Politicians arrested at protest over NYC taxi medallion bailout

Elected officials hitched a ride all the way to jail with angry taxi drivers who blocked streets outside City Hall Monday to protest a debt bailout plan they said doesn’t go far enough.

Brooklyn Councilman Carlos Menchaca, Manhattan state Assemblyman Harvey Epstein and City Council candidate Shahana Hanif were among those slapped in cuffs during the rowdy rally that spilled into Broadway.

“They got crushed in debt and suicides because of lies, and the city can’t even promise to back up their loans. It’s unacceptable,” said Cesar Vargas, who is Menchaca’s deputy chief of staff. “Getting arrested and maybe spending the night in jail is nothing in comparison to what these taxi workers are going through.”

The NYPD did not immediately have information about the arrests.

Yellow cab drivers, crushed under the financial weight of a crumbling industry, have been speaking out against a provision of Mayor de Blasio’s taxi medallion relief program that they said puts the onus on the workers to eventually pay back relief they receive. The average debt of a cab driver is $550,000, according to the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.

Seven months ago, de Blasio announced a $65 million relief fund for taxi medallion owners in debt. The city has come under fire for its role in inflating the price of taxi medallions, even as rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft changed the transportation business model in New York City and other cities across the country.

The program is designed to restructure loans and make payments more affordable for cab drivers in debt.

But the drum-banging, flag-waving megaphone-chanting drivers said the bailout is not enough. At one spot outside City Hall, nine red candles burned, one for each cab or livery driver who died in the rash of suicides in the past few years.

“I have a debt of $591,000,” said taxi driver Dorothy Leconte, of East Flatbush, Brooklyn. “I’m 65, I’ve been driving a cab for 35 years. A lot of people in this industry, we are not young. All my retirement is gone.”

De Blasio said he sympathizes with the drivers and admitted that they are “in a tough situation” but defended his administration’s relief program. The city says 144 medallion owners have received a total of $18.7 million in debt forgiveness. The mayor estimated about 1,000 drivers could benefit in the short term from the initiative.

“This is having a real impact right now to relieve that pressure on the drivers,” de Blasio said.