New York’s iconic yellow cabs They are suffocated by debt and unfair competition from Uber and other rental platforms, and after the suicide of nine colleagues in recent years they have launched a protest, including hunger strikes, to force the city to reduce its financial burdens.
Eight days ago, drivers of these taxis, as linked to the image of New York as the Statue of Liberty, took the extreme step of not eating and sleeping in their vehicles, a few meters from City Hall, waiting for them to Mayor Bill de Blasio Accepts Your Proposal to Reduce Debt, which for some may be more than $ 700,000 for their taxi license.
There they have erected an altar with nine candles and flowers and the names of as many colleagues have died since 2017, desperate for not being able to pay their debts. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to increase the number of “medallions” – as these licenses are known by their appearance -, which until then had cost between $ 110,000 and $ 140,000, and called several “ad hoc” auctions, in which the price was inflated. license price creating a bubble.
Bloomberg said it was like “buying a piece of the Big Apple”, which for taxi drivers, a sector dominated by foreigners – and of them, 40% are Asian- represented “the opportunity to live the American dream”, Víctor Salazar, an Ecuadorian with three decades at the wheel and a debt of $ 300,000, told Efe.
And as the debt for the “medallion” rose, the entry of Uber, Lyft and other car rental platforms over the past decade made things more difficultThey flooded the streets with their new permits, reduced the earnings of the “classic” drivers and devalued the value of the “medallions”.
When the pandemic arrives, Víctor Salazar could not continue paying his “medallion” – his debt was about $ 2,000 a month, not counting gas and car insurance – and he lost it. There are many other cases like Salazar’s. Quadratullah Saberry, an Afghan, has been driving for three decades and still owes $ 300,000 in his 70s, so he went on a hunger strike. “I have high blood pressure and diabetes, and if I don’t eat regularly I probably collapse, but I take the risk. Nine drivers have died,” he says.
The media congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio Cortez has echoed her case, recalling that More than two years ago there was a warning about predatory loans to taxi drivers: “They are drowning in debt. And sadly, some have ended their lives. They need a ransom NOW,” he said on Twitter.
The taxi drivers have proposed that the city, to which the Taxis and Limousine Commission that regulates the sector belongs, be the guarantor of the loans, which would be restructured to a principal amount of no more than $ 145,000, with monthly payments of 800 dollars.
The proposal has the backing of the New York delegation in Congress, among them the Democratic leader in the federal Senate Chuck Schumer, who along with Ocasio Cortez has sent a letter to De Blasio asking for the support of the city for the workers behind the wheel.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
