Mayor de Blasio said Friday he’s reviving his failed bid to regulate companies like Uber — four days after a li🐼very driver who blamed lawmakers🌄 for his financial ruin killed himself in front of City Hall.
“We have to find be🃏tter ways to regulate the foജr-hire vehicle sector in general,” de Blasio said on WNYC radio.
“We have to come back and lookꦜ at what is a single, comprehensive vision for the future of our for-hire vehicle 🔯sector that can make sense to everyone involved.
“That’s something 🍌we’re going to be working on in the comin💖g months to see if we can put together,” he added.
De Blasio’s comments came in respon🍸se to a question about ꦺDouglas Schifter, a cash-strapped livery driver who committed suicide Monday.
Hours before kill🧜ing himself at the gates of City Hall, Schifter penned a lengthy Facebook post blasting de Blasio, Gov. Cuomo and former Mayo🍬r Michael Bloomberg for “destroying a once-thriving industry.” He called Uber a “known liar, cheat and thief.”
In 2015, de Blasio attemp🎃ted to put the brakes on Uber’s growth in thꦕe Big Apple.
But the mayor faced opposition from some City Council m🃏embers, and shelved the idea after the ride-hailing company launched an aggressive campaign against the proposed regulations.
“In the rush of e𝕴vents, instead of figuring out how to slow down and resolve outstanding issues, at a certain point there was a decision to just pull away,” he said.
Instead, the city conducted a $2 mill🎃ion traffic study, published in 2016, that found Uber didn’t 🔯“drive the recent increase in congestion.”
De Blasio insisted he has a better shot of getting the City Council on board now, since tens of thousands more for-hire vehicles have flooded the roads, increasing congestion.
“I think we 🦩are seeing more and more impact from the for-hire v꧋ehicles,” he said.
In 2013, there were 47,000 for-hire vehicles in the city. Today there are nearly 130,000, accordin꧑g to Taxi & Limousine Commission spokesman Allan Fromberg. The number of yellow taxis has remained about the same.
Councilman Stephen Levin, who introduced a bill in 2015 ♉calling for a freeze on Uber growth until the traffic study could be completed, said he’s now ready for a🌳 second push.
“What we’ve seen over the last three year🦄s is the exact trend accelerated,” he said, adding that Schifter “brought up some good points.”
Le🅷vin reintroduced his bill this year, and is calling for “some⛄ kind of freeze” on for-hire vehicles while another study is conducted.
Uber spokeswoman Alix Anfang said the company is “deeply 🌠saddened” by Schifter’s death.
“We support common-sense policies suc✤h as the recently adopted accessibility pilot and a comprehensive congestion-=pricing plan𓄧,” she said.
When council S🔥peaker Corey Johnson and other members were asked for comment, council spokesperson Robin Levine offered a blanket statement: “The committee on for-hire vehicles will be exploring this and many other issues in the months ahead.”
Additional reporting by Rich Calder