Livery Cab Plan May Get Red Light As Opponents Fight Legislation

INWOOD — Livery cab drivers in Upper Manhattan are up in arms at the possibility that new state legislation that would begin Monday, allowing livery cabs to be flagged down by passengers from the roadside, may be stopped in its tracks.

The Manhattan Supreme Court heard three lawsuits Thursday filed by the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which seek to halt a plan that would allow the livery cabs to pick up street hails in Upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs. The group claims the plan will cut into their bottom line. 

"The street hail livery rules are unconstitutional, irresponsible and unconscionable," said Ron Sherman, president of the trade group, in a public statement. 

“How can the City of New York sell medallions to thousands of individual owner‐drivers and small businesses, promising them the exclusive right to pick up street hails, only to take that right away in one destructive piece of legislation?”

City and state attorneys argue that the plan, which would increase the yellow cab fleet by 2,000 taxis and allow up to 18,000 new livery cabs for street hails, will not impact yellow cab drivers, as they rarely provide service in the outer boroughs and above 125th Street. 

Livery cab drivers said the plan would allow them to legally provide for the communities they serve. 

“We are hoping that once again the best interest of the people that have been serving our community for decades gets preserved and that the yellow medallion owners don’t get away with taking away the right of our drivers to serve their community,” Cira Angeles, spokeswoman for Livery Base Owners, Inc., told DNAinfo.com New York Thursday.  

Besides the meat of the plan, some argue the deal brokered between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg usurped the power of the City Council to weigh in on the issue, and sets a bad precedent for the Council moving forward. 

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio filed an amicus brief in the lawsuit against the so-called HAIL Law on Tuesday. In it, de Blasio argues that the mayor “strip[ped] the City Council of one of its charter-mandated powers and redistributes that power to the Mayor” by bypassing the City Council when he brokered the deal.  

“Nothing can justify such an intrusion,” reads the brief. 

The Supreme Court will continue hearing the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade's case on Friday.