In a recent class for New York City taxi drivers at The Master Cabbie Taxi Academy, a spot survey was taken which produced statistic on average income for a group of ten drivers. It was just shy of a thousand dollars per week. All drove for large taxi companies and all but two drove full time.
I have written of NYC taxi driver jobs before. But as the world turns, people still leave the taxi business every day and more taxi shifts become available. It may not be the career you planned for and it is not an easy job, but at $50,000 per year it is a career that a realist must consider.
Drivers that purchase a car, or sign on for long term leases can earn as much as seventy-five thousand.....This brings us to YELLOW MANIA...
In my day, we would hustle to scrape up a hundred thirty, or a hundred forty dollars per shift on a good day. Sure we would do better on the occasional weekend shift, and there were many nights when the streets of plenty yielded little more than grocery money. But, the full time New york City Taxi Drivers were in the six to seven hundred dollars range per week. Approximately 30,000 for a hard driving full time cabby on annualized basis.
Now IN 2009, we are seeing full time taxi drivers earning more than fifty thousand dollars per year IN A RECESSION!!
This is something every person with a drivers license can think about. Are there paid vacations? NO...Are there paid sick days? NO...The "Easy" street you remember in the corporate world or the world of government employment is not one you can drive on now.....Cabby's DRIVE ON EVERY STREET because there is no easy street...And those who have enjoyed what they thought was easy street are lined up by the millions at the unemployment office.
How many states, like California will go bankrupt? How many Cities will be decimated like Detroit? For how much longer can Nations print paper money and call it progress as one in eight citizens are in need of gainful employment?? For how long will the average Joe wait for a job that is not coming back when he should have taken two jobs at Walmart and Seven Eleven and moved to a cheaper home...a year ago.
Downsize????All the time....But the taxi drivers are raking it in and will be doing so well ahead of the poor mans curve that is now settling on the mindset of Americas ever expanding working class......Working Class? Taxi drivers are working class.....Working Class Hero's.
To drive a taxi in New York City contact Master Cabbie TAxi Academy 1-718-472-1699 or 1-800-955-8294 or www.mastercabbie.com...Ask for the big money department...
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
taxi50000YEAR
In a recent class for New York City taxi drivers at The Master Cabbie Taxi Academy, a spot survey was taken which produced statistic on average income for a group of ten drivers. It was just shy of a thousand dollars per week. All drove for large taxi companies and all but two drove full time.
I have written of NYC taxi driver jobs before. But as the world turns, people still leave the taxi business every day and more taxi shifts become available. It may not be the career you planned for and it is not an easy job, but at $50,000 per year it is a career that a realist must consider.
Drivers that purchase a car, or sign on for long term leases can earn as much as seventy-five thousand.....This brings us to YELLOW MANIA...
In my day, we would hustle to scrape up a hundred thirty, or a hundred forty dollars per shift on a good day. Sure we would do better on the occasional weekend shift, and there were many nights when the streets of plenty yielded little more than grocery money. But, the full time New york City Taxi Drivers were in the six to seven hundred dollars range per week. Approximately 30,000 for a hard driving full time cabby on annualized basis.
Now IN 2009, we are seeing full time taxi drivers earning more than fifty thousand dollars per year IN A RECESSION!!
This is something every person with a drivers license can think about. Are there paid vacations? NO...Are there paid sick days? NO...The "Easy" street you remember in the corporate world or the world of government employment is not one you can drive on now.....Cabby's DRIVE ON EVERY STREET because there is no easy street...And those who have enjoyed what they thought was easy street are lined up by the millions at the unemployment office.
How many states, like California will go bankrupt? How many Cities will be decimated like Detroit? For how much longer can Nations print paper money and call it progress as one in eight citizens are in need of gainful employment?? For how long will the average Joe wait for a job that is not coming back when he should have taken two jobs at Walmart and Seven Eleven and moved to a cheaper home...a year ago.
Downsize????All the time....But the taxi drivers are raking it in and will be doing so well ahead of the poor mans curve that is now settling on the mindset of Americas ever expanding working class......Working Class? Taxi drivers are working class.....Working Class Hero's.
To drive a taxi in New York City contact Master Cabbie TAxi Academy 1-718-472-1699 or 1-800-955-8294 or www.mastercabbie.com...Ask for the big money department...
I have written of NYC taxi driver jobs before. But as the world turns, people still leave the taxi business every day and more taxi shifts become available. It may not be the career you planned for and it is not an easy job, but at $50,000 per year it is a career that a realist must consider.
Drivers that purchase a car, or sign on for long term leases can earn as much as seventy-five thousand.....This brings us to YELLOW MANIA...
In my day, we would hustle to scrape up a hundred thirty, or a hundred forty dollars per shift on a good day. Sure we would do better on the occasional weekend shift, and there were many nights when the streets of plenty yielded little more than grocery money. But, the full time New york City Taxi Drivers were in the six to seven hundred dollars range per week. Approximately 30,000 for a hard driving full time cabby on annualized basis.
Now IN 2009, we are seeing full time taxi drivers earning more than fifty thousand dollars per year IN A RECESSION!!
This is something every person with a drivers license can think about. Are there paid vacations? NO...Are there paid sick days? NO...The "Easy" street you remember in the corporate world or the world of government employment is not one you can drive on now.....Cabby's DRIVE ON EVERY STREET because there is no easy street...And those who have enjoyed what they thought was easy street are lined up by the millions at the unemployment office.
How many states, like California will go bankrupt? How many Cities will be decimated like Detroit? For how much longer can Nations print paper money and call it progress as one in eight citizens are in need of gainful employment?? For how long will the average Joe wait for a job that is not coming back when he should have taken two jobs at Walmart and Seven Eleven and moved to a cheaper home...a year ago.
Downsize????All the time....But the taxi drivers are raking it in and will be doing so well ahead of the poor mans curve that is now settling on the mindset of Americas ever expanding working class......Working Class? Taxi drivers are working class.....Working Class Hero's.
To drive a taxi in New York City contact Master Cabbie TAxi Academy 1-718-472-1699 or 1-800-955-8294 or www.mastercabbie.com...Ask for the big money department...
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
AddressTAXI
LOST IN MANHATTAN? Ask the MASTER CABBIE
The New York City address slide guide (t.m. s.m. patent pending). A simple piece of folded (Sleeve)cardboard, with another piece of cardboard inserted. With a cut out to pull the inserted card to a desired location on the decorative front of the sleeve, and a slot for viewing addresses and cross street on the inside of the sleeve.....Ingenious.
How many people can name the nearest cross street to an address on a Manhattan Ave. without looking it up??? Not many...I must admit there are a few I would have to look up, but not many.
The Manhattan Grid is the key. Addresses were designed to allow for easy calculation in finding an address.
Example: 780 1st Ave. is at 42nd ST.
Process to calculate: Cancel last digit of address 780 = 78 and then divide by 2 = 39 and then add the key number +3....= 42 Street.
Where do you get the key number??? From the Master Cabbie of course www.mastercabbie.com
The New York City address slide guide (t.m. s.m. patent pending). A simple piece of folded (Sleeve)cardboard, with another piece of cardboard inserted. With a cut out to pull the inserted card to a desired location on the decorative front of the sleeve, and a slot for viewing addresses and cross street on the inside of the sleeve.....Ingenious.
How many people can name the nearest cross street to an address on a Manhattan Ave. without looking it up??? Not many...I must admit there are a few I would have to look up, but not many.
The Manhattan Grid is the key. Addresses were designed to allow for easy calculation in finding an address.
Example: 780 1st Ave. is at 42nd ST.
Process to calculate: Cancel last digit of address 780 = 78 and then divide by 2 = 39 and then add the key number +3....= 42 Street.
Where do you get the key number??? From the Master Cabbie of course www.mastercabbie.com
Monday, September 28, 2009
TAXIunemploymentINSURANCE
JOBS JOBS JOBS
RECESSION PROOF JOBS..
New York City Taxi Driver (HACK) License
The Ultimate Unemployment Insurance
In a City with 13,235 Yellow taxicabs there are 26,470 shifts possible per day. OR 185,290 per week.. Or enough for 37,058 full time drivers working five shifts per week.......And this is just the Yellow Cabs.. There are also an additional 30,000 or so community car services and 6,000 or so luxury limousines...
In the recession of 2009 it seems clear that people, who were bankers yesterday, or Stock brokers in 2007, or restaurant owners are now making a living driving taxi cabs in New York City.
It is not Wall Street..It is ANY STREET or ANY AVENUE in the Five Boroughs, Three major airports and Two adjoining counties all adding up to about FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS Per YEAR FOR A 5/6 SHIFT WEEKLY TAXI DRIVER.
Fifty Thousand Dollars per year is a TEMPTING amount when you put it along side the millions of people who climb onto subways, trains, and buses each day for much less money and absolutely less freedom. As they hope to get through the day without the boss calling them into the office or a minimal amount of office politics at the water cooler. How much are they earning....
Out on their own, taxi drivers doing their job, take a fare from Point A to Point B. Safely, they collect the fare and then cruise until the next passenger throws a hand in the air in need of taxi service....Another customer.....Not a perfect science but a never ending stream for those who survive the lulls and all else that is NYC.
Do all taxi drivers make 50K a year...NO! But MANY DO, and there are many who earn more. A committed taxi professional with his own taxicab and medallion can generate revenue of ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS per year. With debt service of fifty thousand and operating costs of thirty thousand....DO THE MATH...And this does not include equity growth.
After a twenty year career a taxi driver/owner can retiree with a medallion valued at Six hundred thousand (2009) dollars, and probably a home close to paid for as well.
VALUE GROWTH: The value of the three medallion(TAXI VEHICLE LICENSE)classes in 2009 is is $575,000 , $750,000 and $475,000 respectively. In 1990 the price was about $100,000... This pretty much proves that the historical medallion value growth has outpaced the stock market indexes over the long term.
NO GUARANTEES: BUT, the value cycle is opposite of the normal American business cycle. This is due to driver influx during economic downturns, and driver Exodus during economic expansion....If there are less drivers to rent the cabs there is less revenue to pay mortgages thus lowering the value of the underlying security...BUT WHEN THERE ARE LESS DRIVERS... is the best time to drive a taxi as competition lessens and demand for service picks up. This is when driver income peaks.
IN COMPARISON There are few opportunities to earn entry level income at the rate of New York City Taxi Drivers. It is not a six figure income but the mobility of the profession...Not the wheels but the fact that with a New York City Taxi Operators License a driver can operate any taxicab, car service or Limousine. The fact that they can go to the Taxi Fleet next door if the one they are at does not have a cab available...The fact that with an investment of as little a five thousand dollars they can buy their own Taxicab and lease a medallion and give themselves a good chance of earning seventy thousand dollars per year. A VERY UNUSUAL OPPORTUNITY.
IT AIN'T EASY.....They are not giving money away in this business...There are long hours and plenty of bumps in the road.... There are licensing issues, and weather, and traffic,...Traffic...Traffic...But those who endure learn how to get around the traffic and live with it when they can not....There is a high stress level, and if dealing with people is not your strong suit this is not a job for you.
YOU MUST LOVE NEW YORK CITY and YOU MUST LOVE TO DRIVE...If not????? Alaska is looking for a new governor, go check it out.
If you want to drive a NEW YORK CITY YELLOW TAXI call the Master Cabbie Taxi Academy in New York City.718 472 1699 or 1 800 955 8294 or www.mastercabbie.com It is the largest taxi driver training center in the world. The Academy's full licensing program is the most robust in NYC. Five thousand driver come to Mastercabbie each year...YOU SHOULD TOO....
RECESSION PROOF JOBS..
New York City Taxi Driver (HACK) License
The Ultimate Unemployment Insurance
In a City with 13,235 Yellow taxicabs there are 26,470 shifts possible per day. OR 185,290 per week.. Or enough for 37,058 full time drivers working five shifts per week.......And this is just the Yellow Cabs.. There are also an additional 30,000 or so community car services and 6,000 or so luxury limousines...
In the recession of 2009 it seems clear that people, who were bankers yesterday, or Stock brokers in 2007, or restaurant owners are now making a living driving taxi cabs in New York City.
It is not Wall Street..It is ANY STREET or ANY AVENUE in the Five Boroughs, Three major airports and Two adjoining counties all adding up to about FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS Per YEAR FOR A 5/6 SHIFT WEEKLY TAXI DRIVER.
Fifty Thousand Dollars per year is a TEMPTING amount when you put it along side the millions of people who climb onto subways, trains, and buses each day for much less money and absolutely less freedom. As they hope to get through the day without the boss calling them into the office or a minimal amount of office politics at the water cooler. How much are they earning....
Out on their own, taxi drivers doing their job, take a fare from Point A to Point B. Safely, they collect the fare and then cruise until the next passenger throws a hand in the air in need of taxi service....Another customer.....Not a perfect science but a never ending stream for those who survive the lulls and all else that is NYC.
Do all taxi drivers make 50K a year...NO! But MANY DO, and there are many who earn more. A committed taxi professional with his own taxicab and medallion can generate revenue of ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS per year. With debt service of fifty thousand and operating costs of thirty thousand....DO THE MATH...And this does not include equity growth.
After a twenty year career a taxi driver/owner can retiree with a medallion valued at Six hundred thousand (2009) dollars, and probably a home close to paid for as well.
VALUE GROWTH: The value of the three medallion(TAXI VEHICLE LICENSE)classes in 2009 is is $575,000 , $750,000 and $475,000 respectively. In 1990 the price was about $100,000... This pretty much proves that the historical medallion value growth has outpaced the stock market indexes over the long term.
NO GUARANTEES: BUT, the value cycle is opposite of the normal American business cycle. This is due to driver influx during economic downturns, and driver Exodus during economic expansion....If there are less drivers to rent the cabs there is less revenue to pay mortgages thus lowering the value of the underlying security...BUT WHEN THERE ARE LESS DRIVERS... is the best time to drive a taxi as competition lessens and demand for service picks up. This is when driver income peaks.
IN COMPARISON There are few opportunities to earn entry level income at the rate of New York City Taxi Drivers. It is not a six figure income but the mobility of the profession...Not the wheels but the fact that with a New York City Taxi Operators License a driver can operate any taxicab, car service or Limousine. The fact that they can go to the Taxi Fleet next door if the one they are at does not have a cab available...The fact that with an investment of as little a five thousand dollars they can buy their own Taxicab and lease a medallion and give themselves a good chance of earning seventy thousand dollars per year. A VERY UNUSUAL OPPORTUNITY.
IT AIN'T EASY.....They are not giving money away in this business...There are long hours and plenty of bumps in the road.... There are licensing issues, and weather, and traffic,...Traffic...Traffic...But those who endure learn how to get around the traffic and live with it when they can not....There is a high stress level, and if dealing with people is not your strong suit this is not a job for you.
YOU MUST LOVE NEW YORK CITY and YOU MUST LOVE TO DRIVE...If not????? Alaska is looking for a new governor, go check it out.
If you want to drive a NEW YORK CITY YELLOW TAXI call the Master Cabbie Taxi Academy in New York City.718 472 1699 or 1 800 955 8294 or www.mastercabbie.com It is the largest taxi driver training center in the world. The Academy's full licensing program is the most robust in NYC. Five thousand driver come to Mastercabbie each year...YOU SHOULD TOO....
Saturday, September 26, 2009
TAXITEXTING
Taxi Texting Is A NO NO!!!!
In-and-around 1998 a representative of ATT appeared before the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission to promote the allowed use of cell phones, by NY City Taxi Drivers. He espoused training. Education he claimed would be the end-all to save-all when it came to taxi drivers using cell phones. A logical approach.
The oldest Commissioner on the Agencies bench, Martin Greenberg called him out on it. He said something to the effect of: "Sonny, you remind me of the tobacco executives who stood before congress and claimed that smoking does not cause cancer"...A valid and vivid comparison I thought. The line generated a few laughs and then the Commission voted unanimously to outlaw the use of cell phones by taxi drivers while operating a taxicab unless the Cab was legally parked.
In 1998 cell phones were coming into their own. A proliferation of devices that lead to what is now a never ending stream of data that links the distraction of cell phone use to traffic accidents.
Enter "The Texting Revolution"....Who would think that people would rather push a few letters on a key board than say what they mean the way that they want????? But Texting is all the rage and, it is, on the surface and in depth of study, much more of a distraction than speaking on a cell phone. Thus, a greater risk to the driver and those they would injure should they wander from the thought train and drivers lane......
At this moment in time the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission is creating the language to add to the appropriate rules for taxi operators that will make it clear that Texting is against the law. It is already outlawed by New York State DMV and thus is outlawed while driving a taxi as in any other vehicle. But industry specific language is needed to clarify industry specific realities.
IT IS DANGEROUS.
And the one thing no one will debate is that Texting while driving is dangerous. How dangerous??? Only the hospitals and the cemeteries know for sure. We as a nation have instituted laws and manufacturing incentives and mandates that have reduced traffic related deaths to under forty thousand per year from forty-eight thousnad per year twenty-five years ago. All the while the country has grown in size making these reductions all the more impressive.
But as all the apparatus is in place for drivers ed and alcohol and drug counseling we find almost every teenager with a cell phone and their fingers at an ever-alarming rate, on the key board. Grade school love stories that were once passed in notes in class are now sent through cyber space. I feel like I am George Jetson...ALMOST.
What will be interesting to see is the defense people offer when standing in front of a judge charged with texting. At which point the judge in Solomonic candor will simply demand the cell phone records which will either convict or exonerate the defendant....
NO TEXTING ZONE
In-and-around 1998 a representative of ATT appeared before the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission to promote the allowed use of cell phones, by NY City Taxi Drivers. He espoused training. Education he claimed would be the end-all to save-all when it came to taxi drivers using cell phones. A logical approach.
The oldest Commissioner on the Agencies bench, Martin Greenberg called him out on it. He said something to the effect of: "Sonny, you remind me of the tobacco executives who stood before congress and claimed that smoking does not cause cancer"...A valid and vivid comparison I thought. The line generated a few laughs and then the Commission voted unanimously to outlaw the use of cell phones by taxi drivers while operating a taxicab unless the Cab was legally parked.
In 1998 cell phones were coming into their own. A proliferation of devices that lead to what is now a never ending stream of data that links the distraction of cell phone use to traffic accidents.
Enter "The Texting Revolution"....Who would think that people would rather push a few letters on a key board than say what they mean the way that they want????? But Texting is all the rage and, it is, on the surface and in depth of study, much more of a distraction than speaking on a cell phone. Thus, a greater risk to the driver and those they would injure should they wander from the thought train and drivers lane......
At this moment in time the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission is creating the language to add to the appropriate rules for taxi operators that will make it clear that Texting is against the law. It is already outlawed by New York State DMV and thus is outlawed while driving a taxi as in any other vehicle. But industry specific language is needed to clarify industry specific realities.
IT IS DANGEROUS.
And the one thing no one will debate is that Texting while driving is dangerous. How dangerous??? Only the hospitals and the cemeteries know for sure. We as a nation have instituted laws and manufacturing incentives and mandates that have reduced traffic related deaths to under forty thousand per year from forty-eight thousnad per year twenty-five years ago. All the while the country has grown in size making these reductions all the more impressive.
But as all the apparatus is in place for drivers ed and alcohol and drug counseling we find almost every teenager with a cell phone and their fingers at an ever-alarming rate, on the key board. Grade school love stories that were once passed in notes in class are now sent through cyber space. I feel like I am George Jetson...ALMOST.
What will be interesting to see is the defense people offer when standing in front of a judge charged with texting. At which point the judge in Solomonic candor will simply demand the cell phone records which will either convict or exonerate the defendant....
NO TEXTING ZONE
Friday, September 25, 2009
UNITEDTAXINATIONS
United Taxi Nations
September 23, 2009 and the streets are full of the United Nations crowd. As rookie cab drivers suffer the wise old Hack Pro's use this week for rest and relaxation....Why? Its the traffic S^%$%^$%&...Oh yes the traffic....
Yes this is a good week to avoid the flow of mechanical reality that floods the Midtown grid from early till late, north to south and east to west. Who is this flood?? It is us, humanity, the human impulse inching along a broken black-topped tier twenty or fifty feet above the rumbling subway and a hundred feet below the mammoth spans of bridges and sky scrapers that are as much of New York City as any other aspect of this home we love.
BUT, why would any person in their right mind want to drive on this Island? Why does a fish swim in the stream? It is in our nature....Do all New Yorkers drive?? No! In fact most do not but those who do, relish the challenge as it affects and creates behavioral patterns that last a lifetime and make us stronger.
It is true that some folks, not of this place think we are a little rough around the edges. They can not see that our drivers edge polishes us in ways that make us shine that they will never understand nor possibly imagine.
We are progress on wheels. Hope in a nutshell. We do not have time to stand still and lose our place in line to that which call us, whatever that may be.
And in this great city none reigns supreme on the street more than A TAXI DRIVER. In New York City, or anyplace, it is very possibly the best driver on the road today is the seasoned cabby. Working twelve hour shifts in the madness that is New York
City traffic gives way to s skill level that can not be easily matched or even easily contemplated. Seventy two hours per week in pursuit of the thousand dollars that will pay the rent, and the phone bill, and the food bill, and the doctors bill and for all the other necessities which push us out of our houses each day and onto the streets of plenty where we harvest the gold. Found in outstretched arms and frantic waves or cool nods that put the bodies in the back seat.
Point A to point B. The News York City Taxi industry, 13,000 cabs strong, 47,000 drivers vying for a place ON THE SEAT as we drive into the Eternity of NYC. A dimension of Yankee Empire State Building Grand Central Terminal Madison Square Garden et al....THE BIG APPLE baby here we are.. love it.... or go back to sleep.
I AM TAXI DRIVER
September 23, 2009 and the streets are full of the United Nations crowd. As rookie cab drivers suffer the wise old Hack Pro's use this week for rest and relaxation....Why? Its the traffic S^%$%^$%&...Oh yes the traffic....
Yes this is a good week to avoid the flow of mechanical reality that floods the Midtown grid from early till late, north to south and east to west. Who is this flood?? It is us, humanity, the human impulse inching along a broken black-topped tier twenty or fifty feet above the rumbling subway and a hundred feet below the mammoth spans of bridges and sky scrapers that are as much of New York City as any other aspect of this home we love.
BUT, why would any person in their right mind want to drive on this Island? Why does a fish swim in the stream? It is in our nature....Do all New Yorkers drive?? No! In fact most do not but those who do, relish the challenge as it affects and creates behavioral patterns that last a lifetime and make us stronger.
It is true that some folks, not of this place think we are a little rough around the edges. They can not see that our drivers edge polishes us in ways that make us shine that they will never understand nor possibly imagine.
We are progress on wheels. Hope in a nutshell. We do not have time to stand still and lose our place in line to that which call us, whatever that may be.
And in this great city none reigns supreme on the street more than A TAXI DRIVER. In New York City, or anyplace, it is very possibly the best driver on the road today is the seasoned cabby. Working twelve hour shifts in the madness that is New York
City traffic gives way to s skill level that can not be easily matched or even easily contemplated. Seventy two hours per week in pursuit of the thousand dollars that will pay the rent, and the phone bill, and the food bill, and the doctors bill and for all the other necessities which push us out of our houses each day and onto the streets of plenty where we harvest the gold. Found in outstretched arms and frantic waves or cool nods that put the bodies in the back seat.
Point A to point B. The News York City Taxi industry, 13,000 cabs strong, 47,000 drivers vying for a place ON THE SEAT as we drive into the Eternity of NYC. A dimension of Yankee Empire State Building Grand Central Terminal Madison Square Garden et al....THE BIG APPLE baby here we are.. love it.... or go back to sleep.
I AM TAXI DRIVER
Monday, September 21, 2009
CabbyPrince
THE CABBIE PRINCE
It was a long time ago in a place called Long Island City N.Y. Long Island City is a small community on the East River in Queens New York that holds two gateways to Manhattan. The Queensborough Bridge and The Midtown Tunnle, and at that time was mostly warehouses and old three story one family houses many of which had been turned into three apartments.
I came to Long Island City to find a job as a taxi driver, and after eight months of commuting from sixty miles away I found an apartment on and old cobbled street, 43rd Ave. in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge. It was a glorious time.
I fancied myself a poet in those days and spent a good deal of time with a pen in my hand serving my angst with rhyming couplets and an occasional exercise in iambic pentameter. They were glorious times of uncertinty and exploration for a Brooklyn born white boy running away from the suburbs and coming home to New York City.
In my quest for action I arranged for a small theater at 500 Greenwich Street where I would read my poetry. Another taxi driver was convinced to join me and Hack Poetry was born........
Our first reading was furiously promoted by ME...calling all the local "cool" news outlets and some of the upper end ones. The night before the grand event my phone rang. It was Marc Singer from the New Yorker and he was planing to come to the reading..WOW....I had nudged the receptionist at the New Yorker and she apparently had obliged and sent the flyer up the food chain.....So we would have at least one person in attendance.
We were two rookies but none the less adreniline pumped and after about an hour of taking turns reading our poems we served some juice and cookies to our now swollen audience of seven people and then adjourned to Joes Bar on 6th Street in the East Village for the night.....A SUCCESS
On August 19 the New Yorker hit the stands and we were celebrities at the Taxi Garage. dozens of drivers came to tell me that they had read the article....One, a tall thin man name Pete asked if he could read a poem at the next event....What next event..."Sure" I said.
A day or two later he approached me at the Taxi garage and began describing the poem he was going to read and reading me excerpts....He further explained that he was going to wear a Zorro Mask and call himself the Cabbie Prince....WHATEVER!?
When the night arrived, there he was. Six feet twoo inches of denim wearing the Mask Of Zorro. When his turn to read came he stuttered through a beautiful poem laced with racisim and hate for his passengers. I cringed at his crowning line as he uttered the words "French men and N$%#^ don't tip. And those fat F%$%$ Arabs, but here comes the ship"
The dozen people in the audience could not stop their jaws from dropping....We sat agape, my girlfriend, who is a very dark skinned lady looked at me in a hurt way as if I had said it.....It was raw poetry in a raw place spoken by a raw man in a raw way...indigenous art...before rap had conquered....
He slogged on and closed his poem with lines of beauty...."New York City, I'm part of its energy, power and pain, tomorrow I'll do this all over again, and again and again till I shot in the head, die in a crash or just plain drop dead. Randals Island not known for its beauty, on my stone let it say, Prince of Cabbies off Duty"
A smattering of applause and he walked off....
Hack poetry played in various off off broadway venues for three years becoming a reading and poetry contest in the end, but after a year or so The Cabbie prince didn't come around. I learned he had died in a fire in his apartment in Long Island City, apparently from smoking in bed and falling asleep....He was a heavy drinker so I was not surprised, but I was troubled as he was the first of my contemporaries to die, and in an awful way.
I and one other hack poet held a small reading at the RED ROOM in Hells Kitchen in his honor. It was scantly attended. I had an audio tape of his first reading which we played for those present to hear...." ON my stone let it say, Prince Of Cabbies, OFF DUTY".
It was a long time ago in a place called Long Island City N.Y. Long Island City is a small community on the East River in Queens New York that holds two gateways to Manhattan. The Queensborough Bridge and The Midtown Tunnle, and at that time was mostly warehouses and old three story one family houses many of which had been turned into three apartments.
I came to Long Island City to find a job as a taxi driver, and after eight months of commuting from sixty miles away I found an apartment on and old cobbled street, 43rd Ave. in the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge. It was a glorious time.
I fancied myself a poet in those days and spent a good deal of time with a pen in my hand serving my angst with rhyming couplets and an occasional exercise in iambic pentameter. They were glorious times of uncertinty and exploration for a Brooklyn born white boy running away from the suburbs and coming home to New York City.
In my quest for action I arranged for a small theater at 500 Greenwich Street where I would read my poetry. Another taxi driver was convinced to join me and Hack Poetry was born........
Our first reading was furiously promoted by ME...calling all the local "cool" news outlets and some of the upper end ones. The night before the grand event my phone rang. It was Marc Singer from the New Yorker and he was planing to come to the reading..WOW....I had nudged the receptionist at the New Yorker and she apparently had obliged and sent the flyer up the food chain.....So we would have at least one person in attendance.
We were two rookies but none the less adreniline pumped and after about an hour of taking turns reading our poems we served some juice and cookies to our now swollen audience of seven people and then adjourned to Joes Bar on 6th Street in the East Village for the night.....A SUCCESS
On August 19 the New Yorker hit the stands and we were celebrities at the Taxi Garage. dozens of drivers came to tell me that they had read the article....One, a tall thin man name Pete asked if he could read a poem at the next event....What next event..."Sure" I said.
A day or two later he approached me at the Taxi garage and began describing the poem he was going to read and reading me excerpts....He further explained that he was going to wear a Zorro Mask and call himself the Cabbie Prince....WHATEVER!?
When the night arrived, there he was. Six feet twoo inches of denim wearing the Mask Of Zorro. When his turn to read came he stuttered through a beautiful poem laced with racisim and hate for his passengers. I cringed at his crowning line as he uttered the words "French men and N$%#^ don't tip. And those fat F%$%$ Arabs, but here comes the ship"
The dozen people in the audience could not stop their jaws from dropping....We sat agape, my girlfriend, who is a very dark skinned lady looked at me in a hurt way as if I had said it.....It was raw poetry in a raw place spoken by a raw man in a raw way...indigenous art...before rap had conquered....
He slogged on and closed his poem with lines of beauty...."New York City, I'm part of its energy, power and pain, tomorrow I'll do this all over again, and again and again till I shot in the head, die in a crash or just plain drop dead. Randals Island not known for its beauty, on my stone let it say, Prince of Cabbies off Duty"
A smattering of applause and he walked off....
Hack poetry played in various off off broadway venues for three years becoming a reading and poetry contest in the end, but after a year or so The Cabbie prince didn't come around. I learned he had died in a fire in his apartment in Long Island City, apparently from smoking in bed and falling asleep....He was a heavy drinker so I was not surprised, but I was troubled as he was the first of my contemporaries to die, and in an awful way.
I and one other hack poet held a small reading at the RED ROOM in Hells Kitchen in his honor. It was scantly attended. I had an audio tape of his first reading which we played for those present to hear...." ON my stone let it say, Prince Of Cabbies, OFF DUTY".
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