Once more with feeling

Uber in Portland from a cabbie's perspective.

Cabs have been regulated by the city of portland for decades. They told us how many cabs we could have. How much we could charge. How we had to cover the rural areas. How many of our cabs had to be wheelchair accessible.

All we asked is that the rideshare companies Uber and Lyft be regulated too.

But Dan Saltzman, Steve Novick, and Charlie Hales voted to let them in. Amanda Fritz and Nick Fish voted against them.

Novick and Hales had a meeting with the Uber lobbyist and 'forgot' to put it on the public record.

Then they said 'This kind of thing should never happen again' Which basically meant to me that it was going to happen again. A very half hearted apology.

Now fast forward a year or two, There is new evidence that Uber intentionally created software to skirt Portland's regulations before they were approved.

Uber does not even make money. They are funded by billions of dollars in venture capital. Portland Cab companies do not have that luxury, we have to compete and prove it every night and find a way to be profitable.

Is it really fair for us to have to compete with these huge companies?

We basically got rid of Hales and Novick, Hales didn't run for reelection and Novick lost, the only reason Saltzman is still there is probably because he hasn't had to run for reelection since the Uber vote.

Now is it really fair for him to investigate Uber?

Should he be in charge of transportation at all? He obviously favors Uber.

Ted Wheeler, we voted for change, please don't wait for all the cab companies in Portland to go out of business before acting, we are hoping for you to help us.

Again we don't want any special favors, we only ask that our representatives do their job and regulate the rideshares like they always have the taxi companies.

Thank you for reading.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-program-evade-authorities.html?_r=1

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