Sawant On The Brink & The City Of San Francisco Gets Away With Taxi Murder & Why A Taxi Driver Bill Of Rights Is Needed

Kshama Sawant Betrayed Seattle Cabbies

As I write this, on Pearl Harbor Day, the ballots are pouring in for this special recall election targeting Kshama Sawant, District 3 Seattle Council-member.  Today, in the Seattle Times, it is reported that the votes are coming in at a projected rate of 50% of eligible voters.  If I was still registered in the State of Washington, I would be voting yes, toss the silly person out onto the streets.  I will confess I once voted for her but now certainly regret that.  I see her as a more minor version of Donald Trump, someone who decides that existing rules do not apply to them, that whatever Sawant wants, Sawant gets.   Right, Left, Up or Down, Too Many Politicians are Simply Clowns!

I first encountered her at the Teamsters Hall in Tukwila, where on the podium, she promised to "work and assist" the local cab drivers.  Turns out she was lying, because in 2014 I personally watched her cast a vote to void the City Council bill capping Uber and Lyft, thus opening the floodgates, and one short year later, 28,000 of the monsters were roaming the streets, not 500 as had been agreed to. 

Sawant is a fraud. I believed her once but no more. Stonewall Jackson, that Country & Western singer once very popular, died on Saturday.  In 1959, he had his biggest hit, "Waterloo," crooning:

"Waterloo, Waterloo

When will you meet your Waterloo?

Every puppy has its day

Everybody has to pay

Everybody has to meet his Waterloo."

The song topped the charts for five weeks.  Like dear old Napoleon, I can only hope that today, Sawant also meets her Waterloo.  Or moves to Belgium. The country has good chocolate. 

November 8th 2021 Court Ruling Leaves the City of San Francisco with Bloody Hands

Back in 2010, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) opened a transferable medallion sale for $250,000 each, with the loans made through the San Francisco Federal Credit Union. 700 medallions were sold.  The City of San Francisco made $64 million from these sells.  But then, beginning in 2012, only two years later, Uber and Lyft came knocking, and San Francisco said "welcome, come on in," a move that quickly undermined the taxi industry, resulting in a massive medallion foreclosure by the credit union, losing a minimum of $28 million dollars.  From all this, the SFMTA was sued.  A jury ruled in their favor. The SFMTA is now happy, saying, that's right, we didn't do anything wrong.  Yeah right, nothing at all!  Watch out for those juries!

Taxi business is now slowly returning to the "City By the Bay" but that doesn't mean medallion values will ever reach again their former value.  The City of San Francisco said it is now trying to help rebuild the taxi industry after destroying it.  Isn't that "Liberal" of them?

A Taxi Bill of Rights

A local ally of the taxi industry is beginning to draw up what she sees as a State of Washington Bill of Rights for all State of Washington cabbies.  This is a good idea because taxi associations hold too much power over their independent contractors.  It is clear to me that all complaints and concerns over drivers actions and behavior should be overseen by the regulatory authorities and no one else.  This would provide the drivers needed protection from retaliatory actions from associations while providing real accountability when the driver warrants it.  I have been asked for ideas, and time permitting, they are coming.