Note the irony. Tariq Mehmood, who proclaims himself to be the "powerful and great leader of the drivers" siding with Yellow Cab in trying to remove Deputy Director Christiane Hayashi.
Of course Yellow, Luxor, Town and Checker, not the drivers, would be the major winners of a successful Hayashi coupé.
There are several reasons for this.
- These cab companies coerce their drivers to tip and Hayashi has made this practice a $5,000 misdemeanor. She recently started busting limos. Enforced tipping and other illegal company activities are also on her hit list.
- The recent meter increase did not include a gate increase. The companies, especially Luxor, blame Hayashi who drafted the legislation.
- Hayashi helped create and has promoted Open Taxi Access (OTA) which Luxor and Yellow hate.
- Yellow and Luxor want 500 taxis to go to them - now. Hayashi doesn't want to put cabs out without public hearings.
- John Lazar of Luxor wants himself and his two sons to be given medallions without following the rules. Hayashi thinks medallions should only be given to working cab drivers.
So, why is Tariq Mehmood, "the driver's advocate," lining himself up with guys like these?
Well, fact is - he's done it before. Awhile back, when Yellow Cab was trying to force their drivers to pay $2,000 or $3,000 in gates a month in advance, Tariq attacked the UTW which was fighting to stop the pre-payments. Mehmood later backed legislation at the Board of Supervisors raising gates and ratifying gate overcharges. This did Yellow a tremendous service.
Why he did this? I can't say.
The real reason Tariq Mehmood wants rid of Christiane Hayashi is, as everybody in the cab industry is supposed to know, that she refused to hire his banker friends to be the lenders in the experimental and highly controversial Medallion Sales Program. She did this because Mehmood’s banker buddies wanted to charge exorbitant early payment fees to drivers who took their loans. Obviously that would not be in the drivers’ interests, so Hayashi acted quite correctly.
ReplyDeleteBefore Hayashi put this obstacle in the way of Mehmood’s friend’s interests, Mehmood had no objection to her. Once it was clear his buddies would not get the business, he began to object to everything she every said, down to the minutest detail, in behavior that would shame any civilized person.
So a crucial part of Mehmood’s campaign has been in the interest of promoting the Medallion Sales Program, according to his desires. Since, as persons with capital, the cab companies are generally in favor of medallion sales, they, and their henchmen such as Malcolm Heinecke, stand to benefit from any factor that will promote the policy of selling medallions. Since the MTA itself is in gross conflict of interest as both the regulator of the cab industry and the chief beneficiary of the Medallion Sales program, they would like to have the cooperation of Mehmood.
Mehmood is the corrupt de facto agent of corrupt politicians and corrupt businessmen in both finance and the cab industry. He uses terrorist methods in both his personal and his organizational activities. Any concession to him is only going to be a model to him and others like him who want to have their way without true democratic process. Cave in to a terrorist once and you will have to cave in again, and again, and again.
Christiane Hayashi is the best thing that has ever happened to the cab industry in San Francisco in my 21 years in the industry here. She AND HER DIVISION should be promoted. She should be a Director, not a Deputy.
I wondered if my memory was playing tricks on me cuz it seemed to me that Tariq was obviously Yellow's spokesman back at the Taxi comm.
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the head about Yellow and Luxor.
They used to rule the roost with Ofcr. Susslow doing their bidding at every opportunity. Before the Commision exsisted he was trying to put rules in place so cars would be more expensive. Yellow only buys brand new you see.
Chris Hayashi does not do the natural inclination kowtow to them and bless her for that.
A reply not intended to be public to S. Bose shows where Chris' head is. Bose wanted to know why MTA was not getting any part advertising money going to companies. her reply was soemthing to the effect of "just because the city gives a building permit does not mean the city is supposed to get part of the profit of the co. occupying the bldg."
I wondered if my memory was playing tricks on me cuz it seemed to me that Tariq was obviously Yellow's spokesman back at the Taxi comm. You hit the nail on the head about Yellow and Luxor. They used to rule the roost with Ofcr. Susslow doing their bidding at every opportunity. Before the Commision exsisted he was trying to put rules in place so cars would be more expensive. Yellow only buys brand new you see. Chris Hayashi does not do the natural inclination kowtow to them and bless her for that.
ReplyDelete