A Staten Island teen took her plea for free express bus rides to Instagram after her letter to City Hall went unanswered.
Daeun Kim, 17, posted a video Thursday begging Mayor Mamdani to extend OMNY student benefits to express buses before her senior year at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan. The clip has since exploded to 97,000 likes.
“I have only one wish, and that’s for me to get free bus rides to school next year,” Kim begins in the Instagram video.
The aspiring psychology major, who holds a 4.0 GPA, explained that her working-class immigrant parents from Korea have spent $18,270 on bus fare alone to send her and her brother to public school in Manhattan over the past four years. Students currently ride free on standard public transit with OMNY cards, but express buses are excluded from the program.
“People bring up the free ferry but for a lot of us, the ferry isn’t close. It would mean a 30-minute drive or a 90-minute bus ride just to reach it, and then another subway after [the ferry] to go to the school,” she explained in the clip.
“The express bus stops right in front of my house.”
Kim broke down the math: the express bus runs $7.25 each way, totaling $14.50 per child daily. Taking the ferry would stretch her commute to three hours round-trip versus the 90 minutes she now spends.
“That’s a geographical disadvantage that kids from other boroughs don’t have,” she said in the video.
“A lot of immigrant families in Staten Island commute to school in Manhattan every day for better schools and opportunities. I have one year of high school left and I don’t want my mom to keep sacrificing her weekend just to afford my commute.”
Kim mailed a letter to City Hall in June but received no response, she told The Post by phone Saturday.
“I jokingly said to my friends that I’m going to give Mamdani two months and if he doesn’t respond, I’m going to go to City Hall or do something about it,” she recounted.
“So then when it didn’t happen, I sat at my desk and made a video.”
She said her primary motivation was honoring her parents’ sacrifices. Her mother trained as a nurse in Korea but now works as a nail technician in Brooklyn, while her father also left his career behind.
“My mom was a nurse in Korea, but she’s been working as a nail technician in Brooklyn because that was the only job she could get without speaking English. I’ve gone to the salon and watched her kneel in front of customers until 8 p.m., and this past semester we often didn’t get home together until 10 p.m.,” Kim shared.
“If this issue gets resolved, I’m hoping I’ll finally get to see my mom on weekends, and have dinner and say good night to her on school days.
“The same goes for my dad. Both of my parents gave up their careers to support my brother and me.”
Kim aims to study psychology at Cornell University after graduating next year and eventually open an art therapy foundation for immigrants.
The Mayor’s Office did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.