Blackmail in yellow: Taxi industry’s threat on disabled access
They’re calling it a “prediction,” but it’s hard to interpret what the yellow-cab industry just told City Hall as anything but a threat — if not outright blackmail.
David Beier, whose Committee for Taxi Safety represents some 20 percent of New York’s yellow-taxi medallion agents, has threatened to yank wheelchair-accessible cabs off the street unless the city bails out the beleaguered industry.
And that, he says, could shut down the entire accessible-cab program, which would endanger a federal-court settlement requiring half of all yellow cabs to be wheelchair-accessible by 2020.
Mayor de Blasio, to his credit, has been saying no dice to a bailout. He rightly insists that yellow cabs adjust to the changing market that has seen the value of medallions plummet since the rise of Uber and Lyft.
That’s a turnaround for the mayor, of course: Early on, he tried to clamp down hard on e-hail services after receiving tons of campaign cash from the yellows. But that effort was beaten back.
Medallion owners insist the accessible cabs are too costly to maintain, though officials maintain government subsidies are available to cover most of the costs.
Look, we understand — and sympathize with — the medallion owners’ plight: Many invested in pricey medallions thinking it a sure-fire cash cow. For many years it was, as their value soared beyond all expectations.
But now technological change has eroded the value of the yellow cabs’ monopoly on street hails, and medallions are going for a fraction of what they were once worth. Owners can’t make their loan payments and banks won’t even back medallion purchases.
But the city has also taken a big hit, holding some 1,600 unsellable medallions.
Ultimately, the free market has to prevail. Medallion owners should devote their efforts to figuring out how to adapt, rather than making heavy-handed threats.