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Hey, Brookline: Keep your cabs outta Brighton
By adamg on Thu, 03/05/2009 - 9:40am
Wicked Local Allston/Brighton reports that when a Brookline cabbie picking up fares in Brighton noticed the cops were onto him (it being illegal for townie cabbies to stop for people flagging them in Boston), he sped off down Comm. Ave. and tried to hightail it out of town down Corey. But once cornered, he allegedly refused to let his three riders out. He relented before the hostage team had to be called in and he was arrested on a variety of driving violations.
Earlier:
He's not the first Brookline cabbie trying to muscle in on the Boston dime.
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Comments
No wonder
Well, if you could actually find a cab in Boston....
western burbs
Exactly. In the two times I wanted to take a taxi from Rozzie to Logan, the cityofboston.gov recommended taxi companies promised but failed to deliver. I was forced to drive and park my car. $$$
If the city prosecutes out of town taxis, it had better well ensure that there are legitimate companies servicing _all_ of Boston. Which there aren't.
Non-Boston taxis
You can always phone for a cab from non-Boston operators, such as Red Cab or Bay State Taxi (both actually the same company) in Brookline. That's perfectly legal. What isn't legal is for non-Boston cabbies to cruise for customers on the street, or to use Boston cab stands.
Brookline Red cab and Bay
Brookline Red cab and Bay State Taxi are two seperate companies. And have been for almost three (3) years.
That rule is pretty silly...
I understand why it is the way it is. Cabbie tokens being auctioned for exorbitant rates and all - so nobody wants anyone poaching on their turf.
However.
1> It's wasteful. If a Brookline cabbie can get a fair going from Brighton to Brookline on his return trip - it only makes sense from a fuel efficiency prospect
2> It's a hassle for riders. How often has a cabbie from some other district just cruised on by unable to pick you up? When it's cold out and you just want to get home - does it really matter to the consumer?
It's not like Boston / Cambridge / Brookline cabbies don't poach on each others territory _all_ the time.
For those of us who actually live here...
I've been taking cabs regularly since college (early 90s) and have long heard both sides of the story, both from Boston and non Boston based cabs. The fines are really stiff in Boston and Cambridge for out of town taxis, as if they are 'stealing' fares from local taxis. In times like these, it gets to be a fare fight. Some cabbies even tell me that the fallout after 9/11 latest till 2006 or 2007 and it was just recently they could eek out a living.
The bottom line is, we live in a place where it rains, snows and gets pretty darn cold, and if am working late and have missed the last train back out to Brookline, I don't care what town the taxi is from, I just want to get home.
To be honest, I've never had an issue trying to get a cab except at peak times from Logan, or Government Center when the bars let out.
Cambridge and Boston cops have many better things to do than issue a ticket to a cabbie. How about working more beats in Dorcestor? How about rousting homeless people?
hackney divisions
At $500 a whack, these hackney cops actually make money for the dept, and also probably have more work than you think investigating parking, traffic and even crime issues involving cab violations.
Is the driver foreign?
If so, let's throw him out of the country and give his medallion to an American citizen who's recently been laid off.
If he's from here, let's just take his medallion away anyway.
Off with his head!
If we were to just decapitate him, then we wouldn't even have to concern ourselves with trying to determine his citizenship.
Hell, we wouldn't have to cover his unemployment or welfare benefits either once you had put him out of work! Someone summon the Queen of Hearts!
Are you saying...
...that he should still be allowed anywhere near a taxicab? Need I remind you that he kidnapped three people?
The police must suck
They didn't even charge him with ONE count of kidnapping, let alone three.
The guy is a moron and has enough charges against him from doing something stupid that he'll probably be fired before you take away his medallion (the company had to be called to get his identity because he slipped the cop trying to pull him over for the ordinance violation). But he needs deportation (your answer to anything furr'in)? Your more tame, and maybe even more reasonable, suggestion that they keep him from being a cabbie is lost in the histrionics that you always knee-jerk to.
It also appears that they didn't even include the original complaint about where he was picking up passengers up against him.
Well, at least he didn't rape them.
like other cabbies (or people pretending to be cabbies) have been making a habit of lately.
http://www.bpdnews.com/2008/12/community_alert_15....
come on kaz...
way too much blood by cutting off someones head that would result in unecessary cleanup by some city employee.
I think a crossbow death squad is much neater and effecient.