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There's an interesting article in the Village Voice about downtown residents unhappy with all the Town Cars in the neighborhood. The cars wait for employees at investment banks and the like, and Community Board 1 passed a resolution forcing Goldman Sachs, which is building a new skyscraper on West Street, to "minimize the impact of black cars" to the area. An agreement was reached (GS will keep its cars in a garage until they are called for), though other firms don't necessarily keep their Town Cars from idling and blocking streets and causing pollution in the area, but this is what happens when you have big business and residential areas - you don't hear people complaining about town cars in Midtown, as they are part and parcel there, with law firms, publishing empires and ad agencies - as well as banks. But this makes us wonder if some competitor will introduce the unblack car - a fuel efficient hybrid, perhaps - to appeal to both firms and residents alike.
And thanks to the VV article, now we know there is a magazine Black Car News.
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Our company just added an eco-friendly service called Ozocar (www.ozocar.com). I don't know anyone who's tried it yet though.
- Rob
Your use of the word "forced" is inappropriate. Community Boards have as much legal authority as a Cub Scout pack.
There is indeed an UNblack car, a "green" car service named Green City Transportation (www.greencitytrans.com) that uses only environmentally friendly vehicles. and good ones!
Worth a try.
The law on idling is 3 minutes. If you see it happen longer, copy down the plate and call 311. Easy.
I always see some hybrid cars used as taxis outside of Goldman.
I see a number of hybrid cars used as cabs outside of Goldman.
Yup, definitely call 311 if they're idling for more than 3 minutes (though if it's under 40, they can idle indefinitely to keep warm).
Still though, why can't these "captains of industry" walk, bike or take public transit like the rest of us?
Nobody complains about the black cars up here in Washington Heights, because cabs don't come up here, so you gotta love the Town Cars.
When I worked for a high flying stylist at Vogue, she used to use town cars all the time. Except when we were picking items up for a shoot, it really made no sense. It took five times as long to get where we were going than a subway, it made me carsick, and it was always a pain in the ass finding the car when we were done.
These are the kind of people who are fueling the town car business: VIPs who like and need to feel waited on as if they were royalty, and swishy broads in ten thousand dollar outfits that might get them mugged and/or molested in the unwashed world of the subway. These people also pay to exercise in gyms because they don't walk anywhere.
That's what gets people mad when those town cars are smoking up the neighborhood. I think it's more of a moral objection. It's not like there are no other cars downtown! It's because we all know those town cars cost as much as $200 an hour! It's offensive to some people just knowing it. They're thinking, "rich bastard."
I see town cars being used largely by underlings like me who have to stay late to prop up these "captains of industry." If a client is going to pay to get me back to my apartment after a 15-hour day, I'm taking the goddamn car.
Good news!
We now happen to live on Wall Street, right next to the Cipriani funhouse, in front of Deutsche Bank and their screaming mimee foot soldier guards. And, yes, the town cars line up continuously from early evening to the wee hours of the morning, just waiting. They feel free to park all over our sidewalks, honk their horns incessantly, and play their radios/CD players so loud it's like an apartment concert. And when spring and summer months come, the drivers hang out waiting, leaning against their cars and shouting back and forth to each other to talk. These are the things that bug us downtown residents, not the cars. We could care less about the egos of town car passengers. We just want the drivers to shut up.
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
you were talking so brave and so sweet,
giving me head on the unmade bed,
while the limousines wait in the street.
Those were the reasons and that was New York,
we were running for the money and the flesh.
And that was called love for the workers in song
probably still is for those of them left.
-L. Cohen