Cabbies gripe: No fare!

June 22, 2001
Joe Fazeli cruises in his Yellow Cab through the streets of San Francisco, looking for fares in places he shied away from a year ago, taking passengers places he wouldn't have gone, and making less money in the process.
"In the late '80s, there were problems with the bad economy, but we had like 800 cabs. Now we have over 1,300. I cannot make a living," Fazeli says, camped inside his cab late one afternoon in front of the Bank of America building on California Street.
"I work eight to 10 hours a day for maybe $6 an hour."
It's a common complaint among cabbies as the dot-com-fueled economy sputters. The boom put the pedal to taxi demand, and the subsequent bust continues to siphon off ridership. And if plans for an additional 500 city taxis are approved -- a measure given a tentative green light late last year -- cabbies worry that supply will speed past demand and kill their livelihood.