I hadn't heard or seen anything about the Taxi Drivers' Health Fund, the little racket that Mike Bloomberg and David Yassky had set up for Bhairavi Dessai in a while so I did some checking up.
For those not familiar with this matter, Bhairavi Dessai had been an activist in the Committee Against Anti Asian Violence who started looking into the situation of New York's mostly Asian immigrant taxi drivers some 16 years ago. Mayor Giuliani, like Koch before him, had used this voiceless and unorganized work force as a rhetorical and political punching bag playing in to latent racism and class arrogance to increase their popularity. The media took the cue as did thug elements of the general population and a media muffled crime wave against taxi drivers ensued.
Dessai became a taxi driver organizer and a spokeswoman for these marginalized workers. This history gets her credibility among liberals and progressives but over sixteen years nothing like an actual taxi drivers union vould actually get off the ground.
Over the last few years (mayor) Bloomberg, who now is a shareholder in the pirate taxi company Lyft, took to an effort to destroy the taxi industry. He enticed Dessai to abandon her opposition to him by offering her six cents a ride stolen from the non owning taxi drivers for her to set up a slush fund/political machine that would offer drivers "Obamacare" counseling and allow her to set up an unaudited disability fund. This scheme got halted in New York's Supreme Court.
Looking like a pro taxi driver mayor, de Blasio promised Dessai he'd have his law department appeal in spite of the fact that two successive City Comptrollers had refused to okay the scam.
I contacted the City Law Department and found out that the City filed a Notice of Appeal on April 15. The deadline e to file the appeal is January 15, 2015.
Meanwhile de Blasik is implementing the Bloomberg anti taxi plan that he had opposed as Public Advocate.
