Good morning. It's Thursday. Today we'll catch up with two drivers who had the oldest cabs on the streets of New York City. We'll also get details on why the man charged with stabbing the author Salman Rushdie in 2022 is now facing terrorism-related charges.
Ravinder Sharma is happy behind the wheel of his new cab. Haroon Abdullah is not. Sharma and Abdullah were the taxi drivers with the oldest cabs on the streets of New York City at the end of 2023. Sharma had driven his 2011 Ford Crown Victoria more than 550,000 miles, enough for 94 round trips between Times Square and San Francisco. Abdullah had logged 491,000 miles on his cab, also a Crown Victoria. The city agency that regulates taxis said that neither car should have still been carrying passengers. The two Crown Victorias were well past the agency's seven-year age limit. Sharma and Abdullah are now driving Toyota RAV4s, compact crossover sport utility vehicles, not full-size sedans like the Crown Victoria — which they miss. "The Crown Victoria was good for the customer. Big room in the back," Sharma said. But he acknowledged that the RAV4 "handles better," given "the way the roads are in New York City. Very bad roads." Sharma also said that the RAV4's financial performance was better than the Crown Victoria's. He said he was spending $18 to $20 a day on gasoline now, compared with about $60 a day when he was driving the older car. Sharma's RAV4 was "nearly new" when he bought it in May, he said. But the vehicle was classified as a used car because another driver had driven it for a few months. He said he was looking forward to driving the RAV4 for seven years, until it ages out.
Abdullah, who said he was leasing his RAV4, keeps his Crown Victoria parked at home, that car's meter blocked electronically by the taxi agency. He has pleaded with the agency to unblock the meter, so that he could drive the Crown Victoria as a cab again — at least "until next April," so that he could make enough money to afford a taxi that accommodates wheelchairs. Accessibility is an issue for the RAV4, and for the taxi agency. The city settled a class-action lawsuit about accessibility in 2013 by promising that 50 percent of the taxis in the city would be able to accommodate wheelchair users by 2020. But the deadline came and went, and a three-year extension ran out last fall with the city still short of the 50 percent threshold. In February, when advocates for people with disabilities filed a new lawsuit saying that the taxi commission had "no intention of even attempting" to meet the goal, 42 percent of the taxis on the streets could accept wheelchair users. In May, a judge directed the agency to submit a plan to reach the 50 percent level. A spokesman for the agency said it had complied. But until last week, a loophole in taxi regulations had allowed a driver who owned a medallion — the permit required to drive a cab in New York — to take possession of a car with a different medallion and install his or her medallion. The original owner would retain the medallion that was taken off. Drivers like Sharma, whose cabs had aged out, could find used cabs that were still new enough to be driven. In taxi parlance, this was known as "rehacking." Some drivers have used that provision to sidestep the agency's wheelchair-accessibility rules, because accessible taxis are more expensive. With the two Crown Victorias off the streets, the taxi commission says that the oldest cab now in operation is a 2013 Toyota Prius. An administrative hearing about why that car is still carrying passengers is scheduled for Aug. 12. The owner of the medallion on the Prius, Khaled Elboghdedy, said he had been looking at new cars. Unlike Sharma, Abdullah said he was "not financially OK" with the RAV4. He said that he was earning as much in fares as when he was driving the Crown Victoria, but that he was taking home $4,500 a month less because he also has to pay the lease on the Toyota. "I can't buy a car on this," he said. WEATHER Prepare for a chance of showers and thunderstorms, with temperatures in the mid-80s. At night, the clouds will clear, with temperatures dropping to the high 60s. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Aug. 13 (Tisha B'Av). The latest New York news
Arts & Culture
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. Rushdie stabbing suspect is accused of supporting terrorism
A new indictment accuses Hadi Matar, who was charged with stabbing the author Salman Rushdie in August 2022, of providing "material support and resources" to Hezbollah, the politically powerful Lebanese group that has backing from Iran. The indictment charges Matar, 26, with offering "personnel, specifically himself, and services" to terrorists from September 2020 to the day of the stabbing at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. Rushdie, who had spent years in hiding after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989, was scheduled to give a talk about how the United States was a safe place for exiled writers. Matar ran onto the stage, prosecutors said, and stabbed Rushdie about 10 times before people from the audience pulled him away. Rushdie, who was blinded in one eye by the stabbing, wrote about the attack in a memoir, "Knife," which was published earlier this year. Matar has been on trial in Chautauqua County Court on charges of attempted murder and assault. Last month he turned down a deal that called for him to plead guilty to the attempted murder charge. Doing so would have cut his time in state prison to 20 years. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years if he is found guilty at trial. The plea deal also called for him to plead guilty to essentially the same charges that are in the new indictment, which was unsealed in Federal District Court in Buffalo. Those charges carry a separate maximum sentence of 20 years. Matar's lawyer, Nathaniel Baron II, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Matar, who moved to the United States from Lebanon when he was a child, had become increasingly isolated and focused on Islam in the years before the attack. METROPOLITAN DIARY Gelato
Dear Diary: My daughter and I were sitting on a bench outside a popular Upper East Side gelato spot enjoying a cool treat when a woman with a large dog walked toward us. The dog headed for the door, but the owner pulled the leash tight. "You already had ice cream today," she said. — Jessica Benjamin Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Melissa Guerrero, Susan C. Beachy and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
|
N.Y. Today: Replacing the city’s oldest taxis
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment