I find it easy to talk to taxi drivers.
Today my driver is a short, comely, indian man with a full head of silver hair. (Picture a dark Michael J. Fox).
We get stuck in traffic and I apologize to my taxi driver. I tell him,
"I know the the hell that it is to get across town, from 14th to 59th, it's just hell. I know it first hand. You can barely move. Sorry to drag you this way."
This elicits a verbose, impassioned, response. He is so quick with his diatribe that I feel compelled to roll up my window, sit up straight and lean in, making sure to hear everything he says.
"The city is getting more and more crowded!" (my driver has a discreet indian accent).
"I know!" I said, "Right? why is that? It’s too crowded, even walking on the streets."
"Because the city is packed with immigrants and international types! New york was smaller before. I've lived here twenty years, the city is getting too crowded!"
"But why would immigrants move here? It’s so crowded and expensive!"
"Well one reason is because immigrants can’t drive, and in New York you don’t need to drive to get around, the transit system gets them around, and there is still plenty of work here. There is nothing wrong with being an immigrant. I don't fault them. But these politicians, Bloomberg and Giuliani, they don’t bother with the real problems, they don’t talk to people, deal with what is really needed, they just create projects to look good, to get them reelected. Giuliani doubled the amount of medallion cabs when he was mayor. And he charged 200 thousand dollars a medallion. I wrote to him about this. He's creating more cars on the road but the roads are a mess. He didn’t want to deal with that, he didn't want to deal with the infrastructure, he just wanted to say he made a profit or 10 million dollars for the city through the sale of these cabs! And this idea Bloomberg had for (zone pricing) or paying tolls to drive into highly congested areas won’t work! It will just take MORE money out of everyone’s pocket... people will just spend the additional money to drive into the taxed zones, like they do for the bridges and tunnels. It won't stop anyone, it will just put more money in the city's pocket. You know, in other parts of the world, when people protest, the government will back down and listen to the people, but in the states, there is small uncommitted protest and the protesters always lose interest and the government gets away with it. Where does all this extra money go? I’m sick of it. I won’t give anymore money to Bloomberg."
And I think, it's all too complicated. If not this mangled regime, than another. The city is a tangled knot. I am a self involved creative type. I do have ideas, but I know these ideas lack reality. I enjoy the closed down roads and the new dining tables, the pretty trees! I was hoping for a shiny monorail for 42nd Street. I'm a sucker for the externals.
But I say, "Well I’m one of those bikers that’s clogging up the streets for you taxis. You taxi drivers probably hate all the additional bikes on the road. Today I can’t ride my bike because I hit my head and now I'm going to get a cat scan"
"So you’re going to NYU Hospital?"
"Yeah, for a cat scan."
"How did you hit your head, what street?"
"No, I fell backwards in my apartment and hit my head on the floor."
I explain to the cabbie that I have a disease, that I was fully functional a year ago. The cabbie' s mood becomes dark and quiet, like he feels stupid for going on about traffic and taxes.
When he drops me off, like all of my taxi drivers, he gets out and helps me out of the cab.
I'm out of the cab, on my feet, cane in hand, and my cabbie looks me in the eye (he's shorter than me) and says, "I'll pray for you."
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