Fear of catching the coronavirus has some cabbies and ride-share drivers discriminating against customers.
“I feel bad about it, but when I see Chinese passengers, I just go,” one cab driver — who asked that his name be withheld, lest his hack license get suspended — told The Post. “I don’t pick up anyone Chinese. I’m scared. I don’t want to get the disease.”
Continue readingFrom the outside, Manny Anzalota’s yellow cab looks just like all the others cruising around New York City, but for Anzalota, the experience has been anything but ordinary. Each ride is a surprise adventure. Since he began driving a taxi in 2007, his customers have run the gamut from mediterranean royalty to billionaires and Hollywood celebrities.
Anzalota’s numerous encounters with the rich and famous and his signature black fedora have earned him a reputation as the unofficial cabbie to the stars. Known as “Mr. Ferrarii,” a nickname given to him by actor Tom Hanks—whom he drove in 2013 and is still in touch with—Anzalota has turned himself into a bit of a social media personality, posting selfies and videos with the likes of Anderson Cooper, Drew Barrymore, Frances Turner and even Prince Pavlos of Greece and his wife, Princess Marie-Chantal. Entrepreneur and investor Michael Loeb, whom Anzalota has coincidentally driven twice, invited him to his famous Halloween extravaganza at his Upper East Side residence and also gave him a private tour of his home. His trip with British hedge fund billionaire Michael Platt recently went viral.
Continue readingA decade ago the federal government stepped in to bail out the nation’s biggest banks. Now it may be time to for New York City to bail out its cabbies.
A New York City Council commission released a report Friday recommending a publicly managed fund to bail out thousands of taxi drivers struggling to pay back six-figure and even seven-figure loans they took out to buy the official city taxi medallions that allow them to legally operate a cab in the five boroughs of New York.
Continue readingFederal prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible lending fraud in New York City’s troubled yellow taxi industry.
The New York Times reports the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan is investigating the lending practices that led thousands of cab drivers to take out high-risk loans that left them buried in debt.
Drivers who took out large loans to buy the medallions that allow a person to operate a yellow taxi were crushed by debt when the value of a medallion plunged from more than $1 million in 2014 to less than $200,000 today.
Continue readingWith thousands of struggling New York City yellow cab drivers like Mouhamadou Aliyu desperate for a bailout, elected officials on Thursday quarreled over who should pay for it.
Aliyu, 47, emigrated from the Ivory Coast to New York in 1994 in hope of a better life. Now, thanks to plummeting yellow cab medallion values and predatory lending practices, he’s $700,000 in debt and often considers killing himself.
“I’m under water. I can barely survive,” said Aliyu, who bought a taxi medallion for $370,000 in 2004. “We are asking for relief because we really have nothing to do with all this suffering, but we’re the ones who are paying the price.”
Continue readingThis commute comes with a (potential) cash payout.
Ben Bailey’s “Cash Cab” is set to begin filming in Manhattan again this summer, this time under a new network.
The taxi cab game show has been acquired by Bravo, after airing two revived seasons on Discovery, the network confirmed. The 11th season was its last on Discovery.
Continue readingAnthony J. Medina, who was charged with pretending to be a city law enforcement official to intimidate yellow cabdrivers, was arrested after an investigation in The New York Times.
In the rough-and-tumble New York City taxi industry, Anthony J. Medina was an enforcer.
For years, Mr. Medina was the go-to debt collector for banks that lent money to drivers seeking to buy a permit to own a cab. If a driver fell behind on payments, it was Mr. Medina’s job to ensure the driver paid up. Sometimes, he temporarily seized the car. Other times, he confronted people on the street. Occasionally, drivers said, he flashed a gun.
Continue readingFederal prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible lending fraud in New York City’s troubled yellow taxi industry. The New York Times reports the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan is investigating the lending practices that led thousands of cab drivers to take out high-risk loans that left them buried in debt. …
With thousands of struggling New York City yellow cab drivers like Mouhamadou Aliyu desperate for a bailout, elected officials on Thursday quarreled over who should pay for it. Aliyu, 47, emigrated from the Ivory Coast to New York in 1994 in hope of a better life. Now, thanks to plummeting …
This commute comes with a (potential) cash payout. Ben Bailey’s “Cash Cab” is set to begin filming in Manhattan again this summer, this time under a new network. The taxi cab game show has been acquired by Bravo, after airing two revived seasons on Discovery, the network confirmed. The 11th …
Anthony J. Medina, who was charged with pretending to be a city law enforcement official to intimidate yellow cabdrivers, was arrested after an investigation in The New York Times. In the rough-and-tumble New York City taxi industry, Anthony J. Medina was an enforcer. For years, Mr. Medina was the go-to …
Every working cab driver should get involved to use this website to share; Here is one to start the discussion; It’s time to get rid of the taxi TV from yellow and green cabs, and these TV should be installed with the partition in every UBER car!
Patience is not lost on Ali Abubakar among the hustle of a New York rush hour. A yellow-cab driver from the South Bronx, Abubakar, 43, was one of 493 professional drivers the city honored Wednesday for their sterling driving record. Abubakar completed 10,830 trips between 2016 and 2018 without a …
