New York, NY – A judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to expand taxi service to New York City’s outer boroughs.
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Judge Arthur Engoron issued the order Friday barring the Taxi and Limousine Commission from proceeding with the plan. The proposal called for the city to sell 18,000 of a new kind of permit that lets livery cabs pick up passengers who hail them in upper Manhattan and the four other boroughs.
The plan also authorized the city to sell 2,000 new medallions.
Cabbies say their costly taxi medallions would be worthless if they lost exclusive rights to street hails. Bloomberg pushed the law through the state legislature after negotiations stalled in city council.
Medallion owners and taxi lenders filed three separate lawsuits alleging the law was unconstitutional.
While I understand that the taxi industry wants to continue its monopoly on street hails and maximize the value of their medallions, their position is clearly not in the public interest. Since the number of medallions hasn’t increased since prior to WWII, it would make much more sense to issue more than 2000 to allow more yellow cabs to operate in places other than Manhattan and the airports. No one promised someone who invested in a medallion any guaranteed return. The profit (or loss) should be a function of free market operations, and not the actions of a tacit cartel supported by elected officials whose campaign warchests are always filled by the taxi industry.
As with affirmative action, let the medallion cabs spend 20% of their time in the outer boroughs, as measured by their GPS systems.
If they want to keep the exclusive right to street hails they should start visiting those other places. It’s not like they’re going to lose any business. You NEVER see yellows in upper manhattan or upper queens, there the liverys have been picking people up for years anyhow off the street, so it’s just the government accepting what already happens.
Meanwhile the red headed step children of the mayor have less and less ways of getting to Manhattan.
It’s just a TRO until the case is resolved. There’s obviously no real legal objection.