TLC chief chased from vigil
Protesters spew ire at latest driver suicide
A vigil for an Uber driver who committed suicide turned into a tense shouting match — after the city’s Taxi and Limousine commissioner made a surprise appearance Sunday afternoon.
Taxi drivers and protesters shouted “How many more?! How many more?!” and “Get out of here!” at TLC head Meera Joshi, mobbing her at the 175th Ave. A train station in Washington Heights Sunday.
Joshi was hoping to pay her respects to Fausto Luna, 58, who, facing crushing debt, jumped in front of an A train Sept. 26. He’s the seventh livery driver — and the first app driver — in the city to commit suicide since November.
“It’s convenient to blame a person, and I understand. And if I need to be the subject of people’s anger, that’s fine, I can take it, it doesn’t bother me,” Joshi said. “But I don’t know that it really addresses the fundamental underpinnings of the situation that drivers are finding themselves in.”
She said she hasn’t spoken to Luna’s family, and wanted to meet them at the vigil, but they didn’t attend.
“I honor a family’s privacy in moments like this and I will reach out if it seems like the appropriate thing to do,” she said.
Joshi made a quick retreat as the crowd — which included a man in a yellow “Meera…You’re Fired!” Tshirt, and demonstrators carrying signs saying “TLC Meera Joshi responsible for six suicides,” likely printed before Luna’s death — followed her to the subway stop, shouting and chanting.
Livery car advocates say the city’s draconian rules regarding cabs and the increasing popularity of services like Uber and Lyft have left scores of cab drivers drowning in debt.
One driver, Osvaldo Guzman, interrupted TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg as he spoke to reporters, telling him he was hit with a $1,500 ticket. When Fromberg shot back, “And what did you do for that ticket? What did you do?” the 53-year-old driver said he was caught in a “TLC trap” and told Fromberg, “You have been doing nothing!”
Fromberg stood between the protesters and Joshi as she headed down the subway stairs, pointing his finger and saying, “You’re doing this for politics.”
He said Joshi had hoped to describe the mental health services available to drivers, and later told the Daily News that a group with a “very political” agenda showed up and “hijacked the vigil with some of the most hateful and divisive language I’ve ever heard.”
Bhairavi Desai, the founding member of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said about 80% of medallion drivers face debt.
“All the while you have companies that are earning, that are valuated over $100 billion, but the drivers are living in utter poverty, and there’s been a real growing sense of despair,” Desai said. “But we also want drivers to know that change is coming and that help is available. And we want people to keep fighting.”
In August, the mayor signed a 12-month cap on new licenses for ride-sharing companies like Uber.
Guzman said he knew Luna personally.
“He just looked sick. He looked down. We tried to give him word, a strong word (that) this is going to get better,” Guzman said.”
“The TLC, they’re setting us up to fail,” he added. “And we go to the office, they’re the judge, they are the prosecutor, and they are the lawyers. We don’t have no way to fight this. That’s why so many drivers are committing suicide.”