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One wonders whether the customers are going to make the decisions on the medallion cabs. The history of drivers conduct, plus emergence of lyft and Uber; what happens when the market is still not in the medallions' favor? Will they come back to the Council for more relief?
I'm not mad that they mortgaged the car. I recognize that The Medallion system was a bad idea when it was introduced decades ago. And now it's become the Nexus for a huge fraud. Since the introduction of the rideshare services, the current system has been exposed and the market collapsed. It's now obvious that The Medallion system has to go, and be replaced with something that just works better for everyone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SeventhFloor
So basically people are mad that they mortgaged a car
New York City taxi drivers commenced a hunger strike Wednesday, aiming to bring awareness to their plight and attempt to secure better debt relief terms from the de Blasio Administration.
Cabbies have been protesting outside City Hall every day for the past month and have taken other actions, such as blocking the Brooklyn Bridge, to demonstrate their distaste with de Blasio’s $65 million relief plan, which they say will keep many still in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.
“The city thinks it can ignore us, but they’re wrong. For thousands of drivers across New York, this is a matter of life and death,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance union, in a Tuesday statement. “We will not sit back and let the city consign us to a lifetime of poverty and death in a debt trap.”
The city’s iconic yellow cabs have been on the decline in recent years as rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft have taken over New York’s car-hailing industry. The brunt has been felt not by the city so much as by the drivers, who have to buy a medallion for the right to drive a yellow cab. At their peak, medallions were trading for up to $1 million apiece, but the market crashed as apps took over, and medallions now routinely sell for less than $100,000.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), along with Astoria Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, embarked on an indefinite hunger strike to pressure Mayor Bill de Blasio to put more money toward relief for taxi drivers saddled with hundreds of thousands in medallion debt.
The medallion system was created as a way of regulating the number of taxi cabs on the streets of New York City. The city sells permits and constrains the supply of taxi cabs. Before unregulated companies like Uber and Lyft took over the market, medallions used to be sold for more than $1 million. According to NPR, now the permits go for around $160,000.
NYTWA proposed a debt forgiveness plan that would slowly write off loans of $125,000 over no more than 20 years with a monthly mortgage of $750 or a maximum of 4% interest. If after 90 days of loan delinquency, the city can repossess the medallion and submit it for public auction.
NYC taxi workers celebrate after medallion debt relief agreement reached; hunger strike over
Taxi workers have finally brokered a debt relief agreement with New York City and a private asset management company after more than a month of protests calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to do more to help thousands of drivers struggling with medallion debt.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance reached a deal on Wednesday with Marblegate Asset Management, who control a large number of the city’s medallions, to “supplement” the city’s existing taxi medallion relief program.
I never supported the medallion system, but the city did give a guarantee to cab drivers/companies that they would have a monopoly if they purchased a medallion. The city violated this contract, and the medallion owners do deserve to be compensated. The entire value of a medallion was based on a city-guaranteed monopoly on this business.
The recent ride share regulation is another medallion lottery. Anybody who got approved to work for ride share in NYC basically has another medallion since the city does not accept any new applications. They screwed up the cost structure of medallions.
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