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Before becoming mayor, de Blasio lived here in Park Slope. I guess he never used these yellow cabs he’s so interested in preserving because getting one to go t
by CoolGuySteve 8y ago
Before becoming mayor, de Blasio lived here in Park Slope. I guess he never used these yellow cabs he’s so interested in preserving because getting one to go to Brooklyn from Manhattan is fucking impossible.
Seriously, everything about yellow cab service is worse. Why don’t they buy back the medallions instead?
- JTbane 8y agoThe city would never buy the medallions back, because the price was based on an assumption of monopoly- they are worth much less now with the ubiquity of Uber and Lyft. The cabbies have gotten the short end of the stick though.
- bluedevil2k 8y agoWhy should the city buy them back? They sold the assets, they have no obligation to re-purchase them. Investment risk is in the hands of those people (usually companies) who purchase them. Besides, at what price would they even buy them back at? They're certainly not worth the price that some people pay for them (last I checked, about $1M each).
- fcbrooklyn 8y agoBecause the city sold them on the basis that they offered an exclusive right to pick up street hails in manhattan. Uber, et al, have essentially eliminated that exclusivity.
- greglindahl 8y agoUbers are black cars. Black cars existed back when the taxi medallions were sold.
- fcbrooklyn 8y agoThey sure did. I used to have three numbers of black car services on my phone, and if I couldn't get a cab, which was common in my neighborhood, and I needed a ride badly enough to pay 2-3x what a yellow would cost, I'd call those numbers one by one, until one of 'em had a driver available. If I was in manhattan, I'd pretty much never call a car, because it was easier to street hail a yellow, usually.
- robrenaud 8y ago> Why should the city buy them back So otherwise hopeless drivers/single medallion owners who are severely in debt don't end up committing mass suicide.
- gammateam 8y agothe goal is to lower congestion to improve commerce, not address mental health issues.
- bluedevil2k 8y agoPeople who bought million dollar homes and then saw them plunge in value to $300k didn't commit mass suicide, so why would you assume it would happen in this case?
- Eric_WVGG 8y agoFive in the past five months. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/27/nyregion/taxi-driver-suicide-nyc.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/27/nyregion/taxi-driver-suic...
- ihsw3 8y agoWe live in a free market, they're free to find work elsewhere. Not only that but these cabbies have the unbelievable fortune of being able to unload these medallions through declaring chapter 7/chapter 13 bankruptcy. There are so many avenues for them to relieve themselves from this burden and better their circumstances that you'd be hard-pressed to take any claims of mass-suicide seriously.
- vkou 8y agoSuppose that your state government embarks on a program of land reform. And suppose that they institute new/raise existing taxes/restrictions, that cause the value of your Silicon Valley home to go from ~2.2m to something reasonable, like ~200k. Most economists are in agreement that dramatically increasing the cost of owning property (And, conversely, lowering the market value of existing properties) is one of the answers to the current housing crisis. Once the rules are changed, the free market can figure things out going forward! Are you going to cheer this process on? It will, after all, greatly improve life for people who don't have millions of dollars to pour into housing.
- jdlyga 8y agoBecause Taxi drivers depend on them to make a living and to eventually retire on. It's a big investment.
- bluedevil2k 8y agoThey don't buy them in cash, they take out a loan to purchase the medallions. They have the option to declare bankruptcy, default on their loan, or if they're from another country, move out of the United States. In any case, it wouldn't make sense to bail out all these medallion owners, because essentially the owners are banks.
- ihsw3 8y agoThey can take responsibility for their actions like everybody else, and that includes having the advantage that nobody else in the history of debtors has ever had -- the ability to declare bankruptcy and survive with their hide intact.
- mi100hael 8y agoHow many individual drivers even own medallions? I was under the impression most of the time cab companies own them and drivers take the cars out from a pool.
- InitialLastName 8y agoThey sold the medallions based on a guarantee that they would enforce a monopoly around those medallions. Then they didn't enforce that monopoly. Sounds like the city is in the wrong.
- gruez 8y agoand what if the city repeals the monopoly? did the city enter into a contract to guarantee that a monopoly will be in place for n years?
- TheCoelacanth 8y agoThe medallions are only for street hails. Uber does not accept street hails, they just made another way of hiring a car convenient enough to replace a significant portion of street hails. The medallion owners invested in something that became less valuable because of technology (cellphones becoming ubiquitous). They have no one to blame except for themselves.
- npongratz 8y agoLooks like the current asking price for medallions is now considerably less than $1MM: https://nycitycab.com/Business/TaxiMedallionList.aspx https://nycitycab.com/Business/TaxiMedallionList.aspx
- tashoecraft 8y agoSo true, my girlfriend had a driver pull his emergency brake then claim his brakes "didn't work" and she had to get out, because he didn't want to drive to Brooklyn. I have 0 sympathy for yellow cabs, Uber and Lyft have raised the bar. If cabs want to compete they need to completely rethink their experience.
- dunpeal 8y agoI had so many similar issues with NYC cabbies. Off the top of my head: 1. Cabbie turning off his meter right before my stop, then quoting me a price that was x3 times the meter when I last caught glimpse of it. 2. Cabbies flat out refusing to accept credit cards. Forcing me to withdraw cash on an ATM to pay them. 3. Cabbies rudely demanding tip after being rude and inconsiderate the whole ride. There's a reason why Uber/Lyft are so popular. Yellow Cabs in NYC were never a pleasant experience, and all too often - an awful one.
- Waterluvian 8y agoCab driving is a low skill job, which is why it's so important that proper competition can exist. My first ever Uber driver had water bottles and gum and even throw pillows and a blanket in the back. He was in a suit. He was really polite and all that. Because he's looking for 5 star rankings. Dump all taxi drivers into the same market as this guy and they'll have to improve or be pushed out of business when they get too many "1 star: tried to defraud me" reviews. Maybe we need an app that lets us photograph the legally mandated ID card so we can collectively leave reviews. But even then it's too late. You're already in the cab.
- dunpeal 8y agoYeah, I think discussions like this one tend to focus on price, which is certainly one of the benefits Uber and Lyft bring to the table, but certainly not the only one. I typically travel for business, so I don't care about the price so much. Uber/Lyft are great because they provide a much better experience. I hate cabs because of all the friction: rude drivers imposing their personal preferences upon me, often illegally. The biggest improvement Uber introduced is accountability for drivers. Efficiency improved too, and reduced the price. But if you look at the comments here and in TFA, a lot of them are about service quality. Most of the worst offenses, like refusing to accept credit cards, are illegal. But the city has done a terrible job of enforcing it, so cab service has been terrible for decades. Then came Uber and Lyft and finally brought service that people love. So the city tries to take them down. Just like SF is harassing successful companies with bizarre new rules and regulations, such as banning cafeterias.
- gammateam 8y agoHow are you missing that the medallions exist and have a value at all because a former mayor and NYC council moved to cap Yellow Cabs too. This isn't exclusively a protectionist issue. It is an anti-congestion issue.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago> he’s so interested in preserving because getting one to go to Brooklyn from Manhattan is fucking impossible De Blasio is also significantly backed by the taxi industry [1]. [1] https://nypost.com/2014/05/17/taxi-industry-gave-de-blasio-over-550000-for-campaign/ https://nypost.com/2014/05/17/taxi-industry-gave-de-blasio-o...
- kevin_thibedeau 8y agoManhattan is plagued with Uber cars. They outnumber yellow cabs 5:1. At this point it is a serious public safety issue if an evacuation is ever necessary. Your problem can be addressed with incentives for more borough cabs.