Posted on 06/18/2004 5:01:18 PM PDT by visagoth
BOSTON (AP) Boston taxi drivers are angry over a city proposal that they accept vouchers from delegates to the Democratic National Convention instead of using their meters for rides to and from Logan International Airport.
The city first offered vouchers worth $8, then raised the amount to $10, taxi drivers said.
''If you take one person to town, it's usually about $30, and I'm going to take one person for $10?'' said 45-year-old Jean Abrahm, a cabbie for 16 years. ''And I have to pay the toll, too? With gas now up, this is just a rip-off.''
The vouchers, combined with convention traffic and road closings, could mean they would lose money going to and from the airport, the drivers said.
Cab drivers and city officials are expected to meet at noon Friday at police headquarters to discuss the proposal, but the drivers already are raising the possibility of taking the week off during the convention, scheduled for July 26 to 29 at the FleetCenter.
''If the city won't go up to at least $45 to take three passengers, we'll go on strike,'' said Balwinder Gill, 37, a 10-year veteran driver from Everett. ''We're just not going to take it. We're going to lose money.''
The voucher proposal is not final, but Carol Brennan, director of external affairs for the Massachusetts Port Authority, said representatives of Massport, the police department's Hackney Unit, and the convention host committee are discussing ways taxi drivers can get a share of the business in transporting the 5,000 convention delegates.
She said conventions historically have moved the business to private contractors. City officials have the taxi industry's ''best interests at heart,'' Brennan said, in proposing the vouchers.
Karen Grant, a spokeswoman for Boston 2004, the host committee, said convention organizers are also looking at using the airport's existing shuttle system or hiring a private carrier to ferry delegates between Logan and downtown Boston.
Cab drivers said the city's proposal includes some incentives, such as allowing drivers who accept vouchers to move to the front of the airport taxi pool line and waiving the $1.75 Massport fee paid whenever a cab takes a fare into the city. Drivers would still pay the $4.50 commercial toll, however.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Can I borrow this set of Earrings? Oh I am so sorry they got stolen. I shouldn't have to pay for them because I am special!
I'm sorry to say that he never returned....
Beastly business, everyone from the cops to the crooks to the con men to the union to the passengers to the TLC out to get you.
Unreal
As Tip O'Neill used to say: "all democratic politics is loco".
You're not too young to understand it. ;)
I wonder what Travis Bickle had to say about this?
Beastly business, everyone from the cops to the crooks to the con men to the union to the passengers to the TLC out to get you.
Unreal
I'm sort of a pacifist, but in my thoughts that is an argument for guns.
Wow! Dems want vouchers for taxi drivers but not for inner-city minority children and private schools!
Take NOTE as to who is trying to SCREW you....it's NOT the Republicans and NEVER has been!!! You have ALL been taken for fools and easy marks!!! SUCKERS!
And Ted Kennedy has the people of Mass. best interests at heart with a belly full of scotch.
43% of the delegates will be traveling on AFL-CIO expense accounts. The AFL-CIO owns the Boston city council and is looking for ways to pass their expenses on to the taxpayers. Next will be hotel and restaurant and hooker vouchers.
BINGO!! You win the prize for the best question!!
The conventions are so people in the city MAKE money!!
The Dems want to pay the taxi drivers $10.00 and out of that the drivers have to pay a $4.50 toll!!! YIKES!! Talk about getting screwed!
I agree. I too took the T from the airport to a hotel near Hynes Center (I was paying my own way). It was really inexpensive.
This is a "Traveschamockery"!
When I was six or seven, I was listening to the song with my older brother. I still remember his question: "If Charley's wife can hand him a sandwich through the window, why couldn't she just give him money instead?"
Did you read the story a few days ago where Boston subway riders are now subject to random, warrantless searches of their person and property, apparently without probable cause or reasonable suspicion.
I didn't read all the posts and someone may have beat me to it, but why don't we take up a collection to hire cabbies to drive the rats to the middle of nowhere and dump their sorry a$$es?
yeah---"he will ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston----he's the man who never returned"
Tagline check ...
sounds like there are going to be a lot of people at the airport looking for rides ...
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