It looks like Mayor Bloomberg has found himself a cause worthy of his power and billions once he leaves office. "Fucking destroying" the taxi industry, according to The New York Post.
Bloomberg revealed his plan last week after the State Supreme Court ruled against his administration's Taxi of Tomorrow plan. The judge said imposing a near-uniform fleet violated a city provision requiring a hybrid car option for taxi operators.
For the "revenge-minded" politico, this time . . . it's personal. He also told Taxi Club Management CEO Gene Freidman, whose company operates a fleet of 925 yellow cabs and challenged Bloomberg's proposal: "After January, I am going to destroy all you fucking guys."
Friedman told the Post:
“He was very angry, very scary, very violent in a non-physical way. He was grinding his teeth, he was spitting, he was red and he was in my face,” the self-styled “King of the Road” claimed.
“The mayor was extremely disrespectful, and not ‘mayorly’ at all.
To be fair, Bloomberg likes to play fast and loose with the definition of "mayorly" conduct
But as is typical for a post-blind rage blackout, the whole thing was a blur to Hizzoner, who accosted Friedman at the elite 1879 Club inside Madison Square Garden during the Knicks playoff game.
“The only thing I remember from that night was the [basketball] court. It was the court in the middle of Madison Square Garden and the Knicks won,” the suddenly memory-challenged mayor said.
Bloomberg's strategy for "fucking destroying" the taxi industry and destroying "all you fucking guys" gimme the fucking keys you fucking cocksucker is still unclear. But the self-stylized startup champion has expressed frustration with the taxi industry before.
The week that New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission was forced to reach a compromise over apps that let you hail and pay for yellow cabs from your smartphone, Bloomberg said in his weekly radio address:
“The cab industry is a funny industry. I don’t know if there’s any other place in the world where the city gives a license and the people that have that license can then trade it and resell it and the city doesn’t have any interest and any ability to share in the value going up. And the politics, because they support candidates–a normal market would just say: Well, we’ll just issue more taxi licenses. Wrong! Because they have bought the legislatures and stopped the ability to do that. It is one of the great rip-offs of the public any place I’ve ever seen.”
Oh, just invest in Uber already. You know you want to.
We reached out to Bloomberg's office for comment and will update the post when we hear back.
To contact the author of this post, please email nitasha@gawker.com.