With Uber, at least for the moment, on the run in Paris and France, folks at the Yellow Cab lot this afternoon were cheerful, pleased that someone, anyone is standing up and resisting what, Bernard Cazenenue, the French Interior Minister, called "Uber's arrogance." Today Uber's General Manager for Western Europe, Pierre-Dimtri Gore-Coty and Thibaud Simphal, Uber's General Manager for France, were both arrested and questioned by the Paris police. Even the French President, Francois Hollande said that Uber must leave France. Much of this response was generated by the cabby protests in Paris last week. Amazingly, as opposed to here in Seattle and other American municipalities, they have sided with the taxi industry. As I have always said, if Seattle's government had just followed the law and rules as written, we would not be in our current dire situation, having lost nearly one-third of our total gross income in one short year. While Seattle's current economy is booming, us cabby's are losing money. How can that be? When you are both marginalized and bullied by government administrators is, as I keep saying month after month, is how. Hopefully the situation in France will spread across the world and in a few years Uber and its ilk will be muted. Whether we specifically in Seattle will ever regain our previous status remains to be seen. I do think it is possible but for that to happen, like in Paris, we must continue to resist. Lying down and dying can never be, or should be a viable option. Liberte', egalite, fraternite! must forever be upon our lips! What was true in 1790 remains true in 2015. Know it and believe it!
Even the cable news networks are reporting on the arrest in France. As a taxi driver, I am elated at recent developments, and the French resistance.
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