Clean Cabs in the City: A Battle between the City Government and Taxi Operators

As most New Yorkers do, I love New York City, but, I also find it fascinating to visit other cities and discover similarities and gaps compared with New York.  Many of these experiences allow me to  gain a fresh perspective on the various issues of urban living.  

Boston's CleanAir Cab

Last week, I had one of these experiences when I visited Boston for a conference.   Boston welcomed me with a small surprise at Logan Airport.  As I was about to take a taxi downtown,  I noticed a car with green and earth-brown strips.  I looked closer at the green strip and saw a logo: Boston's Clean Air CABS.

Little did I know that Boston launched the CleanAir Cabs program in April 2007.  The taxi picked me up at the airport was a program participant and Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV).   

In addition to Boston, several other major cities in the world have been adding hybrid taxis to their fleets since North America's first hybrid taxi was put into service in Vancouver, British Columbia in 2000.

Have you seen the color of NYC's new taxi for the boroughs around anhattan?  The new taxi was finally unveiled in April by Mayor Bloomberg.  What color does it look like to you?  Lime? Pistachio?  Bloomberg called it "apple green."  Is the new cab really that green?

New York City's new cab (Hiroko Masuike
/The New York Times)

The color of the new taxi was kept a secret until the last minute, so it could be hyped up by the media.  However, no particular regulatory changes for taxis were announced at the unveiling.  Bloomberg had set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 % by 2030, which is considered to be an integral part of the 2007 PlaNYC, an economic and environmental initiative to prepare the city for one million more residents.  Somewhat surprisingly, however, greenhouse gas emission reduction not reflected at the unveiling. 

In fact, NYC along with other cities, has gone through much debate about the deployment of hybrid taxis.

In September 2008 a group of taxi operators sued the city claiming that hybrids were not suitable for city taxis and in October of the same year, a federal judge blocked New York City from implementing the fuel economy requirement.  There was another battle in 2009 between the city government and taxi operators.

We have seen a similar battle in Boston.  A group of taxi drivers and medallion owners sued in federal court for the city of Boston to block the requirement and requested the city delay the changeover for two or three years.

This is a complex issue.  Do you know how much it costs to get a taxi medallion in NYC?  It is $400,000 per medallion.  Medallion owners, therefore, need to make money as soon as they hit the road.  NYC's cab drivers do not make a lot of money. The Taxi and Limousine Commission estimates that drivers earn an average of $130 a day, down from $150 in 2006.  NYC's cab drivers claim that hybrid cars are not sufficient to handle the city that never sleeps: a car requires a 24 hours-drive capability to enable a return on investment.  

As a small business owner, I totally understand the rationale of taxi drivers and medallion owners against the regulations.  On the other hand, I would like to see a more creative way to entice businesses to participate in the conversion.  

Looking at Boston's better success with hybrid, I see the CleanAir Cabs program was created around the benefits for cab drivers.  First, the operating cost savings for drivers are great as hybrid taxi cabs can get up to three times as many miles per gallon of fuel as the old Crown Victoria cabs.  Second, hybrid taxi drivers get two "front of the line" passes per shift at Logan Airport, allowing them to make two extra trips daily and gain more earning opportunities.

I believe that regulators' involvement in sustainability needs to be well designed and in balance.  We do not want to lose employment to keep the earth green.  That is just not realistic.  I believe in creating a space for all of us to "participate" rather than enforcing rules that would be only used as a measurement for regulators' success.

What do you think of the NYC cab driver's situation?  What would you do if you were Bloomberg?

  

New Wealth – New American Dream?

When I was growing up in Tokyo, Japan experienced a historic economic boom. From the 80s to early 90s, such major Japanese acquisitions as Sony’s 1989 purchase of Columbia Pictures roiled the corporate world, and Japanese companies and corporate titans flooded into New York during the real estate boom, with Mitsubishi Estate’s purchase of Rockefeller Center touching off an outcry over foreign control of American property. 

In Tokyo, I remember that European luxurious-brand products were inundated Japan and my friends in high school carried around Louis Vuitton bags as if they were everyday items.   Everyone seemed to be wealthy, and no one was left behind.  Japanese people seemed to be moving forward as if the sky were the limit for the new opportunities.   

Fast-forward to Japan today, and there is no word to describe how much has changed since then.  Landmarks such as the Chrysler Building are now owned by many Arab groups, with the Chrysler Building now being 90% owned by the Abu Dhabi government.  And Rockefeller Center is now owned by Tishman Speyer, a German real estate developer.

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, is well-known for his doctrine of change being central to the universe.  We should all know by now that only constant is change.

Coming from the perspective of the big shift in Japan, I am intrigued by the constant change in our world and what it means for the notion of happiness that many of us feel we were promised.  What if things that we were taught by our school or society have been wrong? What if we are looking for  true happiness in the wrong place?  

Yesterday’s New York Times reported that 94% of students who earn a bachelor’s degree borrow to pay for higher education — up from 45% in 1993. In 2011, the average debt for lendees was raised to $23,300. Didn’t we grow up hearing that a college education would further your standard of living? After just reading about a recent graduate whose debt is over $100,000 and who now waits on tables, a college education doesn’t seem to support the American dream anymore.

Van Jones, a civil rights and environmental activist, is known for his best-selling book, Green Collar Economy.  His book outlines a plan for simultaneously solving socioeconomic inequality and environmental problems, and he has recently initiated a movement to reclaim the American dream. The American dream in essence is not about purchasing power, but opportunity; it's not about financial wealth, but about community and hard work for all people.  I would like to call this a "new wealth." 

I firmly believe that a sustainable society helps give us space to breathe and grow for individual well-being and helps support maintaining a healthy body and mind.  It doesn't determine your value in the society by your religion, sexual orientation or color.  A sustainable society is a sharing society based upon new wealth.  Best of all, a sustainable society is created upon the interrelations of a diverse group of people, flexible and ready to transform.

What do you imagine for the "American dream"?  For me, the critically acclaimed movie American Beauty comes to mind.  While keeping up appearances of a beautiful home and family image, the members of two "typical" American families are shaken by different circumstances that force them to come out of their cocoons and make voyages of self-discovery to see both the complex beauty and tragedy of life.  I found the message courageous and most inspiring. 

 

What about you?  What is your American dream?

  

What Is "Insourcing"? Doug Feirstein Talks About LiveOps, the World’s Largest Virtual Call Center

President Obama said that same-sex marriage should be legal during yesterday's Good Morning America, after nearly two years of saying that his views on same-sex marriage were “evolving.”  This has made Obama the first U.S. president who endorses same-sex marriage, and as same-sex marriage has been one of the most contentious and politically charged social issues of the day, I applaud Obama's courage and the strong leadership.

Obama’s announcement is significant from a symbolic standpoint. We have moved into more than a new millennium. We are moving into a new age of social realities -- a set of realities that will reshape and redefine the very philosophical and pragmatic pillars that have historically served as the foundation for our family and community. 

Speaking of new realities, Obama also endorses "insourcing," which he describes as his latest push for bringing jobs back to America. As a sustainable nation should maximize its domestic workforce, U.S. companies hiring U.S. people to work for them seems fundamentally the right course of action. Companies, however, are here to make money. Making money entails managing costs. Labor, especially, is a huge business expense. So how can we seek profitability while striving to be sustainable?

This week, I had the fortune to hear Doug Feirstein speak at a monthly meeting of Shared Squared.



With Doug Feirstein and his wife, who
was the first trainer for LiveOps' agents

Feirstein is a co-founder of LiveOps, one of the largest outsourced work-at-home call centers in the world, with more than 20,000 work-at-home agents. LiveOps concentrated on using the Internet to build a business, enabling people across the country to establish their own home-based businesses and provide call center services to LiveOps clients.

Feirstein explained that LiveOps overcame issues such as maintaining agent quality when they couldn't see the agent by implementing a "result-based routing system." In this system, better agents get more calls and produce higher sales as a result. To enhance technology, LiveOps later merged with CallCast, a California-based startup company.

I am a strong believer that the marketplace creates needs and that the government should have limited control over it. Obama's enforcement of insourcing might only create more problems in U.S. companies. LiveOps produces an unlimited number of business opportunities for people wanting to work from home regardless of their location. On the other hand, LiveOps delivers the scalable workforce to U.S. companies that have benefited from flexible workers. LiveOps touts that a sound business model backed up by innovative technology creates true "insourcing" that benefits both the underutilized U.S. workforce and U.S. companies.

We are moving into a new set of realities, indeed. Do you agree? What do you think of insourcing? 

NYC Going High and Low: Crowdfunding Brings an Underground Park Project One Step Closer to Reality

The High Line's Latest Development

Last weekend, I had brunch at the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District in NYC and had a chance to walk on the High Line afterward. I was pleasantly surprised by the huge crowd at the High Line, which was originally a stretch of elevated rail line operated from 1934 to 1980.

The High Line allowed meat to be carried to the Meatpacking District, agricultural goods to the factories and warehouses of the industrial West Side, and mail to the post office. Instead of getting rid of the vegetation and old structure, the city has transformed it by building a variegated green space on it that spans more than a mile in the middle of Manhattan. It’s truly a stunning concept, and I was thinking, who knew that an urban relic that has sat in disrepair for so long could have been turned into one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city.

Speaking of transformation, I never could have even dreamed of today's transformation of the Meatpacking District when I first moved to the city 12 years ago (my apartment was at Horatio and Washington St. in the West Village).

The High Line Section 3 Design Plan

The High Line Section 3's Design Plan

On March 12, initial design plans of Section 3 (West 30th Street to West 34th Street) were revealed to the public for the first time. Section 1 of the High Line (Gansevoort St. to West 20th St.) opened in June 2009, and Section 2 (West 20th St. to West 30th St.), opened in June 2011. Section 3 is the last development phase of the project and will wrap around the forthcoming Hudson Yards development and be closely integrated with the new buildings. Based on the design plan, Section 3 will represent a beautiful mix of old and new buildings.

The Underground Park

While the West Side is taking the high way, the East Side is exploring the underground world. The LowLine, the world's first underground park in Lower Manhattan, is the hottest new development idea in NYC. 

The idea for the LowLine came after Ramsey, a New York-based designer, learned about New York's underground spaces from an Metropolitan Transit Authority employee. There are 13 acres of space underground that are unused. The underground space is a 1.5 acre terminal built in 1903 for trolley trains to shuttle passengers between Brooklyn and Manhattan across the then newly opened Williamsburg bridge. When the trolley service ended in 1948, the terminal closed, and it has lain dormant since.  



The Proposed Design Plan for the LowLine

The idea of "year-round public space," supporting farmers markets, concerts and art installations, is a fantastic idea. The obstacle was that the LowLine team needed to raise the money to do three things to propose the idea to the Metropolitan Transit Authority: conduct engineering studies, develop a feasibility model, and build a temporary technology demo to showcase the concept in real form.

Crowdfunding Brings the LowLine Closer to Reality

Have you heard of "crowdfunding"? Crowdfunding is the latest way of raising funds from the public via the Internet, and it’s being used for a variety of purposes, from disaster relief, to artists seeking support from fans, to funding a startup company. Recently, the Pebble e-watch project raised over $7 million via crowdfunding.

The LowLine project moved a step closer to reality on April 6, when Kickstarter, a crowdfunding site, closed an innovative design proposal process. The LowLine project has attracted donations totaling more than $150,000 since February, and, according to the LowLine team, the money has come flowing in from around the world, including from donors in Japan, South Africa and Germany.

With the fund, the LowLine team will be able to get to work on the first stage of the LowLine – a scale model of the park, constructed in an abandoned warehouse steps away from the underground location.  The LowLine remains in the planning stages and the team still faces a long process ahead, but one thing for sure is that over 3,000 individual supporters who already endorsed the project around the world believe that the LowLine will bring positive changes to the Lower Manhattan. 

Final Thoughts

Experts in the field of urban design have noticed a new trend in the last 20 years, where architects and designers are looking to reuse old industrial spaces and capture the core functionality and beauty in original architecture, rather than destroying them and developing new buildings. In this post, I’ve explored the High Line and LowLine in NYC that showcase a major urban design trend. But I am curious about how the trend would actually change our perspectives and emotions for the old buildings and what kind of impact it would have on our lives.

What do you think? Share your thoughts!