Taxi Franchises

Visitors to Anaheim may only occasionally spot taxis, but the City Council has recently paid a fair amount of attention to the taxicab business. Despite an evaluation concluding that Anaheim's taxicabs provide adequate service, last week the council agreed to look into altering the decades-old permit system which gives only two companies the right to pick up passengers in Anaheim.

The Los Angeles City Council, lobbied hard by a Burbank taxi firm, took the first step Tuesday toward authorizing a second cab company to operate in the San Fernando Valley. Rejecting advice from the city's transportation bureaucracy, the council voted to seek bids from taxi firms for a Valley franchise. Members argued that competition would improve service. Valley Cab Co. has had a monopoly in the area since 1984.

The first new taxi company in four years to hold the exclusive franchise serving John Wayne Airport made its debut Thursday to mixed reviews from travelers, many of whom said they had their first-ever wait for a cab there. "I don't see one anywhere," said Paul McCranie, a computer network salesman from Portland who visits Orange County on business every couple of months. Squinting in the sun at a stream of traffic through the terminal, McCranie, 39, glanced at his watch.

Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn filed a $382,500 civil suit Thursday charging a string of cab companies with operating more than 100 "bandit" taxis in the city. "This is the opening salvo against illegal operators who pose a threat to public safety, rip off taxpayers for $1 million a year and steal business from legitimate taxi operators," Hahn told reporters during a news conference at his office to announce the suit, which he called the first of its kind in the city.

Los Angeles city transportation commissioners Thursday placed San Fernando Checker Cab Co. on six months probation for illegally referring Valley customers to cab companies or car shuttle services operating without city licenses. Checker Cab, owned by Burbank-based Babaeian Transportation Co., began serving the San Fernando Valley this year after winning a costly lobbying campaign to break an eight-year monopoly held by Valley Cab Co.

The Glendale City Council on Tuesday delayed voting on proposed revisions to the city's rules governing taxi licensing. Instead, the council will continue to investigate the way other cities regulate taxi services. Mayor Larry Zarian said he opposes a requirement in the current law that applicants for taxi licenses prove that the city has a need for their services. Four companies have permits to offer cab service in Glendale, but they all are either owned or run by the same family.

The owner of a taxi firm that was removed from John Wayne Airport has accused a former employee and a prominent Orange County lobbyist of illegally starting a competing company that eventually won the airport contract.

When Ginny's Taxi began operating here four years ago, drivers delivered pizzas between calls for taxi service. Four drivers took turns driving the lone taxi, a maroon station wagon, and owner Virginia Borja fielded customers' calls on her cellular telephone. Borja says she's still "hanging on by the skin of my teeth" trying to operate her fledgling taxi firm. That's why, when the city considered joining the Orange County Taxi Administration Program, Borja balked.

One of the first things you notice about New York City is the ubiquitous taxi--a lemming-like lemon-colored assemblage, shuttling time-pressed New Yorkers, many of them business people. As a child growing up in Chicago, I remember the collection of cabs that operated a jitney service--taxis that ran (more or less) fixed routes, transporting workers and grocery-toting shoppers up and down the main streets of my grandmother's working-class neighborhood.