NYC taxis halt Brooklyn Bridge traffic to fight debt
▻https://nypost.com/2020/09/17/nyc-taxis-halt-brooklyn-bridge-traffic-to-fight-debt
New York City cabbies stalled traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge Thursday afternoon to demand debt relief from medallion lenders and the city.
“There is a serious humanitarian crisis that is developing in this industry. All we’re asking for us the debt to be forgiven and reduced to $125,000,” New York Taxi Workers Alliance director Bhairavi Desai said during a City Hall rally preceding the demonstration.
Video posted on Citizen app shows the caravan of yellow cabs stalled out on Manhattan-bound side of the Brooklyn Bridge at around 12:40 p,m.
Traffic got back moving after around five minutes, users reported.
The demonstration comes days after Greenwich, Conn.-based Marblegate — which owns 4,000 of the city’s 13,500 medallions — offered to reduce driver debts to $300,000, reported by the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
The company’s latest offer to driver amounts to $70 million in total debt relief, according to the Journal.