Provocative Car Service Editorial Goes After Golden

Last week, the Daily News ran an editorial in favor of allowing livery cabs to pick up fares on the streets of New York’s outer boroughs.

The author makes a point of calling out Senator Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn), for not doing more to help push the bill through the Republican-controlled state senate:

The problem with the yellows’ monopoly is that they cruise virtually nowhere outside prime Manhattan territory. Many refuse to take passengers across the rivers. They pick  up only 3% of their fares in the boroughs (What- Manhattan’s no longer a borough?- J.T.) outside of the airports.

In other words, the taxi industry is trying to block New Yorkers from getting a service that the taxi industry does not provide.

A  bill to equalize cab service in the boroughs breezed through the  Assembly. But, under intense lobbying by the yellow taxi industry, it  has stalled in the GOP-run Senate.

Golden and Lanza should be  loudly demanding action on behalf of their underserved constituents. So,  we ask again: Do they care more about going to bat for New Yorkers or  about keeping the medallion owners’ monopoly intact?

In all fairness, Golden is being accused of  stalling the bill rather than actually voting against it, so let’s put that aside for now.

Is it unfair to the Medallion owners who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the right to pick up fares? Or, would the bill simply level out the playing field for under-served city residents who don’t have access to Yellow Taxis?