Greetings From Lake Chapala, Mexico: Three Guadalajara Cab Rides & An Assessment And Critique Of The USA Taxicab Industry & Ya Know, Seattle/King County Is A Stupid Place

Ola from sunny Mexico 

I am here in San Antonio Tlayacapan with the infamous "she-who-can't-be-named" until January 19th, 2026.  Over this 37 day span, we will be staying in three different locations, the second about 100 feet away from the now bloated shores of Mexico's largest lake, Lago Chapala.  We just missed substantial rains lifting the water level three feet, taking over shoreline, and unfortunately pushing some residents out of their make-shift homes on what was once dry land.  Brilliant sunshine is now in play.  I will say that the many egrets and herons display an avian indifference to higher water, patiently perched in their hunt for fish, similar to last year. South-bound feathery migrants are still arriving daily---bright red song birds now making their crimson appearance, along with black-crowned night herons. A colorful permanent resident we enjoy seeing is the social flycatcher (myiozetetes similis), flashing its bright yellow belly through the green tropical leafy branches.

Arriving a couple of days early, I took a cab from the Guadalajara airport to my hotel located in DT Guadalajara, the Hotel Vigo. The driver was the most professional of the three, conservative on the road, with quickly getting me to the hotel through the darkened, then quiet streets of the very populated city (5.8 million) that is Guadalajara. The fare was 460 pesos and I gave him $6.00 American for his tip.  I do not recommend the Vigo. 

My second cab ride took me to the airport to meet my soon to be arriving companion. My initial plan was to take a cab to the nearby central bus station, about a five-minute drive from where I was standing but the cabbies sitting around said 200 pesos. That wouldn't fly because the fare to the airport was only 400 pesos from that part of the city.  Nothing like dishonest, self-serving cabbies but given I didn't want to walk the 20 minutes to the station lugging my two bags, taking a cab directly to the airport the far better option. The gentleman's taxi had no seatbelt and it rattled like the tired tin can it was.  This time, late afternoon traffic was simply horrible, no fun for the cabbie slogging through the congested roadways.  Finally we arrived, the grumpy, surly cabbie smiling after I gave him a 500 peso note and said "keep it!"  Money always makes for a happy cabbie and though he was, minus any doubt an a-hole, the cabbie's life is hard, and how could I not understand his attitude?  Of course I do, with all that damn traffic earning him his tip. 

The mid-evening third cab ride took us to our apartment in San Antonio Tlayacapan, a distance of about 30 kilometers east of the airport.  The driver got on his telephone, holding a lively if irritating conversation. He also unexplainably twice drove on the wrong side of the road but redeeming himself by pulling up directly in front of our required address. The fare was 600 pesos and he got a $10.00 bill for not getting us lost in the dark. Concerning cabbies, I can be forgiving. Everyone else, you just better watch out. 

Happy New Year 2026?  End of the Year 2025 Taxi Industry Assessment

I could sum it up in one short statement: "the American taxi industry refuses to recognize that it is in last days."  Now is that really true, is the USA cab industry doomed to soon disappear?  Part of that future depends on whether Waymo and other autonomous self-driving cab companies are successful in convincing the American public they are a viable alternative to human-driven taxicabs and cars.  Another part of this is something that have plagued the American taxi industry since my first entry back in September 1987: misplaced priorities, meaning, that when your top priority is making money minus an  emphasis on customer service, you are creating a big problem for yourself.  

Explaining it in a way that no one misunderstands, the American taxi industry has been myopic, nearsighted, unable to see reality directly what is in front of it.  Denial is first and foremost the industry response to any potential challenge facing it.  It happened in 2012 with Uber and Lyft and it is occurring now that Waymos are plying American city streets.  

What will be industry response to this new threat?  Probably nothing whatsoever is what I think is the answer.  In my November post I suggested the need for a taxi industry lobbyist to communicate and deliver concerns to government lawmakers.  Do I think that will happen?  No I don't because I know, not believe, that most of the people in power running taxi associations and companies are dysfunctional.  If that wasn't, and isn't the case, Uber would not exist, at least not in the form and stature we see operational today.  When you do not know what you are doing, you simply do not know that you are dysfunctional, and that folks, is the end of that bad story.  From my past experience working in the psychiatric world, every schizophrenia-afflicted person I met insisted that they were okay, and sane, including my own brother, denial the telltale mark of the crazed and mentally ill.  Have I ever considered the taxi industry to be sane?  No. 

But if there is hope for the industry to survive, I declare that it must collectively admit that it is facing a  dire threat, and a threat that is not going away. Waymo, Tesla, Uber and many others are backed by billions of dollars trying to sell the American driving public the mythology that traditional taxi is antiquated and out-of-date.  If our voices aren't raised in official protest to all levels of government, we will be run over the same way that ill-fated feline, Kit Kat, was driven over by Waymo in San Francisco--- bloodied and dead.  Factually, in real time, that is what is happening while I am writing this warning.  What is everyone going to do about it? 

Dumbell Seattle: It really isn't funny

Through these pages over the years I have complained about the poor government decision making plaguing Seattle and King County, and how it often impacted taxi operations.  Here are two very recent examples illustrating what is a regional problem that will never change, remaining the same until the sun is blotted out two billion years from now.  Maybe its in the water but there is a kind of residual mental illness that has collectively stunted rational thinking in Seattle and KC for years.  It also shows that Seattle isn't very bright when it comes to thinking clearly even though 70% of the population hold a BA or higher level of education.  Perhaps all of them once graduated from one of Donald Trump's bogus universities, with a Minor in Road Rage.  Empty, vacuous bragging is another inherent Seattle trait. Would we know if 70% of Seattleites failed their first year of kindergarten?  Heavens no!

Exhibit number one: Not repairing the Desimone levee in Tukwila along the Green River.  This week (I am writing in mid-December), due to all of the recent rain and flooding rivers, the Desimone levee protecting industrial parts of the greater Tukwila area (south of Seattle) was breached by the Green River.  Why is this newsworthy?  Because this same levee was weakened by flooding in 2020, something duly noted then, and for the past five years various agencies have been arguing about who was going to do what and pay for the repair. Now look what happens, a big rainfall comes along and vital low lying industrial parks are threatened by the bloated Green River. Dumb! Dow Constantine, you're a bloody idiot. 

Exhibit number two: Seattle City Light sells over 30 un-replaceable metal paneled artworks to a scrap metal dealer for $10.00 each.  This action is truly mind boggling!  In 1935 the Seattle artist, John Elliott (1883-1971) was commissioned by Seattle City Light to create 34 repousse pewter alloy metal panels displaying the evolution of light dating from prehistoric to modern times. In 1958, he added two more, finishing the series. They were all displayed together on a City Light wall for decades. During some remodeling, in September 2024, some very foolish Seattle City Light employee (or employees) sold almost all of these unique and invaluable panels to a scrap metal dealer, as I said, for a mere ten dollars each.  Thankfully, the dealer understood what he had, and instead of melting them down, sold them to a private collector for the tidy sum of $12,000, someone who is trying to figure out how to reunite the entire series in a permanent display. What Seattle City Light did was more than dumb, it was criminal.  

If anyone, like me, have been following how Seattle/King County has regulated the local taxi industry over the years, you will see parallels.  Seattle and King County is in danger of being flooded, inundated not by water but stupidity.  No, sandbags will not help.  You are in trouble!  Better wear your rubber boots! And learn how to swim.

No Go the Waymo

On December 20th, San Francisco experienced a large power outage caused by a power transmission substation fire, knocking out traffic signals over a large swatch of the city. This is when it appears that the Waymo robo-cabs became afraid of the dark, stalling in the streets and causing serious backups.  Somehow, with the streets devoid of lighting and traffic signals, the Waymo computers did not know what to do. The safety issues are obvious. Now Wayno says they fixed the problem, with new software downloads. Does anyone believe them? Corporate lies are just like Government lies, designed to deceive and deflect responsibility. Wait for Waymo's response when one of their cars have caused a fatality accident. You can be assured  they have one ready to go, knowing full well it will happen. Prepare then for yet another software upgrade. Denial is their crocodile smile, their reptilian style, lying mile by mile. 

PS: It is also No Go the Washington Post guest op-ed.  I wrote a very literate op-ed piece concerning Waymo and autonomous self-driving cars but it seems it wasn't mundane enough for WA Post editors, which doesn't surprise me. Why feature REAL writing when instead publishing the usual Upper-Middle-Class gibberish passing for acceptable prose an easier option. Anybody can write or say the obvious, insight then more often is rejected as offensive. Why know something when instead you can know nothing!  Somehow for most that is appealing but not for me high up in the Crow's Nest scanning the cultural sea, spotting a Waymo tsunami heading our way, flooding taxicab's tranquil bay.  Or something like that. 

New York Times Expose' Concerning Uber's Driver Background Checks

It is not a very nice story but truly an important one.  I recommend everyone reading it or any related news report concerning this.  It was published online in December 22nd, 2025. The article is entitled:

"Uber Cleared Violent Felons to Drive.  Passengers Accused Them of Rape."  Reported by Emily Steel.

Emily Steel has written a followup to her first article. The horror doesn't get any better.  Published  Dec 29th, 2025:

"Flagged for Sexual Misconduct, Many Uber Drivers Stay on the Road"

Uber is not using fingerprinting in their background checks.  In Seattle and King County that is certainly true.  Some of this is old news, something I've written about previously.  It is clear that Uber is not to be trusted.  If you read the articles, check out the many comments.  You will find mine there as well. I tried to cut and paste but the New York Times won't let me.  I keep saying that Uber is immoral.  Read the articles and you will find out why I've said it.  Uber is all about the money.  Anyone surprised?  You shouldn't be. 

                                                             All Uber wants is your cash

                                                             Pay it now, make it fast

                                                             But what happens to you Uber doesn't care

                                                            When you are trapped in some fool's TNC lair

                                                            Doing anything awful they want to you

                                                            and 

                                                            If you are raped, Ha! Uber says, go ahead,

                                                           sue!

                                                           You know our response, 

                                                           what we will do!

___________________________________________

I also wrote another comment concerning Steel's second  article. Governmental intervention is truly necessary.  Uber simply doesn't care what happens to its customers.  The two Steel articles confirms this minus all doubt. How does Uber justify over 3000 sexual assaults currently under investigation?

Goodbye to a Sea-Tac (Tukwila) Restaurant Favorite 

The Pancake Chef, located near Pac Highway (now International Blvd) & South 154th, has closed, after being in operation since 1959.  I loved the place, often stopping there for breakfast before dropping off a family member at the airport.  Prices were good and the pancakes great. Its atmosphere was the 1950s, eating there a step back in time, adding to one's dining pleasure. 

Slowly but surely, old Seattle and area is vanishing off the map.  So many of my favorite dining choices have long disappeared: The Dog House in Belltown; The Unique Bar & Grill in Belltown; Andys Cafe on Capitol Hill; Ernie Steel's Bar & Grill on Capitol Hill; The Continental (Greek) Restaurant in the University District; Steve's Broiler (24 hour Greek) DT; The Uptown (Greek) First Hill; the original 13 Coins, not the same since it moved to Pioneer Square; and another DT 24 Hour Greek restaurant, the Joker Day and Night.  It was there, at 3 and 4 in the morning, where me and my taxi buddy Big Bob would chow town. It was wonderful.  Unfortunately the location is now some strange sex shop. Another closed former haunt is the China Pavillon where I often ate at after dropping off at Sea-Tac, located at 148 & Pac Highway in Tukwila, about a half mile north of the Pancake Chef.  It was also a frequent cab pickup, their bar a favorite dive for locals. Could you believe that as late as 1990, at Andy's on Broadway East you could still get a full meal with dessert and beverage for $5-7.00?  Those were the days! drifting away in memory's haze. 

Another bad example of the new Seattle was the dumbbell name change to International Blvd, an overreaction to the Goodwill Games held in1990.  Thinking they would somehow match the Olympics, Seattle and King County decided changing the name of that stretch of Highway 99 would serve as a welcome mat to the world. The Goodwill Games themselves were a huge financial failure, and by renaming the road, cost the area who knows how many hundreds of thousands of dollars in signage changes and infrastructure alterations. I did attend a couple of the basketball games. Old Seattle was smarter.  This new version not so much. 

                                                          

                                                       

Yellow Cab Of Everett/Snohomish County Closed: A Conversation With The Owner & Wilson Defeats Harrell & What The Novelist Steinbeck Wrote About Racial Discrimination & Anyone Looking For A Taxicab Lobbyist?

 Poof! A Sixty Car Cab Company is No More

A blog commenter alerted me to the demise of Everett Yellow.  Searching for media concerning its death I found nothing at all about it, Everett Yellow bludgeoned in the middle of night, its bloodied corpse left on the sidewalk, all evidence hosed away.  Melodramatic description perhaps but what is happening to the American taxi industry is akin to a horror film, with all of us in the audience fleeing the theatre screaming.  The situation is bad, and reaching out to Adisu R., the once owner, and someone I knew in passing, he filled me in on what happened.

He shut down the company last year or was it last month?  What was interesting is that he couldn't tell me the exact date, trauma perhaps extinguishing his memory.  Asking him for specifics, he said he had been down to 15 cabs upon quitting, down from the original 60.  What then exactly happened?

He said Uber killed his business, that and high insurance rates making it no longer viable to run a big taxi company in the population base of 864,000 comprising Snohomish County.  I remember seeing their cars every day delivering medical account customers down to Seattle's hospitals but obviously all that kind of business disappeared, much of it probably taken up by so-called medical transportation companies undercutting taxi rates.  He said it no longer made any sense to stay in business, unable to make employee payroll and meet all the other costs attached to running a business.  

He gave the impression that he had no regrets quitting, saying more than once that, in the end, overall he had made some money, implying he was glad to be rid of his big taxicab headache.  For those don't know, those original 60 cabs, divided into day and night shifts translated into 120 cabbies, a taxi menagerie of every conceivable personality.  Dealing with all those drivers had to be a daily challenge.  He briefly alluded to that, noting the transitions made by a mostly newly arrived immigrant workforce, something many struggled with.  

I have always said that it takes five years for someone to become a truly professional cabbie, so putting rookies out into the meat grinder that is taxi is inherently unkind.  Too many accidents, he said.  That's right, I responded, BYG (Seattle Yellow Co-op), at the end, was paying something like $11,000 per year per cab for insurance due to rookie at-fault accidents.  Neither a sustainable nor wise practice, placing your businesses' wellbeing in the hands of neophytes. 

We talked for a maximum of about 8-10 minutes but I heard the history, the undercurrent of too many taxi years in his voice and words.  Taxi will do that to you, exhausting you to your very fiber.  Taxi was and is always about making the big money though sometimes customer service is lost in the rush for the green.  Anything beyond that  incentive usually held little value to the individual driver residing in a living hell that's never fun even if the vast majority of your passengers are angels, perdition forever anointing the cabbie's brow.  

Who is that smiling over your shoulder, you say?  Why Mister Beelzebub of course, Lord of all us flying demons zooming down God's highway!  For big time owners like Adisu, it was a flight down into an unavoidable bankruptcy, spiritual if not monetary, a dead-end that could never be described as heaven or paradise, never again achieving economic absolution, all benedictions tossed into the rubbish pile---bent and dented taxicabs stacked ever skyward reaching up to stormy, thunderous clouds.

More Than Just the Defeat of an Individual

It ultimately was a close race but Katie Wilson's victory over Bruce Harrell was more about objective examination of real problems facing Seattle than a rhetorical rant that everything is fine when clearly that isn't true.  Having first moved to Seattle in 1973, I saw the change from an affordable city to an unaffordable nightmare that defies commonsense.  One survey I read before I left last year Seattle listed Seattle at number 16 in overall costs in over 1000 cities with a population of over 500,000.  In other terms, Seattle is one of the most expensive places to live on planet Earth.  Since it remains an impossible commute to Saturn or Neptune, this planet is our home, and since that is true, all of us must ensure that we can live here within acceptable means.  

Harrell overall attitude all along, whether mayor or city council-member, is that everything is okay in Seattle, only requiring a few twerks or adjustments.  Maybe that is because he has 15 million dollars in the bank to sit on.  Most don't which is why Katie Wilson's election victory resonates, telling everyone a new realism is both necessary and here.  Upon her election, Wilson, along with her husband and 2-year old daughter, resided in a 600 square foot apartment.  Depending on which part of Seattle she is living in, that translates to a rent between $1500-3000. per month.  And what about utilities? 

I leave it to you cabbies in Seattle and King County to inform Wilson the dire reality facing the local taxi industry.  Make your case as to its value to the community.  I know she will listen.  This might be your last opportunity to save the cultural heritage that is an over 100 year-old industry.   Any hesitation will allow Waymo to literally run you over.  Get on that telephone and talk to Katie Wilson.  She will take your call. 

John Steinbeck's Words of Wisdom

Recently I found this remarkable little paperback by John Steinbeck, "America and Americans," published in 1966. Steinbeck, 1902-1968, was certainly one of America's great 20th C novelists.  I read his "The Red Pony (1933) when I was nine, and his "The Winter of Our Discontent" (1961) might be his best. I read "Of Mice and Men (1937) when I was a teenager.  I later formed a grudge again him due to his support for the Vietnam War but after reading his chapter "Created Equal" from this portrayal of the USA and its people, I clearly saw that the man knew his history and only wished the best for his fellow Americans.  

I feel compelled to share a quote from page 77 because it speaks to the reality faced by brown and black skinned cabbies in the USA, be it Seattle or New York City.  Racial hatred only makes a difficult occupation even harder.  Many of my East African cabbie friends were extremely well educated, speaking multiple languages but still, once upon arriving upon America's shores, found themselves prevented from practicing their professions, discriminatory rules making it clear some positions reserved only if you were white, and preferably from the UK, Australia, South Africa, Canada.  That why Steinbeck's words are relevant and pertinent to today's workaday world.

    "Some years ago, a very intelligent Negro man worked for me in New York.  One afternoon through the window I saw this man coming home from the store.  As he rounded the corner, a drunk, fat white woman came barreling out of a saloon, slipped on the icy pavement, and fell.  Instantly, the man turned at right angles and crossed the street, keeping as far away from the woman as he could. When he came into the house I said, "I saw that. Why did you do it?"

    "Oh, that.  Well, I guess I thought if I went to help her she was so drunk and mad she might start yelling 'rape'."

     "That was a pretty quick reaction," I said.

     "Maybe," he said; "but I've been practicing to be a Negro for a long time"

_____________________________________________________________

As I have written in these pages over the years, in the cab I have been accused of every horrible crime possible by deranged, vengeful passengers.  And too often I was targeted by cops looking for an excuse to punish me.  Given my experience, I know it was many times worse for my black and brown immigrant taxi colleagues.  

As I wrote recently, my American black friend Pavel was followed up onto the high level West Seattle freeway bridge by a WA State Highway Patrol officer, issuing him a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt.  Anyone in Seattle knows that stretch of highway is hazardous, and stopping for any reason on that roadway is to risk your life.  That explains why Steinbeck's friend said what he said, knowing anything involving a white woman could be trouble. I am sure he was very aware that the 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered in 1955 in Mississippi by a mob for allegedly whistling at a white woman.  Merely having black skin was excuse enough to get you killed. 

Could the fact be that the American taxi industry in 2012, when Uber decided to start operating, was no longer an industry populated by a majority of white drivers but black and brown immigrants, providing government regulators the excuse to give the industry a swift kick in the buttock?   Remember, it was someone no less powerful than then VP Biden who gave a Davos  Economic Conference speech praising that new transportation upstart, Uber.  And Uber's founders were very white and very Upper Middle Class. 

Good luck trying to find Steinbeck's obscure book but it is well worth the search.  It might have been his last book, published two years before his sudden death by heart attack in 1968.

America's Taxi Industry Needs A Lobbyist Before it is Run Over by Waymo

The past few weeks I've been reading all these articles about Waymo and the autonomous car industry in general, and the conclusion I've come to is that if the USA taxicab industry remains mute, it is done for.  Five years ago, talking about robotic-cabs with my fellow cabbie scoundrels at the Amtrak station, I kept saying it just wasn't possible. 

Well, I admit I was dead wrong.  Waymo and everyone else is coming for taxi's throat, and even with resistance, there is a 90% chance they are going to win anyway but doing nothing should not be an option.  Their momentum must be slowed and, after thinking about it, the only way that will happen is to gain allies on a governmental level, that is, on the municipal, county, state, port authority, and yes, even the federal level.  And this conversation needs to start, without delay, next year.  

And who should be considered for this David vs Goliath battle?  Me.  I nominate me as a prime candidate.  Do I want to do it?  Yes and no is the honest answer.  But please allow we to state my case, as I know many readers know little about me.  But folks, I am a fighter, and you will soon read about my battles.  

Being a fighter stems from my childhood, having moved yearly, making me the "new kid in town," and thus a convenient target for bullies.  Skipping the details, I never lost a fight if for no other reason that my survival depended on it.  And I rarely used my fists, instead relying upon inherited wrestling skills to bring my opponents to bay.  I abhor violence. 

My first big victory occurred when I was 18 and facing conscription into the US Army.  I just wasn't interested in participating with the US military in any way, and thus applied and received my 1-0 (CO) exemption from my draft board in Brighton, Colorado.  I mention the Adams County seat as further example of my improbable victory because in November 1972 Brighton was clearly GOP Cowboy flag-waving country and that they found me sincere in my testament is simply amazing, believing this ragtag hippie standing before them, hippie hat in hand. 

I could talk then and I can talk now.  And much more was personally at stake than simply not getting my exemption because, having already decided to refuse induction, my obstinate stance would have translated into a two-year prison term at an Federal work prison located in the hot Arizona sun.  To me the US Government was just another bully attempting to kick sand in my face.  I regard Waymo and all the billionaires backing autonomous self-driving cars similarly.  They don't intimidate me, knowing they are wrong and I am right.   

In terms of my taxi resume, I have 35 plus years experience beneath the toplight.  And brothers and sisters, I know abuse from all quarters, you name it I've had venom of every imaginal toxicity directed my way.  It is something that only a cabbie can know, which is why well-meaning non-cabbies are not who we need to speak to those holding the keys to government. 

If anyone wonders why I have written so negatively about the late Seattle Yellow GM Frank Dogwilla, in part it has to do with the many threats he made against me, disliking my advocacy for the commonplace cabbie.  All of this threatening behavior was spoken minus witnesses, knowing better than advertising his poison.  One afternoon he cornered me in a restroom after one of Craig Leisy's TAG (Taxi Advisory Group) meetings.  Dogwilla snarled, the angry Doberman he was. 

And of course the dishonest cops and deranged passengers were simply part of this kind of scenery.  Only other cabbies can understand my pain, an agony I can translate, assisting government with understanding exactly who we are and what we need, demystifying what is confounding to the uninitiated. 

But to be more specific, I led that ill-fated cab industry lawsuit against King County and their illegal maneuvering concerning their Green Cab initiative.  Amongst the titles I held during that nearly two-year long battle was president of the Alliance of Taxi Associations. In short I was the appointed leader of over three thousand cabbies, the vast majority I never personally met but over the years guys would come up and thank me for my efforts upon their behalf.  Though we lost due to King County out spending us, what I appreciated most was the trust many had for me, knowing how suspicious and paranoid cabbies can get, their belief in my credibility a true gift I have always valued.  They knew I would never lie to them, which was true, only expressing the unvarnished truth of what we were trying to accomplish.  

After that campaign, I was nominated to be a member of that ill-fated and dysfunctional political entity known as the Seattle & King County Taxi Commission.  During my second year I served as Chair.  It was a very extremely frustrating experience because we were a commission in name only, as no one in local government took us seriously, any concerns voiced by us were ignored.  Knowing we had no real power, the attitude I encountered was worse than indifference, the commission treated like it didn't exist, and in real terms I suppose it didn't.  Adding to the chaos were the non-cab industry members lack of understanding but that didn't stop them from being disruptive and unhelpful.  My only benefit gained was viewing government from the inside. That was educational.

Parallel to this in time was my personal insertion into the State of Washington Department of Labor & Industry's new punitive fee structure  initiative aimed at the entire State of Washington's taxicab industry.  L&I were holding various public forums concerning their potential monetary requests, and after attending one in Renton, Washington, I realized how drastically the taxi industry could be impacted financially if  everything L&I  was proposing came into effect.  A week later I found myself in Olympia as the sole representative from Seattle and King County providing evidence to the assembled forum. 

Thankfully my testimony was compelling, because suddenly I was invited invited upstairs and found myself in a room with five concerned L&I regulators.  The outcome of this meeting resulted in a request for half of what was initially projected.   In a quick instant I saved the combined state industry millions of dollars annually.  For my good work, BYG/Yellow Cab wrote me a check for $1,500.00 dollars.  What would have happened if I hadn't personally intervened?  Nothing good is the sad answer.

Add all this up, and I believe I can be effective.  Add in my professional experience, as I was a psychiatric case manager when I started driving cab PT in 1987, you have someone who can speak to people in authority and power.  Reaching back even further, for three years in San Francisco I was the poetry editor for a magazine with a quarterly circulation of 10,000 copies, this when I was a mere 23 year-old, further backing my assertion that I am a reasonably capable human animal, knowing when to bark, when to purr.  

As I will be out of the country beginning December 9th, and not returning until January 19th, any interest in my proposal should be communicated by email: jbyello@yahoo.com.  After that, you can call me at 206-778-0226.

My longtime companion, she who is known in these pages as "she-who-can't-be-named," calls me a "wildcard" and that is pretty much a correct assessment.  I have at times scared the more conservative elements in the taxi world, misinterpreting my vigor and approach.  My background is varied to the point that many find it confusing, certainly wondering how I ended up driving cab.  I was once married to a millionaire's daughter.  I've worked in psychiatric wards and ran half-way houses.  I understand the high and low strata of life and society.  I can reach the crazy, I can reach the sane and everyone in-between. Dogs and cats like me too. 

Some will say that this informal application is merely confusing. But I say, to the contrary, I have accurately outlined who I am.  And folks, you don't have half of my story but believe me I can make things happen. When I was in my cab, I was unstoppable.  I made taxi happen down those rutted roads. I averaged 30% tipping.  There are real reasons why I was generously tipped, and not merely due my wonderful smile and engaging personality!  Could it have been because I was the quickest from Point A to B?  Maybe. 

How Many Cabs Does Seattle Yellow (PSD) Have?

It is disappointing to me that much of the information I get my from Seattle taxi buddies is sometimes less than accurate.  More than one source said that Yellow's total number of operating cabs was down to as little as 130. A far more reliable source stated that as of November 2nd, 2025, Yellow had 265 cabs.  Why the discrepancy?  Emotion caused by too many years of powerlessness generated by associations and companies holding too much power over drivers and single owner/operators is the simple answer.  Being powerless creates a variety of responses: resentment, anger, hatred, madness, rebellion, helplessness, all helping to explain why some of what I am told is not completely reliable. I encourage everyone involved to remember that real human lives are affected by decisions made.  All we are is human.  That reality should be respected when making decisions that have real impacts upon others. Like a pinball machine, with too much shaking the human brain goes "tilt" and stops working properly. Seattle's cabbies have endured much stress since 2012.  It is bound to have an affect.