Hundreds of San Francisco cab drivers who purchased taxi medallions for $250,000 have been betrayed and abandoned by the city they serve. San Francisco has betrayed them by enticing them into purchasing taxi medallions that previously were earned through years of service. And again by welcoming Uber and Lyft, who didn’t have to pay the City a dime. And yet again, by failing to fix the broken system it created, even as drivers’ incomes plummeted and they were drowning in debt.
The result? More than 40% of purchasers have lost their medallions to foreclosure, and those who remain are prisoners in this system, trapped in predatory loans. Not a single taxi medallion has been sold since April 2016. In the meantime, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and San Francisco Federal Credit Union, which holds most of the loans and foreclosed medallions, have been in litigation and negotiations for more than seven years – and still there is no agreement to fix this broken system.
We, the undersigned San Francisco taxi drivers and supporters of taxi drivers, call upon Mayor Daniel Lurie to intervene in these stalled negotiations, assist in resolving the dispute, and provide desperately needed relief to taxi drivers who purchased medallions.
We call upon Mayor Lurie to conduct discussions with and among ALL stakeholders, including medallion purchasers and their representatives, to achieve the following ends:
- Resolving outstanding issues between the SFMTA and the Credit Union;
- Relieving the financial burden on taxi medallion purchasers; and
- Reaching a just and fair reform of San Francisco’s failed Medallion Sales Program.
