February 4, 2008
Morning Roundup: A Pot of Strikes Edition
Good morning, Washington. Flickr user Pianoman75 spotted this double rainbow when he was leaving his house in Arlington this morning, which seemed a fitting end to such a beautiful and sunny weekend. Of course, it's all sunshine and rainbows until someone starts threatening rolling taxicab strikes in the District. Yes, today is the first Monday of the planned one-day-a-week taxi strikes, which are set to progress through the next weekday each week (so next week's will be on Tuesday, the week after that, Wednesday, etc.) until April 6, when time and distance meters have been mandated to be in use inside all D.C. cabs. The rolling strikes are planned to be in place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., and while some cab drivers DCist spoke to over the weekend said they planned to participate, we're not exactly convinced that it will be impossible to hail a cab in the city today -- and we'll need your help to measure how successful the strikes are. Let us know whether you had trouble finding a cab today in the comments.
Area Evacuation Guide Not Sufficient: The Post reports on the failings of a new evacuation guide for the metro region, which was paid for with federal grant money but suffers from a lack of cooperation between regional jurisdictions. D.C., Maryland, Virginia and county officials apparently just couldn't get it together to agree on a regional evacuation plan that would work for everyone. We guess it's lucky there's no major targets for attacks anywhere near here.
CFO Warns of Financial Slowdown in 2009: The Examiner reports on warnings from D.C.'s embattled Chief Financial Officer, Natwar Gandhi, about the District's financial health in the near future. Gandhi is telling the mayor and the D.C. Council that the housing and credit crises that have thus far not affected the District in the same way as they have the surrounding areas will likely hit the city next year, and is asking them to plan their budgets accordingly. Mayor Fenty's 2009 spending bill has yet to be finalized or come before the Council, but early reports indicate it will be just under 10 percent higher than 2008's budget.
Briefly Noted: U.S. Park Police rebuked for weak security at D.C. monuments ... Baltimore County teen charged with murdering his family while they slept ... Repair work closes Potomac Freeway ramp ... A fire engine struck a pedestrian on 14th St. NW Saturday night.
This Day in DCist: In 2005 we came across a rather funny attempt at mocking homophobia through license plates in Virginia, and then wondered why Virginia schools were hosting "ex-gay" speakers in public schools.
Photo by Pianoman75
|
Mayor Fenty's 2009 spending bill has yet to be finalized or come before the Council, but early reports indicate it will be just under 10 percent higher than 2008's budget.
My monkey-sense is tingling and telling me that 2009 revenues aren't going to go up 10 percent. But no worries. If the current real estate market has taught us anything, it's that if homeowners can use their property as an ATM machine, local governments can do the same thing as well. Indefinitely.
Taxi stand outside my office is empty; it is usually 4 or 5 deep.
Can't wait to see how the Councilmembers hides grants for their closest friends in a tight budget. I'd love to see someone do a cost-benefit analysis of all the money that's been given out in "one-time" grants to politically-connected groups and what exactly they did with that money.
Can't wait to see how the Councilmembers hides grants for their closest friends in a tight budget. I'd love to see someone do a cost-benefit analysis of all the money that's been given out in "one-time" grants to politically-connected groups and what exactly they did with that money.
Absolutely NO cabs this morning at Union Station; the guys running the taxi cab lines where telling everyone they'd be better off hopping on the metro and explaining the rolling strike system and the cabbies reasoning.
Let us know whether you had trouble finding a cab today in the comments.
This is a bit confounded by the fact that it's downpouring. You can never find a taxi in the rain, even when they're not on strike.
Monkey: One of the beneficial externalities of capping the rate of increase of assessed property tax is that, regardless of the rate (high, low, negative) of appraisal, the income from assessed tax will for some years continue to increase as the tax assessed catches up with the assessed value of the property. It's a built-in buffer.
Could someone explain HERE the reason for the taxi strikes? From where I sit it just sounds like antipathy to change. It seems like it might cost less for a short ride but more for a longer one. Although I guess there are a lot of people taking short rides and combine that with the ability to scam people on the zone system, that could be bad for taxi drivers, but that's the cynic in me. It would be nice to know there was a real reason.
The reason the cabs are on strike is that they think it is 1958 instead of 2008. To cab drivers, modernity (in the form of an electronic meter) sucks.
Got charged for 2 zones--last night's one zone ride, perhaps to offset today's lack of fares...
STRIKE AWAY
If I've said it once, I've said a thousand times: if the cabbies don't like it, it must be good for me.
Strike Schmrike.
Missed this headline and attempted to catch a cab from Dupont Circle going up Connecticut at 11:30 today. Took more than 15 minutes to actually find one unoccupied. By that point I could have taken the Metro.
I saw three cabs, apparently looking for business, within two blocks of my home -- and none for the entire remainder of my commute downtown.
Could someone explain HERE the reason for the taxi strikes? From where I sit it just sounds like antipathy to change. It seems like it might cost less for a short ride but more for a longer one.
Resistance to change is a big part of it, but not the only story -- which is why today's strike seems to have teeth and the October "Mayor declares in favor of time and distance meters" strike was pretty much a fizzle.
The Mayor's original proposal, with its much-maligned $4 drop fee, would have been like you describe -- cheaper than the zone system for short rides and more for longer ones, averaging out to a modest increase (mostly hitting people in the 5-15 mile trip range). By reducing the drop fee and eliminating or reducing a whole range of surcharges, the final proposal works out to a pretty significant fare cut for almost all riders. Eliminating the shared rider surcharge is a particularly hot-button issue for cab drivers -- every other local jurisdiction has that surcharge, and without it you can get some really cheap effective fares. For example: three people sharing a one mile cab trip with no traffic would each pay about $1.40, which is almost cheaper than taking the bus.
Hey DCist! Love the blog, but I wish you could make this kind of thing a little more timely. I think this post went up after 9, which means a lot of people didn't see it until then or later in the morning. Stuff like this (e.g. There will be a cab strike today) would be more useful if you put it up in the morning or even the night before.
Thanks
As for the strike, according to my driver today, he doesn't give a damn about the switch from zone to timer. It's the cutting of the rush hour and extra passenger surcharge that will hurt (though I can see the merit in cutting the rush hour, since it will be a timed trip anyway).
He states that a Fenty contributor who owns a major cab operator wants to break the independent drivers and eventually instate a very expensive licensing program.
I don't know if this is true, but that was his story.
Road outside my office is usually jammed with taxis - most of them speeding and nearly clipping pedestrians. Been empty all day. Love it. I noticed my bike ride this morning was less perilous than usual, but now I know why. Damn the cabbies. Deal with the meters - everyone else does.
Love the double rainbows...they're almost as hard to come across (pun intended?) as double-corned unicorns:P
I caught a 2Xrainbow a couple weeks ago too...so all you kids of the late 70s & early 80s, enjoy! We're free to be you and me even if you and me like gay pride symbols regardless of whether they're self-applied.
The strike is counter-productive. Public sentiment is driving the switch and all the strike is doing is further irritating people. It makes no sense. If taxicab drivers really want to influence the debate, try creating an articulate, rational argument for a fairer system and post it in every cab. People can be sympathetic -- they're not asking for a free ride -- just articulate a persuasive point.
I hope the story about Fenty wanting to institute a more formalized licensing program is true. Heck I'd pay another dollar per ride if I had confidence in the system and the functionality of the vehicle I'm riding in. Right now, driving a cab is like selling umbrellas on the street corner. No one asks where they got them, and no one asks whether they're paying taxes on that income. It's a tidy, under the table business that has been convenient for a long time, but that's not the way a responsible city should let its transportation infrastructure be run.
I'm with Krisa.
Meters are great, but that's only the first step. We need real cab standards, which we obviously haven't had for decades.
Sometimes I get used to it here in DC. Then, I travel to any other major US city, and I ride in cabs that aren't filthy deathtraps. Then upon my return to DC I remember again what crappy cabs we have.