Muslim Cabbies Demand Right To Veto Strip Club Ads

(Michelle Rick's Flickr)

There's a holy war brewing between cab drivers and the owners of taxi medallions who lease the medallions to drivers. According to Taxi and Limousine Commission rules, whoever owns the costly medallion (they currently go for $600,000 and up!) gets to call the shots on the advertising that goes on the roof of the cab. But cabbies—especially the ones who own their vehicles but still lease their medallions—are calling on the TLC to give them veto power over ads with objectionable content, like ones for strip clubs.

At the monthly TLC meeting yesterday, taxi driver Mohan Singh complained that his grandkids noticed a strip club ad on top of his cab and started asking uncomfortable questions, the Post reports. "My children ask me, 'What is this? I want to go to a gentlemen's club?' " Singh recalled. "What should I answer?" Another hack with a Flashdancers ad on top of his taxi tells the tabloid, "I don't like women exposing themselves sexually on top of my business."

TLC Commissioner David Yassky said yesterday he's inclined to permit drivers who own their taxis but lease medallions to toss the sexy women off their business, and there will be a vote in September. "It's made a lot of Muslims uncomfortable," one hack explains. But medallion owners are strongly opposed, arguing that they have to cover the costs and liabilities for the cabs, so they should get the final say on advertising. Of course, this isn't the first battle fought over strip club advertising; in 2009 Queens residents fought a long battle to get rid of a billboard on Rockaway Boulevard advertising a gentlemen's club.

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By John Del Signore in News on July 22, 2011 12:04 PM

Comments [rss]

dogbertt

The pious 9/11 Muslims spent a lot of time in gentlemen's clubs.

DILLIGAF

FUCK EM

el_squishface

I've actually always wondered what the drivers have to do with the gross ads on their rides. Can you imagine driving around with one of those ads on your car? As your JOB?

Seems like one step up from handing out flyers on the corner in a hot dog suit.

ANGRYGOD11

Coopertive advertisement is the norm in business.
SOMETHING The Official Product Of SOMETHING ELSE.
If you don't want to deal with it, go find work in another business.

trst

What's next? Will Xian cabbies be allowed to not pick me up if I look too gay?

CurmudgeonNYC

I am about as liberal as they come but this argument from the cabbies is moronic. It is not inside the taxi, which is where they spend most of the time. And dont most cabbies not get the same car each shift? So it isnt like EVERY cab has an ad for a gentlemans club on it. Plus, why dont you just talk to your stupid kids and tell them it is a place for grown ups. Problem solved.

SRabinovich

This is not about lease drivers (who often, but not always, pick up different cars from a taxi garage day-to-day). This is an issue for drivers who own their vehicle, but not the medallion, and use their cabs as their family cars when off-duty, park them in front of their houses and take their kids to school in them.

I was at the hearing, which mostly concerned whether drivers have to accept and install rooftop advertising at all on vehicles they own while leasing a medallion. Mostly it's an issue of driver costs vs. how much ad revenue medallion owners cut to them, but it doesn't seem like the Post's original story reported that.

JeRsEy JiM

This is what I don not get. If they own the car why does the medallion owner get the right to pick the advertiser. I would think the ad would be negotiated between the owner of the vehicle (cabbie) and the medallion owner to reduce the cost of the lease. If that is the case then the car owner (cabbie) should have veto power over certain ads. While it would be best if the car owners could negotiate the ads themselves it is not practical as the medallion owners probably own multiple medallions and are in a better position to negotiate ad revenue.

zubin soleimany

.
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JDSX

The whittling continues. How about these cabbies either go screw themselves or lease a medallion from someone that agrees with their views? I'm sure some enterprising medallion owner is willing to charge a lease premium in order to accommodate their preferences.

J_Temperance

F these guys. If they don't like, get another effing job.

randomtransplant

Imagine how different this comment section would read if the story said "a group of religious family men" instead of Muslims.

Seeing a couple dozen strip club adds per block at 9 am on a Monday doesn't seem worth defending. Let them opt out with the next add cycle. Only seeing half as many of the ads isn't going to hurt bussiness or freedom of speech - but it will make taxi's seem slightly more professional.

Guest

It would have been an attack on religion, including non-sequiturs on pedophilia and gay marriage.

Guest

At first I was going to say "Fuck them" but given whats going on in Norway, maybe we should just give them what they want and hope for the best, right guys?

SonnyBobiche

The no seeing eye dogs and no alcohol in cabbies driven by Minneapolis Muslim was just a test. The next thing that happened there was a demand for foot fountains in a public college so that Muslims could cleanse their feet in a religious rite. Then a cashier refuse to sell bacon (plastic wrapped bacon). Expect more demands.