“It’s a ghost town,” notes Tang, as he drives through Chinatown.
Wain Chin, who has driven a yellow taxi since 1992, has not worked since the pandemic hit New York. He says the possibility of getting some clients does not guarantee the risk of catching Covid-19 and potentially transmitting the disease to his wife and three children.
In addition to the low number of passengers, many drivers stopped driving for fear of catching the virus.
“Drivers are among the first people to be exposed to Covid,” said Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA). “We lost so many drivers.”
For many who have stopped driving, federal unemployment checks have become the only source of income. When they ran out in the summer, some drivers, like Tang, had no option but to drive a taxi again. At 36, he thinks he has less risk of getting the virus, but the anxiety exists. In December, Tang says a driver who frequented the same taxi rank in Chinatown as he died of complications from Covid-19.
The history of an industry tragedy
For Desai and other members of the NYTWA, the tragedy in the industry is all too familiar.
Traditionally, taxis in large cities require medallions – official licenses that allow the exclusivity of yellow taxis to catch hail on the streets. The new medallions are sold around the city or, more commonly, bought at auctions.
In 2018, nine drivers hired in New York died of suicide, crushed by the financial pressure of debts with their medallions. Three of them were yellow taxi drivers.
Kenny Chow, a 56-year-old yellow taxi driver, was among the victims. His older brother, Richard Chow, is plagued by the memory of losing Kenny.
“I told him to fight bankruptcy,” said Chow. “I didn’t know that he would make that decision. Very moving.”
Immigrants helping each other
The Chow brothers were close friends of Chin, connecting about his shared Burmese heritage and navigating together through the complexities of immigrants’ lives.
In an industry largely made up of immigrant workers, where language can be a barrier, going through medallion rental documents can be challenging. Chin often sits down with new drivers to ensure that they fully understand the documents they are signing and do not fall into the debt trap.
Since Kenny’s death, Chin and Richard talk to each other every day and often visit Carl Schurz Park on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the place where Kenny took his own life.
They lean on the railing looking at the East River and have a moment of silence. Richard prays that other drivers don’t have the same fate as his brother.
Debt drives industry
Richard bought his own medallion in 2006 for $ 410,000. Fifteen years later, he still owes $ 390,000. “Thousands of drivers are feeling the same … fighting.”
Tang acquired his father’s $ 530,000 medallion debt after his death and today pays more than $ 2,800 a month to his asset management company, despite being able to pick up only a few passengers per shift.
When ride-sharing platforms like Uber and Lyft entered the market in early 2010, the value of a taxi medallion plummeted.
An asset that was valued at more than $ 1 million in 2013, medallions now cost between $ 75,000 and $ 100,000, leaving drivers with debt of $ 450,000 on average, according to Desai.
“For thousands of owner-drivers, medallions have been their point of access to stable middle-class life,” says Desai, especially for immigrants. For many, this dream will never come true.
In 2013, yellow taxis made almost half a million trips a day. In 2020, that number dropped to 50-60 thousand. But the yellow taxi industry was already bleeding from travel before the pandemic.
As unregulated rental vehicles flooded the streets, investment-backed platforms such as Uber and Lyft have lowered tariffs, capable of absorbing the loss. As passengers flocked to these cheaper and more accessible taxis, the yellow taxi drivers were left behind.
Attempts to catch up were largely unsuccessful. Several yellow taxi call apps have emerged in recent years, but have not been able to recapture customers.
Drivers fight for legislation
In response, NYTWA organized numerous demonstrations in New York in the hope that legislation to support the yellow taxi industry would be passed. In September, hundreds of yellow taxi drivers stopped traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, asking for debt forgiveness. Tang, Chow and Chin have actively participated in the NYTWA demonstrations.
The protests culminated in a motorcade that traveled from New York to Washington, DC, collecting yellow taxi drivers from Maryland and Philadelphia. They parked in front of the Capitol, demanding that Congress approve the stimulus bill.
“We have people doing politics with our lives,” says Tang.
NYTWA submitted a proposal for New York City asking it to support loans that would be restructured to a maximum of $ 125,000 per medallion. Drivers would still be responsible for paying the loan and, in the event of default, the medallion would be taken over and auctioned.
The plan will cost $ 75 million over 20 years for a city that has an annual budget of $ 92 billion.
New York City controller Scott Stringer and New York Attorney General Letitia James expressed support for the NYTWA proposal, along with high-profile politicians such as Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders.
Desai says the yellow pre-pandemic taxi drivers were very close to victory. As Covid-19 swept the city and the country, attention was diverted from the situation of taxi drivers. However, Desai and other drivers are optimistic that they will finally get the legislative support they need.
“Through quarantine, we build a true sense of community,” insists Desai. She notes that union membership actually grew in 2020.
For Tang, unity is essential to victory. Despite having decades of age difference, he refers to Chin and Chow as his brothers. He befriended them at Kenny Chow’s vigil in 2018, and since then, their bond has only strengthened.
“I believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I really think we can make changes when we get enough people together,” said Tang.
“We will continue to fight for this. We will continue to make noise.”