Council Eyes Taxi Stands in the Four Boroughs

With a growing number of New Yorkers traveling by taxi within boroughs other than Manhattan, the City Council today is considering a bill that would flood those districts with yellow cabs.

The $3 million plan would establish 10 taxi dispatchers near crowded train and bus lines in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Specific locations have not been determined.

"The reality of New York today is that people outside of Manhattan's central business district would like to jump in a cab on demand," Council Member John Liu, who heads the council's Transportation Committee and is sponsoring the bill, said in an interview yesterday. Mr. Liu is pushing for the city to reinvest a small portion of the $141 million it made last year on taxi medallion sales in these stands. "As we have more economic activity outside Manhattan, we will get more demand for yellow cabs," he said.

The Bloomberg administration and the livery industry, in an unlikely marriage, are expected to oppose the plan, sources said. The stumbling block for the city is the cost. Livery drivers say they consider the boroughs outside Manhattan their territory and would, under the new scheme, be swamped with competition. The commissioner of the Taxi & Limousine Commission, Matthew Daus, today is likely to testify against the proposal at a City Council hearing.

The 10 taxi stands would be the first funded by the city. Taxi stands in Manhattan are paid for by business improvement districts or private agencies; most are self-policing and do not demand the presence of a dispatcher.

While Mr. Liu said he thinks many taxi drivers would happily leave the "rat race" of Manhattan's overcrowded streets for a sure fare in Brooklyn or Queens, some cabbies contend that Manhattan is still their undisputed cash cow.

"I'm not going out to Brooklyn or Queens empty," a taxi driver, Amir Gobran, said. "I'd probably use the stands only if I was coming in from the airports."

Proponents of the new taxi stands argue that they would also aid the city in cracking down on the illegal practices of livery cars, which by law are prohibited from picking up customers who hail them on the street.