“So the mayor and I have a good working relationship, and it’s all always in the best interest of New York City for that to happen”.
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Full-time Uber driver and association member Peter Kuel says he was not familiar with de Blasio’s proposed restriction, but that he agreed, generally speaking, with the idea on a cap in the number of Ubers.
Under the agreement, Uber would turn over an unprecedented amount of ride data to the city and move toward increasing the accessibility of their cars and contributing funds to the region’s transit network. That means a cap on Uber remains a possibility.
After contentious remarks from City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito about who resolved the Uber war and how it was resolved, the speaker and Mayor Bill de Blasio were all smiles and giggles Monday, both insisting they’re still best friends.
“I think in some of the interpretation of the issues I’m not sure the relay of the information was as clear as it might have been from the media”, de Blasio said of his comments.
“I’m not going to allow anyone to attempt to save face at the expense of this Council”, a visibly raging Mark-Viverito told reporters at a City Hall press conference.
The city may not be able to abandon its current agreements with the New York real estate magnate, but de Blasio affirmed that he won’t be eying opportunities with him in the future.
The council had been poised to vote on two bills to launch a 14-month traffic study on the rapidly expanding Uber and similar services, while capping Uber’s growth at 1 percent. “There’s nothing else to discuss and he should be respected as such. No one else influences that discussion”.
It hasn’t attracted the headlines this year of Donald Trump or the Iran nuclear deal, but the ride-booking service Uber has proven as controversial as either of those this year and then some, as Hawaii and other states have sought to regulate this relatively new way of getting from here to there.
The cap was at the heart of the battle between City Hall and the ride-sharing company, which has previously sparked unrest and litigation in London, Paris and California.
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In a message to its New York clientele – “your voice made it possible”, the email said in bold letters – Uber gave its supporters statistics on how successful they were acting on its behalf. But the company’s deal with the city, just a day old, already appears to be receiving attention from a powerful outside force. The company’s seemingly ubiquitous ads also touted its service to minority riders in outer boroughs – de Blasio’s political base. But she said anyone coming forward to obtain one will not be asked about their status.
