TLC choice: I’ll fight profiling
Mayor de Blasio’s pick to head the city’s embattled Taxi and Limousine Commission wants to crack down on cabbies who discriminate against riders based on their race or ethnicity.
Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk, chief of staff for Deputy Mayor Laura Anglin and Hizzoner’s nominee for TLC chairwoman, said during her City Council confirmation hearing Monday that the agency should have “a zero tolerance rule” for cabbies who racially profile their fares.
“I think it would be hard for anyone to do service refusals when the head of the TLC looks like me,” said Heredia Jarmoszuk, who is of Dominican heritage. “We need to make it so that everyone understands that it’s unacceptable to deny anyone transportation in the city.”
With her confirmation all but a formality, Heredia Jarmoszuk said she’s working with the TLC’s Office of Inclusion — which was formed in 2018 — to launch an ad campaign in the “next several weeks” that encourages cab drivers to be more inclusive.
She also said an app for yellow and green cabs that functions like Uber or Lyft could help address the problem because it would keep drivers from knowing passengers’ race or destination before they’re picked up.
Civil rights advocates have for decades decried the city’s yellow cab drivers’ reputation of refusing service to black and brown people.
When de Blasio in 2015 fought to limit the number of Uber cars allowed on city streets, the e-hail company launched a campaign that argued the move was racist. The company and its surrogates said app-based rides could serve neighborhoods long ignored by conventional taxi cabs.
“For a yellow cab driver to be able to pass people based on their race is tantamount to a store owner refusing someone based on their race,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who supported Uber’s expansion in 2015. “I intend to monitor the TLC to make sure [Heredia Jarmoszuk’s] rhetoric leads to results.”
The mayor and City Council abandoned the 2015 plan to limit the expansion app-based forhire vehicles — but eventually imposed a cap in 2018 that’s kept Uber and Lyft from putting more cars on the street. The number of app-based cars registered in the city quickly grew from just over 20,000 in the summer of 2015 to more than 80,000 in the summer of 2018.
Data show the rapid growth of the apps doomed the city’s yellow cab industry.
Formal complaints of yellow and green taxi drivers refusing service to riders have dipped in recent years, from 4,684 in 2015 to 2,278 in 2018, according to city data.
Heredia Jarmoszuk said enforcement will be key to continuing that trend.
Drivers who discriminate against riders are subject to a $300 fine on first offense, and a second offense can cost them $500 plus a suspension. A third offense can lead to a license revocation and a three-year ban.
Bhairavi Desai, head of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said she supports efforts to make cabs more inclusive.
“The one thing that should not be done is pit civil rights against economic rights,” said Desai. “The TLC needs to set criteria on how to measure progress and guide that public discussion.”
Heredia Jarmoszuk’s is expected to be confirmed as TLC chairwoman at City Council’s next meeting on Feb. 11.