BID TO EASE HACK BIAS FINES
Pol says cut penalties for cabbies who bypass minority passengers
It took crippling competition from Uber and Lyft to force yellow taxi drivers to finally start doing the right thing — driving to outer boroughs regardless of passengers’ race or destination.
But a bill before the City Council could undo that progress and reward racist cabbies who turn away riders and refuse to go to certain neighborhoods.
Instead of keeping the proven pressure on, the new legislation would cut in half fines that have been in place for more than 25 years.
Lawmakers say they are trying to reduce the financial burden on cabbies amid drastic industry changes that have driven some to suicide.
Even so, there is a lack of sympathy for their plight among riders who have been the historic victims of discrimination. Some of those New Yorkers note the irony of the catalyst that has fueled the compliance.
“It’s like their motivation is, ‘I’m going to stop being racist only because it’s costing me money,’ ” said Travon Free, an African-American comedy writer who has filed several complaints against cabbies who refused to pick him up.
Free, who won an Emmy last year for his work on “The Daily Show,” said he was holding the award in one hand and hailing a cab with the other, when a hack refused to pick him up in favor of a white woman standing 10 feet behind him.
“If I reported every cab that passed me up I’d be reporting a cab a day,” Free said.
But as Uber and other app-based companies have grown, the number of service refusal complaints filed against yellow cab drivers has been going down.
According to the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission, which regulates the industry, the agency received 1,834 taxi service refusal complaints from the public in 2017, down from 3,134 in 2016.
In 2015, the TLC received 4,684 service refusal complaints from the public.
But Free and other riders were baffled over proposed legislation that would lower mandatory penalties for taxi drivers who refuse to pick up certain passengers, or turn down requests to take passengers to a specific destination.
The bill, introduced by City Councilmen Ruben Diaz Sr. and Fernando Cabrera, would lower penalties for a
first-time service refusal from a minimum of $200 to $100, and from a maximum of $500 to $200.
The second violation would be lowered from $350 to $200, with a maximum of $400, down from $1,000.
For a third violation, it would be a maximum of $400 and revocation of your license, instead of $1,000 and revocation.
“You should be raising the fine,” Free said. “Why do you want to incentivize discrimination. That’s insane.”
Cabrera (D-Bronx) said the legislation is part of a larger package of reforms aimed at reducing the financial burden of struggling cab drivers.
“The intent . . . is to preserve the livelihoods and lives of our drivers who are vital to the transportation structure and culture of New York City,” Cabrera said in a statement.
“I want to achieve this goal while ensuring that the penalties against drivers for racial or other discrimination are high enough to discourage and ultimately end this practice,” he added.
The bill, still in its early stages, has yet to reach the full Council.
Cabrera, in his statement, made reference to Abdul Saleh, 59, a yellow cab driver who committed suicide last month in his Brooklyn apartment.
According to the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, the union that represents the city’s taxi drivers, Saleh was working 12-hour shifts and struggling financially, and couldn’t pay his rent.
His death was the sixth suicide among for-hire drivers in recent months, including cabbie Yu Mein Chow, 56, whose body was found in East River in May. He had taken out a loan in 2011 to buy a $700,000 taxi medallion, which is now worth less than $200,000 because of competition from app-based ride services.
“Historically, they (medallions) were worth a lot of money,” said Fernando Mateo, founder of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers. “They were the best investment you could make; it was better than buying a home.”
Mateo said the city and the TLC should offer bailouts to struggling cabbies to make up for auctioning off medallions at ridiculous prices before allowing the market to become flooded with e-hail car services.
Compliance with the laws that prohibit service refusals was a welcome, though unintended consequence, but it comes at too high a price, Mateo said.
“They’re not in the same position that they were seven or eight years ago when there were an abundance of rides in New York City,” Mateo said.
“They are a lot more flexible with where they go now because of the competition.”
Bernardo Celerino, 62, who has owned a medallion for 30 years, said that neither he nor the drivers who have leased his medallion over the decades ever discriminated against passengers. He said sometimes drivers refuse a fare or a destination because a shift is ending and another driver is waiting for the car.
“The TLC does not consider that kind of situation,” Celerino said.
TLC Commissioner Meera Joshi said the agency is all for helping struggling drivers, but not if it means rewarding discrimination.
“We know from painful experience that destination refusals are often a proxy for discriminating against passengers based on race and ethnicity,” said Joshi. “Unfortunately, and even at the current penalty levels, we still get these complaints.”
The NACCP Legal Defense Fund has also come out against the bill.
“Those fines have proven inadequate to deter the widespread and persistent problem in this city of trying of trying to hail a cab while black,” Kristen Johnson, a fellow at the Legal Defense Fund, said during a hearing last month on the bill,
“At a time when this country is becoming increasingly aware of the racial divide that persists in accessing public accommodations, it is imperative for New York City to make a commitment to fair and equal access for all, and to not pit hardworking taxi drivers against black commuters with divisive legislation.”
Celerino acknowledged that some drivers refused destinations outside of Manhattan because they couldn’t get fares on the way back.
“I remember those days,” Celerino said. “Those days are over. People need to make money. Today, the driver does not refuse a trip.”