Opinion | How New York Taxi Drivers Got Mired in Debt - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/opinion/letters/new-york-taxi-drivers.html
Readers decry unscrupulous lending practices and sympathize with the unwitting drivers whose lives were ruined.
May 22, 2019
The New York attorney general’s office said Monday it had opened an inquiry into more than a decade of lending practices that left thousands of immigrant taxi drivers in crushing debt.
To the Editor:
“Driven to Despair,” by Brian M. Rosenthal (“Taken for a Ride” series, front page, May 19), is both shocking and significant. It explains how medallion brokers and unscrupulous bank loan sharks have for personal profit put many thousands of unsophisticated New York City taxi drivers in debt and ruined their and their families’ lives by manipulating the taxi medallion business and writing risky loans.
New York City and New York State governments need to exert better, fairer control of the taxi medallion business, help debt-ridden drivers and punish severely those money-grubbing entrepreneurs who have profited unduly at the expense of others.
Norton Mezvinsky
New York
To the Editor:
The corrupt practices outlined in this valuable exposé have created a new genre of poverty among taxi drivers. Many can no longer afford to drive, while others can barely afford routine maintenance and their cabs are often in need of repair. The same situation exists in Chicago. Restitution must be paid to those who were duped by city governments eager for revenue.
The other half of the story that requires documentation is how Uber and Lyft grew up unimpeded by rules that applied only to taxi drivers, creating an environment of unfair competition.
Bruce Joshua Miller
Chicago
To the Editor:
Why in the world did New York City allow the value of medallions to rise and fall, such that industry leaders “steadily and artificially drove up the price of taxi medallions, creating a bubble that eventually burst”?
Why not simply set a fixed price adjusted for inflation that drivers could pay, period? All the problems described in your article would have been avoided.
Jean-François Brière
Delmar, N.Y.
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