system of privilege. Former Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg often declined car service. Former Staten Island Borough President Jimmy Oddo drove himself. Some elected officials brave the turnstiles with their constituents. But they remain the exceptions that prove the rule.
Time for Transit Truth?
As New York implements the very congestion pricing plan its new generation of officials champion from their backseats, as fare hikes persist and service cuts loom, as climate change demands urgent action, one question remains: How seriously should New Yorkers take transit advocacy from leaders who’ve crafted a system ensuring they never have to use it?
The next time you’re squeezed onto a crowded train, remember: somewhere above ground, the officials championing your transit use are experiencing a very different New York. From Mark Levine’s backseat congestion pricing advocacy to Brad Lander’s defund-the-police security detail, from Jumaane Williams’ military base residence to the vanishing Queens chauffeur expenses, the gap between public policy and personal practice continues to widen, one chauffeur-driven mile at a time.
Written by Sam Antar
© 2024 Sam Antar. All rights reserved.