Simmer down, Bill!
MTA boss Joe Lhota ripped Mayor de Blasio for claiming New Yorkers have a right to stuff their faces on the trains — telling The Post that Hizzoner’s comments are “incendiary” and that his cops needs to do more to stop subway litterbugs.
“I’m in charge with trying to find ways to make the subway system more efficient, faster, cleaner and more responsive. You would think the mayor would be supportive in those efforts,” Lhota said of the man who defeated him in the 2013 race for City Hall.
“It’s nice to hear from the mayor, but it doesn’t help to be so incendiary in his advice… everyone has a right to be on a clean subway,” Lhota told The Post, hours after de Blasio said a food ban on the rails would not be “fair.”
Lhota called cleanliness on the subway “vitally important.”
De Blasio told reporters at a press conference Wednesday: “I don’t think it’s fair to people to say you can’t eat on the subway,” as he dredged up nearly 40-year-old memories of the days when he actually rode the rails.
“I talked to Joe Lhota about this. I think that’s a real concern and we’ve got to think about both education and maybe a different kind of enforcement to get people to stop throwing their trash on the tracks because talk about something that’s going to bite you. You know, if someone throws trash on the tracks, they end up with a fire, and their own train’s not going to come for them. That’s doesn’t make any sense.”
Lhota said the mayor and the NYPD should step up enforcement to stop people throwing garbage on the tracks.
“It would be very, very helpful if they enforce the laws,” he said. “People throwing food and garbage on the tracks is a violation.”
When pressed for details of a potential ban, Lhota said, “No decisions have been made.”
He wouldn’t give examples of possible foods to ban, but said: “I want to be able to make sure that someone who is a diabetic is eating what’s necessary. People who come on board with full trays of food — it needs to stop.”
“When people eat food or throw food on the subways all it does is feed the rats. The mayor wants to spend a fortune in eradicating rats,” Lhota said.