for The New York Times: New York to Spend $65 Million to Rescue Cab Drivers. Is It Enough? by José A. Alvarado Jr.

News

for The New York Times: New York to Spend $65 Million to Rescue Cab Drivers. Is It Enough?

josé a. alvarado jr.

Mar 16, 2021

Location: brooklyn bridge

For years, a generation of New York City taxi drivers who wanted to own their own cabs were channeled into exploitative loans that left them deeply in debt, or even bankrupted. The city, which reaped hundreds of millions of dollars from the practice, ignored their plight.

On Tuesday, for the first time, the city announced a concrete plan to aid the drivers, who have been battered even more by the pandemic.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to spend $65 million of the money that the city expects to receive from the federal stimulus package to help restructure the loans that drivers obtained to buy medallions, the city permits that let them own their own cabs.

The plan was not the full bailout that taxi drivers had wanted. It would still leave them in debt, with large monthly payments. But if successful, the program could eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars owed by drivers who fell victim to abusive lending practices and then were further devastated by the emergence of ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft and a big dip in passengers during the coronavirus outbreak.

Photographed for The New York Times, with words by Brian M. Rosenthal.

New York to Spend $65 Million to Rescue Cab Drivers. Is It Enough?
The city will use part of the money it expects to receive in the federal stimulus package to aid drivers who fell victim to exploitative loans.

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José A. Alvarado Jr.

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