The part of me that sees cabs sailing by because I'm clutching a full Trader Joe's bag while the tourists get instant pickups is weeping with sadness. No, really.

It is unfortunate that the city is furthur squeezing its workers rather than looking for new sources of revenue such as keeping nightlife open later at night. 98 per cent of the United States goes to bed at 9 PM, San Francisco deserves to be a place that stays open all night, to hell with MADD, this city has plenty of hotel rooms and public transit to get people home without them driving! As a cabbie I see a lot of money not being spent and a lot of fun not being had as the ABC forces the nightlife establishments to kick rooms full of people on the street at 1:55 AM. Cmon Newsom take up the challenge!!

This is one of the worst pieces of journalism that I've ever seen.

It was nice of Mr. Redmond to put a link to the proposition in question. It would've been even nicer if he'd bothered to read it himself.

What's wrong with it? Let me count the ways:

1. The medallions are NOT, "in essence" or any other way, going to be sold on an open market.
A. the medallions will be sold for a fixed price of probably $250,000 to working drivers on a seniority waiting list.
B. At most 300 medallions will be sold. They will be sold by drivers over 70 years of age as a way to get them out of the business and allow younger drivers into it.
C. The fixed price (as opposed to an auction) is going to be set specifically so that working cab drivers can afford it.

2. The seniority waiting list will be maintained and people on it will continue to get their medallion without charge as they have in the past.
A. This means the other 1200 medallions.

3. This is NOT Mayor Newsom's plan. Newsom's plan, as I believe Mr. Redman himself reported, was to take all the medallions and sell them at a open auction.
A. As Mr. Redman may recall the mayor wanted $600 million. This plan gives him $15 million as a compromise.

4. This whole plan is a compromise plan put together by mostly by working cab drivers through a Town Hall process that took over 4 months and included active participation by everybody in the taxi industry. Over 20 different plans for reforming (or not changing) the business were heard and discussed.

5. Aside from maintaining the seniority list and giving senior drivers a way to retire the Consensus Plan also:
A. Set's up a Drivers Fund to benefit the average driver. Drivers have been without benefits for over 32 years.
B. It sets up a council of cab drivers and the public to oversee the plan and change it if necessary. The council will also study ways to improve service to the public.

5. The MTA is NOT hoarding medallions. They've put out 30 medallions since they've taken over.
A. One would think that Mr. Redmond would have called Deputy Director of Taxis Chris Hayashi to ask her about it.
B. But that would have required real journalism. It's much easier to pass on rumors.

6. The situation that people on the list face is the same situation that they face now.

It's really discouraging to take part in process of reform and see one paper after and another completely distort what we've done. It makes me wonder wonder if everything you read in news is false.

Either Big Brother is watching us or only incompetents go into journalism these days.

If you really want to know what's going on with Taxicab Reform, I suggest you read my blog at http://phantomcabdriverphites.blogspot.com/

Ed Healy,
Cab # 572

To the guy outside Trader Joe's: You're paranoid. No cab driver trying to make a buck passes up someone just because they have a shopping bag. Most likely the cab is answering a phoned-in order, or possibly turning in at the end of his shift.

Re Healy's support of the plan: Healy owns at least one medallion, maybe more. He likes the idea of selling out for a huge price like they do in NYC. His pitch is pure spin, full of half-truths and misleading statements.
The basic fact is that this IS Newsom's idea (along with his financier friends). Newsom runs the MTA, and he promised explicitly not to do exactly what he's been campaigning for shortly after his power-grab of the transportation system was approved by the voters, who had no idea what the fine print in the ballot measure said.

I cant understand why everyone seems to be ignoring Newsom's explicit promise that he would not violate the rules of Prop K when he was drumming up support for his MTA proposition. Judge Quentin Kopp told the Bay Guardian that when Newsom and Sup. Aaron Peskin were promoting the charter amendment that
merged the Taxi Commission into the MTA, "each of them assured me that the intent was not to alter the current system of permit issuance and the requirements for maintenance of a permit."

Quotes from the letter that Newsom sent about that time:

"Office of the Mayor
October 3, 2007"

" . . . it is also the goal to respect the will of the voters on Taxi issues. We are not supportive of an effort to merge the Taxi industry unless proper guarantees are made to protect Proposition K."

"Please keep our desires not to tamper with the intent of Proposition K in mind . . . "

Signed by Gavin Newsom and the President of the Board of Supervisors, Aaron Peskin.

The Bay Guardian has a pdf copy of this letter, as do many other journalists around town. But nobody mentions it.

Prop K flat out prohibits selling medallions, and yet Newsom was telling the public the city should auction the medallions only a couple months after the MTA took over the Taxi Commission. Does everyone just take it for granted that you cant trust a word that comes out of Newsom's mouth?

To the guy outside Trader Joe's: You're paranoid. No cab driver trying to make a buck passes up someone just because they have a shopping bag. Most likely the cab is answering a phoned-in order, or possibly turning in at the end of his shift.

Re Healy's support of the plan: Healy owns at least one medallion, maybe more. He likes the idea of selling out for a huge price like they do in NYC. His pitch is pure spin, full of half-truths and misleading statements.
The basic fact is that this IS Newsom's idea (along with his financier friends). Newsom runs the MTA, and he promised explicitly not to do exactly what he's been campaigning for shortly after his power-grab of the transportation system was approved by the voters, who had no idea what the fine print in the ballot measure said.

I cant understand why everyone seems to be ignoring Newsom's explicit promise that he would not violate the rules of Prop K when he was drumming up support for his MTA proposition. Judge Quentin Kopp told the Bay Guardian that when Newsom and Sup. Aaron Peskin were promoting the charter amendment that
merged the Taxi Commission into the MTA, "each of them assured me that the intent was not to alter the current system of permit issuance and the requirements for maintenance of a permit."

Quotes from the letter that Newsom sent about that time:

"Office of the Mayor
October 3, 2007"

" . . . it is also the goal to respect the will of the voters on Taxi issues. We are not supportive of an effort to merge the Taxi industry unless proper guarantees are made to protect Proposition K."

"Please keep our desires not to tamper with the intent of Proposition K in mind . . . "

Signed by Gavin Newsom and the President of the Board of Supervisors, Aaron Peskin.

The Bay Guardian has a pdf copy of this letter, as do many other journalists around town. But nobody mentions it.

Prop K flat out prohibits selling medallions, and yet Newsom was telling the public the city should auction the medallions only a couple months after the MTA took over the Taxi Commission. Does everyone just take it for granted that you cant trust a word that comes out of Newsom's mouth?