Taxi medallion owners did this to themselves. They kept refinancing their medallions which were going up in value to take out money to spend on homes, education, more medallions, and on good times. It all came tumbling down when Uber and Lyft and smartphone apps came along to offer viable competion. Riders, tired of rude drivers and smelly disgusting cabs, switched from yellows to Uber and Lyft and the value of medallions plunged as did their share of the business.
Most medallions are owned by business people who rent them out to drivers. Some medallions are driven by owner/drivers but they are a minority and they were doing the same thing.
In the end, when medallion owners walk away from their medallions which were the collateral for their loans, the big losers will be the medallion owners and the finance companies, some of which have already gone under, like Melrose and LOMTO.
You have a need to blame someone? Blame smartphone apps, Uber and Lyft though they did not do anything wrong. They presented a more attractive alternative to the riding public.
Time marches on. When's the last time you hailed a horse and buggy?
2
There's no way to get around the fact that a lack of affordable housing is fueling the homelessness population, which shows no signs of declining.
While stories of violence among this group always starts the conversation, the fact still remains that not ALL homeless people are dangerous, drug-addicted or mentally disturbed.
Building more shelters isn't the answer, and finding a neighborhood to place them is an even harder task.
Not only that, but even the Bowery isn't what it used to be, with its creeping gentrification squeezing out the last outposts where the destitute can go.
A sad and tragic state of affairs.
4
When I was a kid, the men living in cardboard boxes on the Bowery were some of the same fellows who got there when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. Alone, broke, demoralized, they'd been homeless for 30 years.
What we see in large part today are the rampaging, bipolar homeless. It's glaringly obvious that they are not the same homeless men of my childhood.
Our new problem began when the ACLU (with glad help from the money-grubbing GOP) deinstitutionalized completely dysfunctional and even violent (and murderous) patients and closed up Creedmore and Willowbrook. Those places were not ideal -- an understatement, mind you -- but we New Yorkers were not being harassed and menaced on our streets and in our subways the way we are today.
By rehabilitating tens of thousands of empty NYCHA apartments, we can house our homeless population.
But aggressive, violent men -- usually but not exclusively men -- need to be found, kept in secure facilities, and medicated.
Against their will if necessary.
It's easy to find them.
Releasing them again and again is a type of collective insanity.
8
If you want to reduce the number of taxis (and other vehicles) on the streets in New York City, I suggest bringing back the day pass for the busses and subway that the MTA used to sell.
I forget how much it cost but I think it was a little more than the cost of two rides and I believe it was called the Fun Pass. I used it often. This would be great for tourists and others who want to make a day of it riding around New York City.
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