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In the East Village by Tompkins Square Park I saw all these cool 60's era cars. It became clear pretty soon that they were rented for use with either a movie or maybe a new HBO TV show. They were all so shiny and such, the people who cared for the cars weren't too far away, sitting outside in the sun on plastic chairs smoking their cigars.  I especially like the authentic license plates. The Mercedez even had a grille pin. Honestly though, back in the 60's and 70's nobody would be parking cars this nice in the neighborhood unless they had some power and influence in the area. Now a days it's not uncommon to see a brand new Benz followed by an 80's Toyota Tercel.  What a gorgeous color aqua!   And the Iconic Checker, no period piece is complete without one.  Shots from 8/11/08
I'd like to apologize for two things. Firstly I shouldn't have used such harsh language in my post(s) referring to the untrusting passenger I had taken to the airport on Saturday. Secondly I have been lagging behind with my photo posts. I am still posting pictures from the summer, because it just takes too long to edit the pictures. I'm thinking my next post will have pictures from this last weekend.
Shots from 8/11/08
At an intersection by 5th Avenue amongst million dollar residences this homeless man sleeps in a cardboard hut until the winter cold comes in. I hadn't been paying much attention to the homeless situation prior to the picture, but soon after as news of the stock market dropping from bull to bear and every politician admitting disaster, the homeless situation appeared to increase two and three-fold.
Greenwich Village
I noticed the food and blanket lines were longer, and there appeared to be more lines too. Only a few weeks ago while I was waiting for the 7 train to take me to work, a photographer honed in on a bench of sleeping people with rolling luggage. The key that really made this photo-op strong was one man who had a thick chain wrapped around both his leg and his luggage so his things didn't get stolen while he slept. All the Transit workers let the guy take his pictures, it's something that needs to be shown. The subway system for its entire life has been a sanctuary for the homeless, providing heat and shelter for a two dollar entry fee. As long as the homeless don't cause a commotion or expel fluids, they're usually allowed to stay. If the two dollar fee is too steep, some homeless ride the Staten Island ferry, which is free, and then sleep at the ferry terminal on the island.
Middle Village, Queens
It was a Monday and so after a fare out to JFK Airport, I drove back to Manhattan through the streets. Above is a well maintained cemetery and funeral home. I have no facts to back this up, but I believe Queens has the most cemeteries in both number and size, in all of New York City.
Ridgewood, Queens
Right near where Queens meets Brooklyn, a small creek spreads through a neighborhood of auto-parts and garbage treatment facilities.
The sky turned from blue to gray in less than 5 minutes and dropped a few buckets of rain. As I headed to the Williamsburg Bridge the traffic grew rude and clustered.
Below: an homage to the East Village of the 80's still remains.
East Village
The accident that my customer didn't believe existed was so big it made the news:
I happened to be driving someone to Greenpoint an hour before the bitch from hell (see post below) got in and called me a liar for telling her the valuable information. Anyway the customer who I took to Brooklyn was a typical well natured guy. I heard not one complaint from him while we sat in a small line of cars passing by the smashed BMW X5. I was the last car they let pass before they closed off the whole entrance ramp to the expressway. The police were a little annoyed with me when I drove by real slow. But I was nervous, the car looked so bad I was afraid it might explode. I guess I saw too many Schwarzenegger movies.
Another side note, was that some kids in a Toyota 4Runner with PA plates were throwing pennies at me before we made it to the bridge. I took this in stride believe it or not, first because none of the pennies hit me in the head, second because despite throwing some pennies back in their direction without hitting their car, they didn't escalate the situation further. Hopefully when they saw the accident they sobered up.
I had the worst customer ever today. She wanted to go to Laguardia airport from SoHo over the Williamsburg Bridge. I told her there was an accident on that bridge, and we might want to take another way. She said whatever route I thought was the fastest was good. Then all of the sudden she wanted to hear 1010Wins. She told me she was listening to it before she left and they didn't mention the accident. So I turned all the radio station traffic reports up so she could hear, and none spoke about the bridge. 1010Wins in particular even said that all the bridges were clear. She called me a liar and refused to pay the toll.
I blew up at her yelling about how I saw the accident with my own eyes, how it is insulting to be called a liar, and how the extra money shes paying for the toll isn't going in my pocket, so I wasn't scamming her. What a fuckin' bitch, cunt, motherfucker! (No I didn't use any of that language.) She expressed that she was disapointed with our route, but she wasn't giving it a fair chance. I turned up the radio once again to all the stations, and there it was, Brooklyn bound side of the Williamsburg Bridge, she didn't care.
She said, "I still can't believe we got into a shouting match"
I said, "It is very insulting that you called me a liar! I just saved you from a big mess!"
Fucking bitch, I hope she drowns in her own stupidity. She did pay the toll, she had to, because she used a credit card, no tip, fuck if I care. So if anyone sees a dumb blonde bitch in SoHo who is a nurse, and pretends to know New York City, kill her for me. The fare came to $29.15 including the toll, and took exactly 20 minutes. Seriously if I get one more idiot customer I'm quitting, seriously, I can't take this bullshit.
Long Island City, Queens
Before the Dominican Day Parade, Midtown
Shots from 8/10/08 (set A)
A bottleneck is a traffic term for when lots of traffic gets forced through a small space. Take a small bottle of soda, twist the cap open, turn it upside down, and then watch as the liquid struggles to escape. The liquid would escape much faster and smoother if the hole was wider.
I am grateful that I don't usually drive when and where there is traffic, but the pictures below show a situation that could escalate to bottlenecking madness very quickly if it was later in the day.
Midtown
Double parking taxis in the left lane, and double parking tour buses in the right lane, shrink the width of 7th Avenue, causing this bus to block the whole street. Sometimes there are triple parked buses and cars on both sides. Note the green light, above.
And now, the red light.
This is a symptom of a lack of planning, in my opinion, by the street planners. There isn't enough accommodations for all the buses, taxis, trucks, and vans.
Buses- If we had the bus stops and bus layover parking zones to match all the bus companies we have, than buses would no longer pose a problem. Measures also need to be taken to enforce ticketing for buses and trucks that block the intersection when they proceed through yellow and red traffic lights only to find no space on the other side of the intersection.
Taxis- We need more taxi stands, real full fledged taxi stands, not just small spaces for one and two cabs. Imagine how serene New York City life would be if every 10 blocks there were taxi stands accommodating 10 to 15 cabs. Eliminate street parking, increase the amount of taxi stands, and for hire vehicle standing zones. With less taxis cruising, there will be far less density in our traffic and less reckless driving. For hire vehicles A.K.A. limousines are constantly looking for spaces to wait until they are called, and adequate waiting zones for them is also necessary or else they slow down traffic causing bottlenecks.
Trucks and commercial vans- Ugh, these are a few of my least favorite things. Other cities have certain hours where deliveries are allowed, but in New York City, there are always deliveries all the time. Again I think we should reduce civilian parking while increasing commercial vehicle parking. The existing commercial loading sites, and there are plenty, need to change from part-time regulation hours to full-time. All non commercial vehicles should be towed and ticketed. To regulate the time a particular delivery can last, these commercial zones should have muni-meter regulations with an hour limit. If a vehicle stays on the block for more than an hour, they should be ticketed the first hour after, and towed the next hour after. Double parking shouldn't be legal for anyone, anywhere.
Garbage collection- Here's an idea: have designated streets for both deliveries and garbage pick-up leaving the rest of us to clear streets elsewhere.
But most importantly, all rules are nothing without constant enforcement. But I digress, if the streets were properly laid out for all the action, more standing zones for all and less parking for regular cars, then streets would flow smoothly and perhaps there would be less rules broken, less tickets issued, and thus less income for the City of New York.
You gotta see these in reference to Barack Obama being elected late on Tuesday Night:
However shocking this all is, while we all voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Obama, most of us stayed at home like good citizens. As usual it was quiet as a mouse in good ol' Staten Island, just as it was quiet when the Giants won the Super Bowl. Some may think we don't care, no we care, but the whole borough always wakes up really early to get to work in the morning. My downstairs neighbor, a teacher, unleashed a scream when the electoral college climbed above 270. Me and my room-mate just sat there in silence, we couldn't believe it.
Even now that 2 days have past, I look around on the subways and I still can't imagine that the entire north-east of America had voted, let alone our city, for the African-American, anti-war, pro-choice, young senator. I am ecstatic, but in all of this excitement I am not sure who to be mad at anymore. My government has been surprising me more and more in this past year: I've had the IRS give me an extra 300 dollars because I forgot to file a section on the form correctly, the Post Office handled my change of address request instantaneously, and the court that called me in for jury duty accepted my excuse that I was no longer a resident of Manhattan County and did so with relative efficiency, Oh, and did I forget to mention, Obama won??!!!!!!!
Now let's hope that he can flip the economy (that should take a while), take less taxes from the poor, give health care to all citizens, and maybe just maybe give us a higher mile per gallon taxi regulation.
It's always a good idea to have knowledge of what streets are closing, and when. For the best traffic overview click here: Gridlock Sam's Daily News Traffic Page, especially on weekends, especially today.
Ask 50 cabbies what they would rather drive, hybrid or Crown Victoria, and at least 20 if not more, will tell you they'd prefer less gas consumption. I say once we go green, we'll never go back, I know it's not quite so catchy but it's the truth. The Metropolitan Taxi Board of Trade just won a preliminary injunction against Mayor Bloomberg's green taxi agenda. What really rubs me the wrong way, is that we cabbies have been mis-represented. The MTBOT doesn't represent all New York taxi drivers. Quite the contrary, it mostly represents taxi owners, most of whom lease their cabs to drivers and thus do not have to pay for gas themselves. The reason the judge halted the green taxi fleet plan was not because of safety issues, or durability concerns. Rather, the judge halted further greening of our taxis because only federal government and not local government, has "the right to set fuel efficiency standards."-NYTimes
To further prove my point I encourage you, the reader to survey 50 cabbies who already drive hybrids as taxis, if 90% don't say they are glad they made the switch, well, I'll be surprised.
Click here for The New York Times article:
Astoria, Queens
West Midtown, near Penn Station
Hell's Kitchen
Chelsea
Harlem
Chelsea
Greenwich Village
Midtown
Shots from 7/27/08
Tudor City and The United Nations
SoHo
Shots from 8/9/08
For several years now hybrids have been proving their safety and reliability to the public not only as private cars, but as taxis. One of the few things the mayor has done right was buckling down on both the taxi and private for hire business. I posted a piece over at YellowCabNYC.com. Stay tuned over at YellowCabNYC, I'll be publishing pictures and stories over there too, while also publishing over here at NYCtaxiphoto.blogspot.comYellowCabNYC.com is a great source for current news relating to the world of NYC taxi, and I'm glad to be a part of it. I'll make sure NYC taxi photo continues to be as awesome as it always has been as well.
Nissan Altima hybrid taxi 
The Strand Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Times Square
Sometimes the police have scheduled times and locations where a few precincts show up at once and park their cars everywhere. The woman in front of the car didn't realize he was parking.
Shots from 7/26/08
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Chelsea
Sunnyside, Queens
Far West Side
Shots from 7/6/08
Chelsea
Sunnyside, Queens
Far West Side
I usually don't talk about what happens outside of work, but I feel I need to vent. As I was posting my last blog post at the Apple Store yesterday, it seemed I was running into a bit of luck because a few photographers were going to show their work and talk about some of their pictures. What are the odds, I didn't even have to get out of my seat to see some fine photography. The first photographer shows his work for about 45 minutes; it was all documentary work. I was stunned by the high quality I was seeing. So after he was done his whole spiel about humanity, and respect to his subjects, about marketing aggressively, I decided I would tell him about my spectacular blog. First I would write my name and email down on his contact list, then I would talk to him and hand him my card. While I signed my name and email, my hand was shaking and my penmanship was just awful due to the previous coffee I'd had. I made sure to control my hand writing, a man on my right encouraged me to write faster, then encouraged me to take his card rather than waste time writing my name on the list, "What are you writing, an essay?" he asked. I had no time to look up because I was engrossed in tunnel vision, then I continued to write my Url down too, because honestly I had no interest in receiving junk mail, I'd rather have more people view my site.
I was completely unfazed by this asshole, and so I continued to the other end of the table where I thought the photographer would be. Well, guess what? that asshole was the photographer, and when I returned to the contact list he had written under my name, only write your name and email address.
The fact of the matter is that he'd have been pissed at me no matter what I'd written on that list. He had seen me as unimportant, a pee-on, less then worthy of his 35 cent paper. And for that Landon Nordeman, you are scum, and I will neither support you nor the APA.
Sunnyside, Queens
Astoria, Queens
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Shots also from 6/29/08
Sunnyside, Queens
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Gravesend, Brooklyn
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Shots from 6/29/08
-Situation number three: In the previous situation a cabbie would receive a double-parking ticket for waiting in a moving lane without picking up or dropping off people. However, if a cab dropped off a fare and still received a double-parking ticket, would this be fair? The answer to this question depends on small technicalities, but here’s my story: After an earlier nasty customer and the added waste of time I spent going to the airport and waiting there, soggy day turned sour post, I looked for an easy ride, something short, preferably not involving Manhattan, and I was really excited to get just that. The Short Ride
She was an unusual fare. She hailed me, but then directed me to meet her at her house down the street, where I’d meet her and she’d load the car. In the normal hustle and bustle of New York madness, I might have expressed to her that I didn’t have the abundance of time to load and unload a car no matter how short the ride, but since the last thing I wanted was another obnoxious rider in busy Manhattan traffic, I thought of this ride as a blessing. I pulled to the curb of the address O.J. Simpson style -- crooked that is -- and waited for her to find me. It was a quiet street with Manhattan’s skyline in sight, but its sounds and congestion were so far away. When she got there we started carrying down her things from upstairs. Eventually we loaded the trunk. One exception was a long bamboo stick which was placed across the back seat and protruded through a rear window.
“My roommate just left, and she left all this mess behind,“ she said. She then pulled on the front right door latch assuming it would be unlocked, since the back had that long bamboo across the seat, but then upon finding it locked she feared she’d overstepped her boundary with the New York taxi driver.
“Can I ride in the front?”
I couldn't unlock the door fast enough and I told her it wasn't a problem while I moved my bag -- filled with nothing -- under the cup holders. She sat down, and laid, each arm against its respective armrest.
"I'm sorry, I'm used to... where I'm from we all just hop in the front when we hail taxis," she said.
I pulled the U-turn, turned on the meter, and drove the short distance to the thrift store. She pulled out a ten-dollar bill, handed it to me, and told me with a struggle of colloquialism, it was “for my trouble.” She had an unusual comfort about her, like she’d ridden in dozens of taxis before; only she had a totally different association with them from riding in other parts of the world. It was as if she trusted cab drivers; it was as if the cab felt more like home to her than her own house. I can’t explain exactly what makes me assume all of that, but I am a pretty good judge of people’s comfort and discomfort, the way they carry themselves. Sensing all of this I tried to desperately keep her talking, to figure out anything more I could about this odd person who was actually comfortable in a yellow cab.
“So, are you… new to uhh... this neighborhood?” I wanted to ask what country she was from, but she seemed too settled to be a fresh American. Besides, I know nothing of foreign countries. My geography knowledge expands from midtown to Queens, and I dabble in the Boogie-Down and the Island of Shaolin.
“Oh I’ve been here for 3 years, or 4,” she replied. “It’s a great neighborhood-“
“Oh yeah,” I said, “Its convenience to the city, its proximity to Manhattan, is just so good if you have a car."
“It’s a very quiet neighborhood, really nice, the best neighborhood I’ve been to in New York yet, and the N train is right here,” she said.
And so we were on to small talk, and although I made sure we continued the small talk, I wished I hadn’t. So it turned out she’d been to a few more neighborhoods in New York, been in the city for 5 years or so, and came from some country I already don’t remember where. Pointless, all of it; the ride took less than 2 minutes and we had to find a parking spot. Instantly 3 separate parking spots opened, and instantly there was a car waiting behind each one to park.
It was useless, so we double-parked in front of the thrift store. We immediately got somebody from the store to help unpack the car, and the 3 of us got the car empty faster than you can say, hey I’m walkin’ here, well, not that fast, but it was record time I tell ya. A man inside his PT Cruiser was waiting patiently for it all to end so he could get out of his parking space, I was impressed. But equally unimpressive was the guy waiting to take his spot when he left, he kept leaning on his horn. I acknowledged the man in the PT Cruiser with a smile for his tolerance, and glared back at the black Pontiac with yellow Jersey plates, pressing his horn as if it were the greatest musical instrument ever.
As I got in my cab to leave, my customer came back and leaned in on the passenger-side door, telling me she still owed me for the ride.
“Nope, I got your ten right here,” I said. What I really wanted to say was: The ride is done, I can’t stay here forever, and really a ten is more than enough. But I didn’t want to be rude. I’d had it with rudeness. Besides, anymore moments with her might give me more clues as to what was up with her, and maybe with more time I could get her number. There. I said it. I said it in my head, not out loud of course.
She then says, “No, the ten was for your help. Now I have to pay for the ride." Then I'm handed a business card, “Here. This will change your life forever.” Modern Buddhism, it said, in an all lowercase, rounded European type-font. I wasn’t sure whether this was a graphic design group or a religious group of which she was a part.
Before I could think, I dug through my bag like a nervous school boy. “Wait, I’ve got to give you my business car-“, my business cards were all torn and tattered at the corners, with faded black ink coloring, and a photograph I took dating back 2 or 3 years now.
I was too ashamed to even carry my cards with me, so she’ll never find out about this blog and read this entry. Nor will she be able to send me an email in Helvetica. As if that disappointment wasn’t enough—
The Ticket
BEEP. The ticketing agent for the neighborhood had just run her scanner across my registration and I was now getting a ticket for double-parking. My customer was still leaning into the car. She dug through her bag and handed me a handful of change. I don’t care for change, but to keep her spirits good, I took it. The change didn’t even cover the fare. Now all that good energy had gone out the window, and I had to go back to Mr. Angry Cabbie in my conversation with the ticket agent. Ticket agent- “Could you move up, so that the guy behind you can leave?” Me- “Why should I? You're already gonna give me the ticket.” Agent- “I see. So you're going to be a jerk to him because he’s honking his horn. I see.” Me- “Well actually I like that guy a lot. He’s being very patient. It’s the guy behind him who’s being an asshole.” I eventually moved up, out of courtesy for the guy behind me, because the ticket agent was taking way too long to punch up the ticket on her electro gizmo. However, I didn’t move up enough because I didn’t want to create an impression that I was evading the ticket, and the little PT Cruiser still didn’t see enough space to get out of his spot. I tried to come up with a quick explanation as to why this ticket was unjustified: “I couldn’t just leave. My customer was leaning into my window. What am I supposed to do kill her?” Ticket agent- “You’re blocking traffic. Listen to all those people honking at you.” I smirked in response. This was nothing new. I’m driving a big yellow taxi, and being a nuisance to unsuspecting drivers is my job. If you ask me, people who honk their horns more than four times per minute within the span of three or more successive minutes should pay the maximum fine: 350 dollars. When people honk at me I give them the brakes; I brake for horns. People need to learn that horns after a certain point are just obnoxious. Imagine hearing people’s horns for 12 successive hours.
So my customer had finally gone away, the ticketing agent was finished with me, and traffic was delayed twice as long as it would have been, had I not been ticketed. There it went, my whole day, I thought, all my profit, taken by the department of finance.
I took one more small fare in Queens, driving her around the block while she grabbed her purse or something; then drove her another three blocks to her destination. That was it. I arrived at the garage in disgust, thinking nice guys finish last, that I should never go out of my way to help someone with tons of stuff again. I counted out my profit for the day, it was $114, and the parking ticket: $115. Oh bitter fate, cruel irony, how you mock me!! Total profit: negative one dollar. Not Guilty!
The dispatchers heard my bitter cries and gave me a call that night. They told me to explain my situation to their in-house lawyer. The lawyer told me my chances were better than most people's to win because: - I had been in the car while receiving the ticket
- I had turned the meter off after the ticket was received
Thus, it was proven, when I appeared for my hearing with a copy of my GPS trip record, that the ride was finished after the ticket was issued. My fare was still paying me the fare while I was being ticketed. Case Dismissed!!!!! Oh I could hug this judge!!
-Situation number two: There is a particular taxi line with such high volume some days it doubles to two lines; one line in the parking lane, and the other in an otherwise moving lane. And on this second line when taxis stop at the intersection while the light is green to wait for their spot on the line at the other end of the intersection they sometimes get a ticket for double parking I assume. I have seen this twice and fortunately I was never precisely at the intersection while the cop was there. Once I saw a cop walking towards me from behind while flipping open the ticket book. The whole line was able to clear out before anybody received a ticket. Avoiding a ticket is three parts hyper-awareness and one part luck, maybe two parts luck. From this I decided to always stop before the intersection when waiting for a chance at a passenger, then to proceed slowly to the intersection and look for ticketing agents. Stay tuned for #3 which is way better...
I can’t write enough about tickets, and it’s now been more than a year since I’ve received a moving violation! There have been some close calls of course and I still get a few parking tickets, but mostly, I’ve stayed clear of the thin yellow slip demanding we pay our due, or go to trial and then pay our due. Getting tickets is kind of reminiscent of getting scolded for running in the hallway as a child: it is inevitable. Neither now nor then could I prove my innocence, the system has no tolerance for back talk young man. But sometimes there are days when I win one, and those days will live forever in the depths of my jigsaw puzzle of a brain. -Situation one: Once after dropping some one off at a LaGuardia Terminal, I unknowingly crossed a solid white line. A Port Authority Officer was waiting for me so I pulled to the shoulder and after he told me what I had done wrong, I acted as genuine and apologetic as I could, while trying to maintain confidence and clarity of voice. After I gave him my license, he told me he’d give me a break, a BREAK!? Can you imagine? He asked me if I might know where he could find a taxi that completely evaded the pull over and accelerated right past him. I told him about the 4 airport hold lots, “But when I leave the airport,” I said, “I just drive back to the city to avoid the waiting time.” “So basically he could be anywhere-“ He asked, or ascertained. I looked straight ahead, trying to hide my pride for the fugitive cabbie, then turned to the officer “Yeah, I guess so.” “Don’t worry, I’ll get him,” he said, as if somehow we were in this together. He then turned to the limousine behind me and signaled him for a pull over now that he’d finished with me.
Situation #2 tomorrow, then #3 the next day.
Mott Haven, The Bronx
Adjacent to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Upper East Side
The Guggenheim Museum, Upper East Side
Shots from 9/28/08
Sorry it's been more than 6 days since my last post, I've come down with a flu bug that's been going around, and my nose has grown like Pinocchio's. Anyway, I think my health is getting back to its usual strong form, and this blog will get back to the somewhat regular posts too.
Before looking at the regular shift shots, I'd like to thank Bob who writes Taxitales, and Two Steps Back, for leaving me a link for a page with hundreds of pictures of old New York dating back more than a century ago, one guy on the Wired New York Forum posted all of them: New York in Black and White.
Some famous photographers names include Walker Evans, Alfred Stieglitz, Weegee, Berenice Abbott, et-cetera, et-cetera. The images really lead me to compare and contrast the different layouts of city streets, how our grid has or hasn't evolved to our traffic conditions today. Before the automobile people were more dependent on the trolley , the subway, and el. The streets were narrower and more bridges, for example, the Brooklyn Bridge, would have train cars as well as horses and then horse-less carriages. The bus depot once looked like a large diner, and was adjacent to Penn Station. Penn Station of course is now just a basement in Madison Square Garden. The Port Authority Bus Terminal is now at least 8 times the size of the Greyhound Bus Terminal, and west of Times Square. It also appears that traffic got bad in the mid-30's. It is extremely interesting stuff.
I suppose there were plenty of negatives too, where are the women? And why did the men always wear work clothes and bowler hats? Different times, different times. Also all that horse-manure lying around couldn't have been healthy.
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
TriBeCa
Midtown
Shots from 6/28/08
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