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TLC Meeting Gets Nasty, With "Jokey" Death Threat
By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 22, 2010
Modified Mar 22, 2010
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Mar 22, 2010
Modified Mar 22, 2010
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The Taxi and Limousine Commission has been feeling the heat these past weeks, after the revelation of widespread overcharging of passengers, costing NYers $8.3 million in total. The fact that 75 percent of taxi drivers are said to have overcharged at least once was one of the topics of discussion at last week's TLC monthly meeting, the last for departing head Matthew W. Daus.
It turned out to be a particularly rowdy meeting, the Times reports: Security guards had to drag out one attendee, there was a constant refrain of "How dare you?", and one man compared Daus to Hitler. It all came to a head when Bhairavi Desai, founder/head of Taxi Workers Alliance, came up to speak:
A longtime antagonist of Mr. Daus’s, Ms. Desai began by calling the commission “disgraceful” for implicating tens of thousands of cabbies in the recent price-gouging scheme, saying such a blanket accusation was inappropriate.
“We’re a little off-topic here,” Mr. Daus said wearily. (The commission was discussing lease rates, not the overcharging fraud.)
“Well, I’m using my three minutes as I choose to use it,” Ms. Desai replied.
“Would you like the gavel, too?” Mr. Daus asked.
The two continued to bicker and talk over each other for several minutes. As Ms. Desai headed back to her seat, she chirped, “Good luck to you, by the way.”
“Same to you!” Mr. Daus replied. “It’s been an absolute pleasure.” He added, in a humorous tone: “Let’s go have some lunch after I’m out of there.”
“As long as I get to add the poison in first,” Ms. Desai replied, not missing a beat.
Earlier today, Daus told the City Council that a "significant" number of trips were not purposefully overcharged as was first believed, because the button to activate higher fares was not pushed in many of the cases until the end of rides. Not that it does anyone who was scammed any good, though.
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taxi and limousine commission
taxi scam
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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