Sunday, October 24, 2021

Taxi to the dark side

  


Mother Jones

On Wednesday, taxi drivers, local elected officials, and their allies gathered outside New York City Hall to announce the beginning of a hunger strike. They are protesting a plan announced last month by the de Blasio administration to help taxi drivers reduce their debt burdens—a plan that the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, the 21,000-member group leading the hunger strike, considers insultingly inadequate.

As a Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times investigation established in 2019, lenders, medallion brokers, and city officials spent years taking advantage of a scheme to inflate the prices of the taxi medallions that let New York City drivers operate cabs. The victims were the mostly immigrant cab drivers now left with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. There have been three suicides by owner-drivers in recent years.

I spoke with two of the roughly dozen hunger strikers a few minutes after they stopped eating. Zohran Mamdani, who came to New York from Kampala, Uganda, at age seven, wore two pins on his lapel: the red rose of socialism and another reserved for members of the New York state assembly. He has represented a northwest Queens district since January. 

At 63, Richard Chow is more than 30 years Mamdani’s senior. After moving to New York in 1987, he bought his taxi medallion for $410,000 in 2006. He still owes almost all of that money because of interest payments and the need to take out further loans to buy new cabs. His brother, Kenny, bought his medallion for more than $750,000 in 2011. Crippled by debt, he died by suicide in 2018.

On Wednesday, taxi drivers, local elected officials, and their allies gathered outside New York City Hall to announce the beginning of a hunger strike. They are protesting a plan announced last month by the de Blasio administration to help taxi drivers reduce their debt burdens—a plan that the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, the 21,000-member group leading the hunger strike, considers insultingly inadequate.

As a Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times investigation established in 2019, lenders, medallion brokers, and city officials spent years taking advantage of a scheme to inflate the prices of the taxi medallions that let New York City drivers operate cabs. The victims were the mostly immigrant cab drivers now left with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. There have been three suicides by owner-drivers in recent years.

I spoke with two of the roughly dozen hunger strikers a few minutes after they stopped eating. Zohran Mamdani, who came to New York from Kampala, Uganda, at age seven, wore two pins on his lapel: the red rose of socialism and another reserved for members of the New York state assembly. He has represented a northwest Queens district since January.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Bottom Line said...
Even "smart" people can make terrible decisions.
99% Of Bad Money Decisions Are Because Of Greed or Fear.
Their bad money decisions are not my or the Tax Payers problem.
If you put in the work, put in the time, put in the effort, you're going to reap benefits.
Prove me wrong...

Anonymous said...

I will prove you wrong. Although I am no fan of the taxi industry,

When the city sold you a medallion for around $800.000 many years it was worth the investment. Then the city changes the rule in the middle of the game by allowing Lyft, Umber etc to operate without same requirement or investment. I would definitely call that unfair competition without said investment. Your initial investment is now worth about half of the initial amount but your still paying off the original sum.

Anonymous said...

Seems like a lot of Americans should go on hunger strike.
The original real prove me wrong …

SEERofZOG said...

Hunger strike? Curry sales are gonna drop like crazy.

SEERofZOG said...

"Uber and Lyft are only allowed to be villains because the city let them."

Yes, Uber and Lyft provided a easy to use and effective service that was ten thousand times better than the crap we got from yellow cabs. They must be villains!

"The worth of these medallions is predicated on the fact that there is a closed market."

So a monopoly, in effect. Why were there EVER "medallions" required? Oh, to ensure safe and effective service? Lol!

Anonymous said...

Sucks that the city inflated the prices but the yellow cabs screwed themselves with shitty service. They lost me when a driver refused to take a credit card. Also lost me when they refused trips to Queens from Manhattan during the gas shortage. Feel bad for the honest cabbies that get caught up in the shit.

Anonymous said...

Medallions were required because like the mob, the city wanted their slice of the pie.

Anonymous said...

@ Uber and Lyft provided a easy to use and effective service that was ten thousand times better than the crap we got from yellow cabs.

Thank Dumberg for the "effective service". Once the so called "effective" services start being regulated like the yellow cab businesses we can start comparing the two.

I never took taxis in 40 years working in shit hole nyc said...

Ummm... So the city should make you a millionaire for that piece of shit on your taxi hood. No, Fuck off Fuck ball.

Adriatic Hillbilly said...

Well... All these guys speak another language and have another place to go... If things here suck so bad... BYE, FELICIA!! The city didn't buy out my grandfathers Dumbass ice route when refrigerators came in, why do you deserve a bailout on my back??

Anonymous said...

So the city should make you a millionaire for that piece of shit on your taxi hood

Missing the point. Regulate one side not the other?
How about just safety regulations for both and leave the rest out?

Anonymous said...

Zohran is on a hunger strike, I guess that's easier than doing his actual job

Anonymous said...

Venezuela is a perfect example of what happens whenever a government goes Collective

Anonymous said...

By making everyone poor it brings equality.

Scott68 said...

The rampant ignorance and lack of empathy.

I was in this business for many years, not an owner but an absolute insider.

As much as I dislike the ""dope from park slope", the machine of exploitation of existing rules and regulations preceded the genius' reign of disaster.

Just a dozen or so fleet owners/managers/medallion brokers monopolized a billion + dollar industry,

The "city" is guilty of many things but not the manipulation of prices regarding the sale, manipulation of supply/demand of a limited usage made available by the public, qausi, private sector.

Let's break it down for example, a dozen or so real estate brokers control all of Queens, of what they own, they manipulate greatly, short term, say 10 years to jump in and either sell or control the refinance but never buy those sweating higher prices.

A dozen or so people single handedly brought down a billion dollar industry long after milking significant profits from the manipulation of prices, the lock on financing and worst of all, the predatory nature of refinancing of something that seemed to go up and up.

You bought a medallion or 2 in the early 80's to work it for less than 100k and it was all doable.

A home, kids put through college and a nest egg and pride in your hard work, medallions paid off.

You're about to retire and it's 2008, your medallion paid off, people that helped you buy it, the facade of caring now want to hand you 500k as a refinance, so easy, no risk.

What would you do?

Uber hurt but didn’t kill the industry, a dozen wealthy individuals destroyed it and so many lives while keeping their assets.

Anonymous said...

No fuckface... Regulate everybody the same way and NO BAILOUTS for anyone

Anonymous said...

Get those cars off the road !