MTA mouthpiece to bolt, turn sights on gun safety

The head of the MTA’s media relations office is leaving the agency to tackle gun violence.

Max Young, who joined the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in January, said his last day will be Friday. He’ll be the new head of public affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit founded by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg that advocates for gun control.

Young said his decision to leave the MTA after just seven months had nothing to do with the troubled state of the agency.

Instead, Young said, he wants to be at the vanguard of the fight for gun control — especially because in his view, the country is at a tipping point on the issue.

“I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to work on an issue

I care about deeply, influencing policy and politics on the state and national level, at such a critical time in our country,” Young said.

Young (photo) worked for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for seven years, and left in 2014

to work for the Rockefeller Foundation’s Resilient Cities program, which has since closed.

He returned to Schumer’s office for a few months last year to help lead the opposition to Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.

The New York City native joined the MTA weeks after Gov. Cuomo announced a last-minute change to the L train project and helped advocate for the passage of congestion pricing on behalf of the MTA. He also oversaw an update to the MTA’s website and vowed to improve the agency’s response to Freedom of Information Law requests.

Young’s replacement, who will be announced later this week, and Tim Minton, the former NBC News journrnalist recently hired as the agency’s communications director, will take over the FOIL reform efforts.

MTA Chairman Patrick Foye said Young was a “trusted friend and adviser” and that his presence will be missed.