Taxi medallions — a better investment than gold or a house over the past 30 years — reached a new milestone this week. As Michael Grynbaum reported yesterday, two medallions sold for $1 million. With so few medallion-owners willing to sell, corporate buyers jump at the chance to get their hands on this precious commodity. “It’s a lot of money, and it is an investment that someone would not make without being confident in the industry and the future of the city,” David S. Yassky, head of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, said.
While the $1 million mark provides a nice round number and a bit of news for the transit media, the sale underscores the absurdity of the taxi industry. By artificially limiting the number of medallions available, the City of New York has ensured that only potential buyers with deep pockets can buy medallions, and the city has ensured that cabs will operate in profitable areas without providing comprehensive service. No wonder the rich medallion owners have mobilized to beat back the taxi reform bill currently awaiting Gov. Cuomo’s signature.
Even if and when Albany hammers out a compromise on the plan to allow livery street hails outside of Manhattan’s Central Business District, with proper enforcement the medallion owners will not see their investments decline. Yellow cabs — the only cars permitted to pick up street hails in the lucrative areas — will continue to dominate the business while the rest of us who need taxis but can’t find them will have more options available for travel. Albany is beholden to the $1 million medallion owners when it’s the riders whose needs should come first.
4 comments
No wonder why Occupy Wall Street started. Government represents corporations and the wealthy, and no longer represents the interests of the people. Even here, we can’t get a legalized non CBD taxi fleet up and running even though that fleet would serve areas not currently served by the yellow cabs!
+1
This is exactly the sort of stuff that is resulting in these protests. Cuomo isn’t signing that bill, nor the Lockbox. I’m sure “job creators” will be used at some point by him.
Then again, I’ve yet to walk by OWS at Zucotti Park and see a “Deregulate Now” sign, so I’m not sure the message is quite right.
Such a complex issue, government does need to serve the people not the corporations
At the sametime, there’s a cash flow feeding the corporations and thus jobs and money, versus lack thereof on the side of the people
So, should gov’t serve to corporations and maximize efficientuse of resources by supporting corp’s that create the most value, or serve the lower cost options that provide benefit to some but may not optimize the allocation of resources across society?