# N Y C Taxi Medallions Now Cost $360,000! I Officially Cease My 'Un-Fare' Complaints
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-y-c-taxi-medallions-now-cost-360-000-i-officially-cease-my-un-fare-complaints/270440
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 21, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-y-c-taxi-medallions-now-cost-360-000-i-officially-cease-my-un-fare-complaints/270440 "2004-10-21T17:22:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-y-c-taxi-medallions-now-cost-360-000-i-officially-cease-my-un-fare-complaints/270440/1 "2004-10-21T17:22:06Z")
As reported last Friday in places as far away as [New Zealand](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/latestnewsstory.cfm?storyID=3602417&thesection=news&thesubsection=world), a Yellow Cab medallion in NYC now fetches **$360,000**.00 in auction. That’s definitely a whole lot more than most American’s mortgagees (or NY’ers for that matter)
[Full Story: Here](http://1010wins.com/topstories/winstopstories_story_293122431.html)
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> (New York) City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission auctioned off the taxi medallions to individual (who agree to drive a minimum of 210 of their won shifts) per year…The highest winning bid was $360,000. The lowest winning bid was just under $332,000…April, 2004 saw the average price of a medallion at $46,000 less than yesterday’s average price…
Now I don’t really care that the article says a taxi medallion is an investment – I for one wouldn’t take on such a huge debt & drive pushy people around a minimum of 1,680 hours a year in the hopes of making a few dollars. Last week, when I first heard the news, I factored in City traffic and other cabbies that would just assume crash into a new taxi than yield a fare – I came to the conclusion that $360K in a tax-sheltered bond fund would yield an investor a whole helluva lot less headaches.
I’m not gonna start arguing for or against strictly regulated markets – nor can I make the claim any aspiring hack investors got ripped off in the latest medallion auction. All I’m saying is I found this little tidbit in the [NY Post](http://www.nypost.com/seven/10152004/business/30366.htm) quite interesting:
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> It now costs an enterprising dreamer more to lease a taxi to roam streets than it does to lease a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
I guess that’s what I like about The United States of America: Having a seat on the NYSE doesn’t have the same snob appeal it used to – and unlike the UK, class lines here continue to blur.
Anyway, just a little mundane information I thought was worth sharing. As a way to keep myself honest, I’m making a written vow that I will start
1. Tipping the hacks better & Quit my bitchin about steep fares and other charges
2. Cease complaining about summertime body odors and garbled accents I can’t understand
3. Tell Danny Glover to either shutup or call a gypsy hack next time he’s got a complaint
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### Author:  [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2004, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-y-c-taxi-medallions-now-cost-360-000-i-officially-cease-my-un-fare-complaints/270440/2 "2004-10-21T17:37:17Z")
Maybe the humor in number three was lost on me but I’m going to tackle that one anyway. I fully confess to not knowing the entire Danny Glover brouhaha, but, if you’ll allow me to extend it non-famous black men, as I understand it, there was a time when taxis would sail past black men and pick up their white counterparts without even batting an eye. Is that correct? Laboring under that assumption it is, are you suggesting black men should just suck it up because a medallion costs so much? If not, are you suggesting that Danny Glover should bear in mind a medallion costs hundreds of thousand of dollars and, even though he _should_ be able to hail a cab like any other person, he should call another service?
I guess that was just my long-winded way of asking you if you’re joking and, if not, to explain what you mean.
Thanks much.
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### Author:  [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-y-c-taxi-medallions-now-cost-360-000-i-officially-cease-my-un-fare-complaints/270440/3 "2004-10-21T17:57:10Z")
Well this is what I have found re: the [Danny Glover/Taxi deal](http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0412229) (because I had no idea what the OP was referring to)
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> Glover believes he has difficulty getting cab service because of the color of his skin. He also says he has gotten rude treatment from drivers who have picked him up. Yesterday, the black actor filed a formal complaint with the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission and urged better diversity training for drivers.
To which I can only respond that I fully agree with \*\*UrbanChic’s \*\* post.
_wanders off singing Lenny Kravitz’s “Mr. Cab Driver”_