$liding demand for boro-cab permits
They’re moving like turtles. Sales of outerborough green-taxi permits have been sluggish under the administration of Mayor de Blasio — who had fought against the popular cabs when he was public advocate.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission says just over 1,200 of the available 6,000 greencab permits have been sold this year — even though there had been a waiting list of 6,300 interested buyers as recently as August.
Industry experts say the snail’s pace can be attributed to a host of factors, including bureaucratic hurdles, increased costs and more competition from appbased services.
“Uber and Lyft have definitely affected the number of street hails that are needed in the outer boroughs,” said former TLC Chairman David Yassky. “I think drivers and traditional carservice companies are trying to figure out what the marketplace is going to look like in a year or two.”
The current sale is the second of three batches consisting of 6,000 permits each year scheduled for sale under an initiative pushed by former Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
The first 6,000 sold out by mid-November of last year.
As public advocate, de Blasio sided with the yellowcab indus try’s lawsuit challenging the initiative — even though the cabs were created to meet the needs of residents in his beloved outer boroughs and in northern Manhattan.
The industry effectively rewarded him by donating more than $500,000 to his successful 2013 campaign for mayor.
TLC spokesman Allan Fromberg said de Blasio’s concerns, which focused mostly on process and outreach, have since been ad dressed — which is why the second batch of permits was released.
He said sales aren’t comparable to the first round because the new pool of buyers consists of fewer industry drivers and because the cost of permits has doubled to as much as $3,000.
Fromberg added that new wheelchairaccessibility mandates that only applied to the second batch made sales more challenging, but that the biggest hurdle has already been surpassed.
“Demand is high now that we’ve reached the wheelchairaccessible milestone and now are moving into the issuance of standard permits,” he told The Post. “We are on track and we’re moving quickly.”
Yellowcab operators disputed the rosy assessment, however. They’re calling on the TLC to help even the playing field between appbased services and the moreregulated yellow and green taxi fleets.
“Without a regulatory framework, the borough program will die on the vine,” said Ethan Gerber, executive director of the Greater New York Taxi Association.