Posted on 01/03/2007 10:26:53 PM PST by Man50D
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport officials say too many cabdrivers are refusing to carry airport travelers, apparently due to religious beliefs.
So during a Wednesday meeting of the Metropolitan Airports Commission's management and operations committee, officials suggested a heavy-fisted solution — drivers who refused such fares would have their airport licenses suspended.
Airport director Steve Wareham asked the committee to suggest to the full commission that they slate public hearings on whether to revise its taxi ordinance. The revision would suspend the airport license of any cabdriver refusing a passenger who is not life-threatening or intoxicated. Suspension would last 30 days on the first offense, and two years for each offense after that.
The committee unanimously approved the request for public hearings. The next meeting of the full commission is at 1 p.m. Jan 16 in the Commission's chambers at the Lindbergh Terminal.
About three-quarters of the airport's taxis are driven by Somalis, said airport spokesman Patrick Hogan; such drivers are commonly Muslim, and many believe their religion strictly forbids the transport of alcohol or dogs.
Hogan said that one year ago, 77 people a month were refused transport due to alcohol, and others were refused because they only had to go short distances. He added that about a half-dozen people a year were refused transport because they had animals traveling with them, including service animals such as guide dogs.
Hogan said that since September, when the government placed restrictions on liquids carried aboard airplanes, the number has dropped (to what, he was not certain), but it was "still a problem."
No members of the taxi industry were present during Wednesday's committee meeting.
A formal discussion between airport officials and those in the taxi industry began last summer but have yet to produce results. In October, airport officials were firming up plans to allow Muslim taxi drivers to alert potential fares of their beliefs with a different-colored light atop their cabs. But following a barrage of negative public feedback, they scrapped the idea.
A memo from Wareham and assistant airport director Arlie Johnson to the committee stressed a need to set a deadline for discussions "to provide eventual closure to this process."
Hogan said airport officials hope to have a new ordinance in place before May 11, when cab drivers must decide whether to renew their airport licenses.
That's what WAS happening, and the Muslims complained, so the Authority tried to negotiate with them and negotiations went nowhere. That's why they've reached this situation now.
The Muslim cabbies want to have their cake and eat it too.
I'm not a big fan of government-engineered scarcity, which is basically the purpose of NYC taxi licensure. Absent deliberately-engineered scarcity, many problems would disappear and controversial issues become moot.
Do you think there would really be a shortage of drivers willing to carry blacks, even if the only penalty imposed upon drivers who refused was to lose their turn in line?
I don't know much about the economics of airport cabs, but I suspect the cost to a cabbie who forfeited his turn in line would exceed the hassle imposed on the passenger who then had to wait an extra five seconds to take the next cab.
At the civil rights museum in Memphis, there's an exhibit that talks about how a city used minimum-fare rules to prevent black-operated cabs from undercutting the fares charged by white-operated ones. Interesting that people have lost sight of what minimum-price laws do.
I would suggest that free markets are far better than forced-association laws in combatting racism and discrimination. To be sure, sometimes higher levels of government need to act to protect markets that may be attacked by lower levels, and even when unfettered free markets won't end discrimination overnight, but they will tend asymptotically toward a playing field that's more fair and balanced than anything the government can produce by fiat.
Way to go, GOP.
Good. And expel them from the USA too.
Something’s wrong with a mind that cheers 9/11, dreams about chopping Christian and Jewish heads, and won’t let a dog into a taxi or a passenger carrying alcohol.
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