Speaker 1: It's night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZY Constance Radio.
Speaker 2: Well well, well, welcome back everybody. That was an interesting
Speaker 2: hour with a variety of different topics. And it's not
Speaker 2: easy for us, from my producer during the day, Marita,
Speaker 2: to get four different guests every night on topics that
Speaker 2: really do impact a lot of people. So I hope
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Speaker 2: at nightsideemdemand dot com our eleven o'clock hour, which we've
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Speaker 2: o'clock hour, the hour we're doing right now, and of
Speaker 2: course the eight o'clock hour that you just heard. So
Speaker 2: feel free any hour if you missed you and go back.
Speaker 2: You can go back months, as a matter of fact,
Speaker 2: and find programs and hour of programs, maybe even an
Speaker 2: hour that you might have called in, and you can
Speaker 2: kind of critique your own work as a caller. So
Speaker 2: let's talk about a story caught my attention yesterday. So
Speaker 2: I was looking at my Boston Herald, and the Boston
Speaker 2: City Council never surprises. They just never surprise. And this
Speaker 2: is one that just shows and proves in my opinion
Speaker 2: that at least in Boston and maybe in your community,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Of course, in your community you probably
Speaker 2: elect maybe city councilors, maybe you elect aldermen or whatever.
Speaker 2: But in Boston, in Boston, we have thirteen city councils,
Speaker 2: all of whom wake up every morning, look in the
Speaker 2: mirror and think they're the mayor. Because that's just the
Speaker 2: way it works in Boston. Every city councilor wants to
Speaker 2: be the mayor. It's like everybody who plays for the
Speaker 2: Providence Bruins, and maybe this year, it's true they feel
Speaker 2: that they could do better than the Boston Bruins. But
Speaker 2: that's the story for another night. So the Boston City Council,
Speaker 2: how many of you have, upon occasion, called and ordered
Speaker 2: some food to be delivered to your home. You know,
Speaker 2: you get home late and you're hungry, and you don't
Speaker 2: have time. Maybe you haven't been to the supermarket in weeks,
Speaker 2: and there's nothing in your refrigerator, perhaps except for an
Speaker 2: orange and maybe some milk that is kind of on
Speaker 2: the edge. And you say, well, I feel like a
Speaker 2: real meal, and I've had an orange and a glass
Speaker 2: of milk in the past. So you order, You call
Speaker 2: your local restaurant, You call you if you live in Roslindale, o,
Speaker 2: JP or wherever. And of course you do the same
Speaker 2: thing if you live in New Bedford or a Worcester
Speaker 2: or Lowell. But what happens in Boston might set a
Speaker 2: precedent for these other communities. So you have these politicians,
Speaker 2: these elected leaders, who really think they can run the
Speaker 2: lives of their constituents. They are not there to serve
Speaker 2: and help you. They are there to make whatever name
Speaker 2: they can make. Make so. We have a couple of
Speaker 2: city councilors who were highlighted a piece by Gala Cawley
Speaker 2: yesterday in the Herald. City Council meaning the Boston City
Speaker 2: Council weighing new foe de food delivery tax. Yeah, as
Speaker 2: you've often heard, let me say, politicians in Massachusetts only
Speaker 2: tax two things, anything that moves and anything that doesn't move.
Speaker 2: So if you have a car, they tax it, excise tax,
Speaker 2: and then tax on the automobile forever. If you own
Speaker 2: a home, it doesn't move, they tax it. It doesn't matter,
Speaker 2: they tax it all. It's as simple as that. So
Speaker 2: now you've heard the phrase that the politicians are nickel
Speaker 2: and diming people to death. I know you won't believe this,
Speaker 2: particularly if you didn't read the article by Gayla Cawley
Speaker 2: in the Herald yesterday. But the City Council. I read
Speaker 2: it and I thought this can't be true. The council
Speaker 2: is discussing a potential amendment to a Road Safety and
Speaker 2: Accountability for Delivery Provider's Ordinance. That's a mouthful, okay, proposed
Speaker 2: by the mayor. She wants road safety and accountability for
Speaker 2: delivery providers. So if you're out there tonight and you're
Speaker 2: a food deliverer, this is for you. If you're out
Speaker 2: there tonight and you're an uber driver who maybe occasionally
Speaker 2: picks up orders at one of these food locations, this
Speaker 2: is for you as well. The city of Boston who
Speaker 2: can't hire enough police officers. There are so many things
Speaker 2: that they cannot do. They cannot allow people to drive
Speaker 2: into the city without bike lanes everywhere. They want to
Speaker 2: impose Get this, you talk about nickel and diming, This
Speaker 2: is nickel and diming. Literally. They want to propose add
Speaker 2: on tack on to this proposal from the mayor, which
Speaker 2: god enough probably is crazy enough. Anyway, They want to
Speaker 2: propose a fifteen cent that's right, a fifteen cent delivery
Speaker 2: fee per order for national third party food delivery companies
Speaker 2: that operate in Boston. I have no idea what they
Speaker 2: mean by national third party food delivery companies that operate
Speaker 2: in Boston. And by the way, when I said they
Speaker 2: want a nickel and dime, you take one nickel and
Speaker 2: one dime and you got fifteen cents. Think of the
Speaker 2: amount of paperwork, the amount of paperwork that would be
Speaker 2: involved to keep track of fifty every every food delivery
Speaker 2: and fifteen cents. These people are nuts at this point.
Speaker 2: I mean, when I read it yesterday in Gala's piece
Speaker 2: in the Herald, I thought to myself, fifteen percent. So
Speaker 2: let's say that I don't know, someone ordered a ten
Speaker 2: dollars burger. Well, you can't get a ten dollar burger
Speaker 2: in Boston anymore. Let's assume they ordered a thirty dollars
Speaker 2: burger in Boston. Thirty dollars burger Boston, and maybe a
Speaker 2: drink with it, a ten dollars pepsi or something like that.
Speaker 2: It's going to be forty dollars. Let's work round it
Speaker 2: at forty. So I thought to myself, Okay, you know
Speaker 2: they'll charge a sixth of that, fifteen percent of that.
Speaker 2: That'd be about six bucks. So that instead of being
Speaker 2: in order that you'd pay forty dollars for with a tip,
Speaker 2: of course, that tack on an additional six dollars. That's
Speaker 2: what I thought. Or to put it more simply, if
Speaker 2: let's say you ordered something that was just twenty dollars,
Speaker 2: keep it simpler. A six percent tax on twenty dollars
Speaker 2: would be what about twenty or something like that. Um, No,
Speaker 2: fifteen cents why would any city councilor in his or
Speaker 2: her right mind come come up with that number of
Speaker 2: fifteen cents? This is the delivery fee assessment. A delivery
Speaker 2: fee of fifteen cents per order, per order, and they
Speaker 2: write it out so there's no no confusion here. Zero
Speaker 2: big dollar sign in front of the zero point one
Speaker 2: point five per order shall be assessed on each provider
Speaker 2: operating within the City of Boston. Providers shall remit the
Speaker 2: total delivery fees on a quarterly basis. Well, that's going
Speaker 2: to add up to a lot of money in a
Speaker 2: format and manner prescribed by the Boston Transportation Department ensuring
Speaker 2: accurate and timely reporting. Revenue generated from this fee shall
Speaker 2: be dedicated exclusively to initiatives that improve transportation infrastructure. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: they're gonna pave a lot of roads, They're gonna fill
Speaker 2: a lot of potholes. Without every one of those fifteen cents,
Speaker 2: they would they would be better to tap people throw
Speaker 2: dimes into the potholes than they'd be all set. Oh also,
Speaker 2: traffic safety, yep. Environmental sustainability, we're gonna we're gonna end
Speaker 2: climate change with this as well as enforcement of this ordinance.
Speaker 2: Because you're going to have the people enforcing the ordinance.
Speaker 2: I assume you're going to have to have. Now you
Speaker 2: have meter maids out there tagging automobiles. Now you're gonna
Speaker 2: have to have some sort of enforcement officers. I shouldn't
Speaker 2: say meter mads. That's a sexist term. Strike that enforcement
Speaker 2: officers who will be monitoring the number of people who
Speaker 2: came in, flew in to the door, ran out with
Speaker 2: an order try to keep it warm on a cold
Speaker 2: winter's night. Penalties may include it may result in suspension
Speaker 2: of revocation of the provider's permit as outlined in Section
Speaker 2: seventeen Hyphen twenty two dot eight. Boston Traffic Department may
Speaker 2: impose an additional penalty for repeated violations. To ensure transparency
Speaker 2: and accountability BTD, I'm just gonna leave it at BTD.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Boston Transportation Department shall publish an accessible annual report detailing
Speaker 2: the total revenue collected from the delivery fee, the specific
Speaker 2: programs and projects funded by the fee, and a summary
Speaker 2: of enforcement actions taken against noncompliant providers. B TEND may
Speaker 2: periodically review and adjust the delivery fee. Oh, we may
Speaker 2: periodically review and adjust the delivery fee. I don't think
Speaker 2: it's going to be decreased. Let me just get on
Speaker 2: the record as that subject to a review and approval
Speaker 2: by the City Council, because we're the most powerful thirteen
Speaker 2: people in Boston other than the Mayor, to ensure it
Speaker 2: remains effective in supporting objectives outlined in seventeen hyphen twenty
Speaker 2: two point seven, Section C under no circumstances showed the
Speaker 2: delivery fee established in this section be passed on to
Speaker 2: individual operators, local businesses, or consumers in the form of surcharges,
Speaker 2: additional fees, or pricing adjustments. No, of course not. They
Speaker 2: are going to raise the price of anything, No matter
Speaker 2: of fact, though I guess they'll probably drop the price, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: they'll be They'll be selling They'll be selling filet mignon
Speaker 2: for two bucks. Once say, this is crazy, This is
Speaker 2: just insane. Is this what politicians are elected to do.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping to hear from as many of you as possible,
Speaker 2: And if you're like me and you're someone who is
Speaker 2: really suspicious of what government tries to do, feel free
Speaker 2: to join this conversation. Uh you may say, well, this
Speaker 2: is nicol and Dimes stuff, Dan, and it is, and
Speaker 2: that's why I'm doing it as nicol and dime stuff
Speaker 2: six one, seven, two, five four ten thirty six one seven,
Speaker 2: nine three one ten thirty. If you think this is
Speaker 2: a good idea, first of all, fifteen cents, that's not
Speaker 2: even going to cover enforcement of the program. That's not
Speaker 2: going to cover the tickets that people are going to
Speaker 2: have to fill out or the reports they're going to
Speaker 2: have to file. This is what the City Council of
Speaker 2: Boston has reduced itself to. I think we need to
Speaker 2: get back to the to the good old days of
Speaker 2: Freddie Langholm six one seven, two five ten thirty six
Speaker 2: one seven nine three one ten thirty. This is government
Speaker 2: at its worst, in my opinion. Feel free to join
Speaker 2: the conversation. Be right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: to night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, let's go to the phone calls. Let's start
Speaker 2: off with Bill Oh. By the way, I must mention
Speaker 2: that we invited City Councilor Sharon Turkin to join us tonight.
Speaker 2: Who's the I guess, the primary proponent of this fee.
Speaker 2: And we also invited a gentleman named Stephen Clark, who's
Speaker 2: the president and the CEO of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association,
Speaker 2: but he was unable to join us tonight, so fortunately
Speaker 2: he didn't provide someone else. I would assume that restaurant
Speaker 2: owners would have an interest in fighting this, uh, this
Speaker 2: ridiculous fifty percent fee. I mean they said it's like
Speaker 2: a five dollars fee to say, well, at least it's
Speaker 2: worth it. I mean, anyway, let me go to Bill
Speaker 2: in Boston see what he has to think here. Bill,
Speaker 2: you were first up tonight on Night Side and first
Speaker 2: up this week. Welcome Hi Dan Bill, Hi Bill.
Speaker 3: Hi Dant. So you think it'll be a lot easier
Speaker 3: and quicker to raise these funds as opposed to fifteen
Speaker 3: percent or fifteen cents per order to just cut back
Speaker 3: on waste and overspending.
Speaker 2: You're asking me to think that the city council or
Speaker 2: the mayor in Boston would cut back on waste and overspending.
Speaker 2: Are you out of your mind?
Speaker 3: We could raise a lot more money that way. And
Speaker 3: I know there's some opposition to cutting back on waste
Speaker 3: and overspending.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's that's one of the great purposes of
Speaker 2: government is to look yeah, you heard the story that
Speaker 2: at the end of the year, the end of the
Speaker 2: fiscal year, where they have some budget line that they
Speaker 2: have spent, they will turn around and say, hey, if
Speaker 2: we don't spend this, we're gonna lose it. You get it,
Speaker 2: you know they do what the last thing you want
Speaker 2: to do is say, oh, my goodness, it's insane.
Speaker 3: It's going after the small businesses and the going after
Speaker 3: the people that are just trying to put food on their.
Speaker 2: Table, exactly right, the very people who provide the tax
Speaker 2: money that allows them to hire their brothers in laws
Speaker 2: and their cousins and their best friends from high school
Speaker 2: as aides and assistants that they probably don't need.
Speaker 3: You know, yes, exactly.
Speaker 2: It's it's just amazing. They will kill the golden goose.
Speaker 2: I mean, you see what's going on in Washington right now,
Speaker 2: and I think that the amount of waste and spending
Speaker 2: that I think the Trump administration should probably slow it
Speaker 2: down a little bit for their own But if the
Speaker 2: government was not thirty six or thirty seven trillion dollars
Speaker 2: in the hole, I mean you got to do something here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, instead of just going after the taxpayers trying
Speaker 3: to make a living.
Speaker 2: Well, they're going after not only the people who will
Speaker 2: be impacted by this. Which people don't understand is that
Speaker 2: when you come home after long day at work, you
Speaker 2: get up early, you go to work. Maybe you're doing
Speaker 2: a job you don't particularly like, but you do it
Speaker 2: because you've got to make a living and you're earning money.
Speaker 2: And a good portion of that money is going in
Speaker 2: taxes to the Feds and to the state, and also
Speaker 2: to the city. If you're renting, if you're a young
Speaker 2: person renting in the city, the least that you pay
Speaker 2: the rent you pay every month, A good portion of
Speaker 2: that is for the property taxes that that the owner
Speaker 2: of the bill of the property is charged. He's not
Speaker 2: going to say, oh, I'll cut your rent by three
Speaker 2: hundred a month, don't worry about it. No, they're going
Speaker 2: to pass right wrong whatever there It all gets past. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it all runs downhill like water.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: And so now a fifteen cent how much paperwork do
Speaker 2: you think is involved in a fifth in keeping track
Speaker 2: of a fifteen cent fee?
Speaker 3: Think, let's keep them somebody employed.
Speaker 2: I guess that's right, you gots That's exactly what it
Speaker 2: comes down to. And you know it sounds like that
Speaker 2: I'm cynical or you're cynical, but we're not. We're really not.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I think we're practically.
Speaker 2: Well, we've seen this play before. We've seen this before,
Speaker 2: and you've got the city council that are there's thirteen
Speaker 2: of them there that look in the mirror every morning
Speaker 2: and say good morning, Madam mayor good morning, mister mayor.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm serious.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, where our income tax rate could be. If
Speaker 3: waste was eliminated, all the spending was eliminated, it'd probably
Speaker 3: be no income tax.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I again, I don't think they'll ever get rid
Speaker 2: of the income tax realistically, but it could be a lot,
Speaker 2: it could be a lot lower. Look in California, people
Speaker 2: who are working in our next call is going to
Speaker 2: be from California. In California, everybody has to pay federal
Speaker 2: income tax, so it can be as high as thirty
Speaker 2: seven percent. And in California it's a lot of people
Speaker 2: who do very well. They make thirty seven percent, and
Speaker 2: then they're paying thirty uputs of thirteen percent of the
Speaker 2: state and never mind what else they're paying in terms
Speaker 2: of excise taxes and other forms of taxes. They're working
Speaker 2: for the state. They're not working for themselves in California.
Speaker 2: And that's why California and California has just a myriad
Speaker 2: of problems.
Speaker 3: Is that the highest tax right in the country for
Speaker 3: a state.
Speaker 2: Tax is California. Right, wow, thirteen. Our tax in Massachusetts
Speaker 2: is you know, five pen but then you add in
Speaker 2: the millionaires tax and it's nine percent. So if you're
Speaker 2: in California and you're you're making some money. And whether
Speaker 2: you're George kloon Out or you're Mike Trump or or
Speaker 2: playing for the Angels or Sultani, Yeah, uh, playing playing
Speaker 2: for the Dodgers, which is why he went for this
Speaker 2: twenty year contract and it was going to be mostly
Speaker 2: deferred money. And by the way, Massachusetts with the millionaires tax,
Speaker 2: how tough do you think it's going to be here
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts for the Red Sox, the Bruins, the Celtics,
Speaker 2: and the Patriots to sign talent, they need to compete
Speaker 2: when the go to they go to Texas, they go
Speaker 2: to Tennessee, they go to Florida, they go to a
Speaker 2: lot of states where that doesn't exist. Actually, probably virtually everywhere,
Speaker 2: even in New York. All right, Bill, thanks for getting
Speaker 2: us going. I appreciate it, you know that. Thank you,
Speaker 2: my friend, appreciate your coming. Thanks, talk to you soon, Okay.
Speaker 2: One line, one line open at six one seven two
Speaker 2: five four ten thirty. I got two lines at six
Speaker 2: one seven nine three one ten thirty. I'm going to
Speaker 2: shut this off at nine o'clock. A rather coming up
Speaker 2: at ten o'clock. Excuse me. We're going to talk about
Speaker 2: a the question of who's going to lead the Democratic
Speaker 2: Party out of the wilderness. I hope to god they did,
Speaker 2: they do come out of the wilderness, and that they
Speaker 2: can pull their act together, But right now, they seem
Speaker 2: to be scrambling, and uh, it almost looks as if
Speaker 2: the future of the party might fall to Bernie Sanders.
Speaker 2: He certainly has has a lot of passion and a
Speaker 2: lot of intelligence, and I've spoken about him before. I
Speaker 2: don't necessarily agree with him, but I think he's I
Speaker 2: think he's pretty honest. Six one seven thirty six seven,
Speaker 2: nine thirty. We'll keep it going here at night side.
Speaker 2: They have invented another tax in Boston. For all I know,
Speaker 2: it may be a tax that they're copying. Maybe they're
Speaker 2: not smart enough to invent another tax. Maybe this tax
Speaker 2: already exists in other cities. I mean, obviously where we're
Speaker 2: we're going to have congestion pricing in Boston at some point,
Speaker 2: we're stealing that from London and from from New New
Speaker 2: York City. Back on night.
Speaker 1: Side, It's Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Let's keep rolling here and again, by the way, this
Speaker 2: comes the increase, this fifteen cent increase comes against the
Speaker 2: backdrop of the of Massport increasing rideshare fees to and
Speaker 2: from Logan Airport. So all they're going to do with
Speaker 2: Massport is they will increase the It shows that right now.
Speaker 2: I guess the prices are going to go from three
Speaker 2: and a quarter to five point fifty in the next
Speaker 2: couple of years, and then seven to fifty starting in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty seven. I think they may have actually come
Speaker 2: to some sort of an agreement of a little lesser
Speaker 2: than fees, a little less. I guess, according to a
Speaker 2: piece that I'm seeing here, the current fee three and
Speaker 2: a quarter a trip will rise to five point fifty
Speaker 2: on July first. It never goes down. So those of
Speaker 2: you who are out there tonight, uber and lyft drivers,
Speaker 2: how's that going to impact you? Let's go to my
Speaker 2: friend David in San Francisco. I got two or three
Speaker 2: friends named David in San Francisco. I'm not sure this
Speaker 2: one is. It's always we never know for sure. Hey
Speaker 2: David in San Francisco, welcome back.
Speaker 5: Oh thanks Dan. And I'm the one that usually ends
Speaker 5: up swimming. Well, let me ask you.
Speaker 2: I hope if you're wearing your swim trunks tonight, let
Speaker 2: me know, and hopefully we can end up in a
Speaker 2: conversation which won't end up with you in the water.
Speaker 4: How's that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Right, Well, you know you're in the famous seventeen seventy
Speaker 5: six Boston and colony economics was the big deal back then,
Speaker 5: doesn't Yeah, and Uber doesn't have its headquarters in Boston.
Speaker 5: I take it. I don't know if you have Lyft
Speaker 5: out there or Amazon there.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, we got all that, you know, We're we're
Speaker 2: fairly advanced here. We have all the stuff you guys
Speaker 2: have an SF.
Speaker 5: Shore, all right, But the fifteen cent would be added
Speaker 5: to all of those different companies, and none of those
Speaker 5: corporate headquarters are in Boston. So colony economics is going
Speaker 5: on here in Boston and in almost every city in
Speaker 5: the world. Those companies are so huge if you go
Speaker 5: into I don't know, Lusan. I'm trying to think of
Speaker 5: some bizarre town in Zanzibar or something like that.
Speaker 2: Don't if anybody could think of a bizarre town in Zanzibar. David,
Speaker 2: I know it's going to be you. Before you go
Speaker 2: off on me here, just for a second, let me
Speaker 2: make sure I understand where you're going. I really enjoy
Speaker 2: having a conversation with you as long as we can
Speaker 2: have a conversation. So what they're doing in Boston, as
Speaker 2: I've already mentioned the nickel and diming people, So they're
Speaker 2: saying to you, if you're working as an uber driver, uh,
Speaker 2: and you have people that you're picking up food for
Speaker 2: the restaurant, I guess is supposed to charge an extra
Speaker 2: fifteen cents or pay an extra fifteen cents, But you
Speaker 2: know that's only going to be passed on to the customer.
Speaker 2: I think you and I both are smart enough to
Speaker 2: realize that. I mean, when when Ubert you know there's Ubers,
Speaker 2: they're they're increasing the airfares here. I've been to San
Speaker 2: Francisco and I've taken ubers from San Francisco Airport just
Speaker 2: like Boston, by the way, but now they're going to
Speaker 2: raise the per feed trip, not only what you pay,
Speaker 2: you know, and it could be dependable where you're coming from.
Speaker 2: Seventy seventy five one hundred bucks, if you're from the suburbs,
Speaker 2: they're going to whack you out for an addictional five
Speaker 2: point fifty And you know, I mean that's gonna a
Speaker 2: number of people are going to say, you know what, Hey,
Speaker 2: I don't need to go. And maybe what people will
Speaker 2: start to do is they'll say it's getting too expensive
Speaker 2: and they'll double up or something. And it always comes
Speaker 2: down to this incredible appetite that any government agency has
Speaker 2: for more money. And David, between you and me, and
Speaker 2: I want to shut up and give you a chance
Speaker 2: to respond to this. All this money goes to people
Speaker 2: at these quasi public agencies and at these city agencies.
Speaker 2: They make pretty good money. They make more money than
Speaker 2: people regular people who are working nine to five jobs.
Speaker 2: These people back here, I don't know what they make
Speaker 2: in San Francisco, but if you work in government back here,
Speaker 2: you're making one hundred thousand dollars. We get people back here.
Speaker 2: It always comes out with overtime. They make a half
Speaker 2: a million dollars as city workers. I mean, that's absurd.
Speaker 5: Should do that. I mean, yeah, that's right, you're right, you're.
Speaker 2: Right, But it's not just. But David, it's not just.
Speaker 2: It's not a cops, Dave. It's not like the cops
Speaker 2: are killing it and everybody else is making fifty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars a year. I'm sure you have the same problem
Speaker 2: out there, and none of them are really doing much
Speaker 2: to help anybody. They're not producing anything. Go ahead, I
Speaker 2: need to listen to you before go ahead, David.
Speaker 5: Colony economics is what I'm leaning on. And when you
Speaker 5: start having these corporations that are doing deliveries. You know,
Speaker 5: if you think a hundred years ago, WC. Fields, I
Speaker 5: think he was down there in Philadelphia and he was
Speaker 5: delivering groceries for Nicola, a delivery, and so little kids
Speaker 5: or teenagers used to do deliveries and it would go
Speaker 5: straight to their pocket and help feed mom who was
Speaker 5: starving in the kitchen. And the idea that now a
Speaker 5: corporation can have worldwide deliveries and they suck all the
Speaker 5: money to their corporate headquarters. That's straight to seventeen seventy six.
Speaker 5: This Uber company I'm so disgusted by Lyft and Uber
Speaker 5: and what's the other one Amazon. These guys are the
Speaker 5: wealthiest people in the world because they are the biggest
Speaker 5: colony colonizers of the world. Who would imagine that, you know,
Speaker 5: a rickshaw driver in Hong Kong would keep the money
Speaker 5: instead of Lift or Uber sucking it to Well.
Speaker 2: Let me explain. Let me explain to you something that
Speaker 2: I'm sure you know, but maybe our audience doesn't. Okay,
Speaker 2: Here in Boston we used to have a certain number
Speaker 2: of taxi cab drivers. There were only eight eighteen hundred
Speaker 2: Hackney licenses that they were issued. And do you know
Speaker 2: what the value of a Hackney license, if you owned
Speaker 2: a Hackney license, do you know what, but the value
Speaker 2: of that Hackney license was at its height.
Speaker 5: Out here, it was a quarter million dollars.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, you're right on the money out here
Speaker 2: was actually a little more. It was a little more here.
Speaker 2: It got up close to six hundred thousand dollars in More.
Speaker 2: And then what happened was you couldn't get a Hackney license.
Speaker 2: There were only eighteen hundred licenses that the city said
Speaker 2: would and was run by the Police Department, which of
Speaker 2: courses were run by the Mayor's office, and then incomes
Speaker 2: Uber and Lyft, and all of a sudden, Boston was
Speaker 2: flooded with Uber and Lyft drivers, which was great because
Speaker 2: you could get an Uber would show up at your
Speaker 2: drawer in like thirty seconds. And I'm sure you've experienced
Speaker 2: it as well out there. But it killed the taxi
Speaker 2: It killed the taxi industry here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 4: And there were people well in Boston who had purchased
Speaker 4: these taxi medallions for six hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
Speaker 4: and all.
Speaker 2: Of a sudden, instead of you know, having the value
Speaker 2: of that license because it had a value because they
Speaker 2: could only be eight, they opened it up. And you're
Speaker 2: right in the point of view that Uber had all
Speaker 2: the lawyers, and Lift had all the lawyers. And I
Speaker 2: on this radio station you may not remember it. I
Speaker 2: was one of the people. I was playing Paul Revere
Speaker 2: at the time, as I try to do every night,
Speaker 2: and I was saying, this is crazy, this is not fair.
Speaker 2: For years and years and years it was a system,
Speaker 2: and now Uber has come in. If you and I
Speaker 2: had just started to drive taxi cabs around or without
Speaker 2: a license, or just decided to use. We would have
Speaker 2: been pulled over and arrested. But somehow uber and able
Speaker 2: to come in and flood the market here, and the
Speaker 2: taxi drivers many of them just surrendered their their medallions.
Speaker 2: So this is the same thing, David, it's the same thing.
Speaker 2: We do agree. I told you the last time that
Speaker 2: you were here, were we agreed, and I think some
Speaker 2: somehow you didn't didn't leave me. But look, this was
Speaker 2: a lovely conversation on my end.
Speaker 5: I'll finish up.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, I'll give you final work. Go ahead, I'll
Speaker 2: give you a final work.
Speaker 5: I would have liked to have the councilwoman, uh, talk numbers,
Speaker 5: because the fifteen cents is probably what it's costing the city.
Speaker 5: You know it's there. The city does take wear and
Speaker 5: tear on the streets, and you know there are different
Speaker 5: issues at the city. So it's a modest fifteen cents.
Speaker 2: But just think think the paperwork, David, take in the paperwork.
Speaker 2: It'll it'll cost them Lord Titanic. It's crazy.
Speaker 5: Money is electronic. The money is electronic. That's not really
Speaker 5: the issue. The bigger picture. You know, at the top
Speaker 5: of the hour, you had discussion about the train going
Speaker 5: down to the south part of the state and it's
Speaker 5: going to be running for free for a couple of months. Well,
Speaker 5: there are in many cities. Here in San Francisco, we
Speaker 5: did a to talk about making the bus system entirely free,
Speaker 5: and it would have actually made the city two billion
Speaker 5: dollars a year by making the bus system free because
Speaker 5: there is so much expense in special accounting special uh,
Speaker 5: you know, the meter. Excuse me, the fare box costs
Speaker 5: a lot. You've got to have special accounting, and the
Speaker 5: farebox costs about seventy five percent of running the buses.
Speaker 2: And what we'll do next time, since since you brought
Speaker 2: up that topic, I'll do a little research on that.
Speaker 2: It doesn't it seems to me that if you're going
Speaker 2: to have a use a city service, it's not unreasonable
Speaker 2: to have it cost you a buck or two because
Speaker 2: you're you're Do you ever heard the word time stoffle.
Speaker 5: David, Well, the economics of it is as soon as you.
Speaker 2: Have David, David, just try to be with me for
Speaker 2: a second here. Have you ever heard the word ton staffel?
Speaker 5: Not off han okay.
Speaker 2: Ton staffel is an acronym. It stands for there ain't
Speaker 2: no such thing as a free lunch. So if people
Speaker 2: are riding the MBTA or riding trains or riding airplanes,
Speaker 2: someone's paying for it. Someone's paying for the gas. So
Speaker 2: we'll leave that as economics one oh one for now,
Speaker 2: and just remember ton stuffel. There ain't no such thing
Speaker 2: as a free lunch. You might go into a restaurant
Speaker 2: and they may give you a free lunch, David, but
Speaker 2: somebody's paid for that. Maybe the owner paid for it,
Speaker 2: the chef, you know it just it's it's just economics
Speaker 2: one on one.
Speaker 4: David.
Speaker 2: We did ten minutes and you didn't end up in
Speaker 2: the water. Thank you very much. I enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 2: Well you want to go in, let's let's put him in,
Speaker 2: Rob he asked for it.
Speaker 4: David.
Speaker 2: We'll be back on nightside. I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 2: I'm again a little surprised, and we're going to change
Speaker 2: topics at ten o'clock. If this doesn't this one infuriates me.
Speaker 2: If it doesn't bother you, hey, stay go back to sleep.
Speaker 2: We'll be back on night side six one seven, two,
Speaker 2: ten thirty, six one seven, nine three ten thirty Coming
Speaker 2: back on nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Now, I thought this would be a really interesting topic.
Speaker 2: It is to me, obviously, it is not to my audience,
Speaker 2: and sometimes I misjudge my audience, which is fine, not
Speaker 2: a problem. Rob was saying, maybe what the city should
Speaker 2: do as their next initiative is have some sort of
Speaker 2: little tolling device on bike lanes. I think that's a
Speaker 2: possibility as well. I mean, they are just looking for
Speaker 2: all sorts of ways in order to raise money. They're
Speaker 2: not raising money to provide services. They're raising money for
Speaker 2: the purpose of raising money. And until people here in
Speaker 2: Massachusetts wake up, I don't think this will ever change. Frankly,
Speaker 2: I think that we are in a really progressive state
Speaker 2: here in Massachusetts, and as long as people go to
Speaker 2: the polls and vote into office the same people, the incumbents,
Speaker 2: who could care less about what your workday is like,
Speaker 2: they will raise whatever type of money they can raise.
Speaker 2: It is really as simple as that. So again, for
Speaker 2: those of you out there who might be people who
Speaker 2: are going to order food going forward, once this fifteen
Speaker 2: cent additional tax is imposed on your food orders, don't
Speaker 2: be surprised if your food orders go up a dollar
Speaker 2: and a half because you know that will be an opportunity.
Speaker 2: As my friend David in San Francisco would probably agree,
Speaker 2: there would be an opportunity for some of the restaurant
Speaker 2: owners to say, hey, it's going to cost us more
Speaker 2: than fifteen cents just to keep track of this. We're
Speaker 2: not going to pay the fifteen cents. We're going to
Speaker 2: pass it on to our customers, or we're going to
Speaker 2: pass it on to the uber drivers. It just to me,
Speaker 2: I'm so amazed that people in Massachusetts allow this to
Speaker 2: happen to them time and time again. I've had Diana
Speaker 2: dis Ugly on the state udit or the come over
Speaker 2: of Massachusetts, who simply wants to do her job, which
Speaker 2: is to audit, and she wants to audit the state
Speaker 2: legislature in an effort to find out if everything is
Speaker 2: on the level, and if the money that the legislature
Speaker 2: is spending is being sent for a good public being
Speaker 2: spent on a good public purpose, and if it's not,
Speaker 2: what is it being spent on. But after seventy two
Speaker 2: percent of you, the residents of Massachusetts, voted to authorize
Speaker 2: her and actually change the law to make it a law,
Speaker 2: a state law, that she would be allowed to do
Speaker 2: her job, and she would be instructed to audit the legislature.
Speaker 2: The audit the legislature. Now, a law that went into
Speaker 2: effect in January has still not been audited, and they're
Speaker 2: trying to negotiate with Diana Desaghlia. We have to have
Speaker 2: her on again. We've had her on before, We'll have
Speaker 2: her on again. But it just shows the attitude that
Speaker 2: state legislators and city councilors and mayors in this state
Speaker 2: have because they realized they pretty much can do what
Speaker 2: they want. Because the voters have been put into a slumber,
Speaker 2: a certain percentage of the voters choose not to go
Speaker 2: to the polls because they're so angry they don't even vote,
Speaker 2: as if that makes sense, but it doesn't. But their
Speaker 2: atitude or I'm not going to vote because I don't
Speaker 2: want to be part of the problem. No, by not voting,
Speaker 2: you become part of the problem, because if you voted,
Speaker 2: maybe we'd have a few members of the General Court
Speaker 2: and maybe a few members of city council and other
Speaker 2: august bodies thrown out of office. But no, people just
Speaker 2: roll over and they say to themselves, what can I
Speaker 2: do well. You know, if you have that attitude, If
Speaker 2: you have that attitude, the politicians will take advantage of
Speaker 2: you every time, every day, and twice and twice on Sunday,
Speaker 2: simple as that. So I will wait until this goes
Speaker 2: into effect. And of course it won't stay fifteen cents long.
Speaker 2: But what it's once the proverbial camel's nose is in
Speaker 2: the tent, will it will increase. You can count on that.
Speaker 2: And all that will mean is that you'll have to
Speaker 2: work a little harder, maybe work a little more over time,
Speaker 2: so you can afford the food that you eat. Welcome
Speaker 2: to Massachusetts, as simple as that. Anyway, coming up on
Speaker 2: the other side of the ten o'clock news, we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about the National Democratic Party. And as strong
Speaker 2: as the Democratic Party is here in Massachusetts, and it
Speaker 2: is very strong, the National Democratic Party is in really
Speaker 2: substantial problems right now. There's all sorts of polling which
Speaker 2: is suggesting that young people, people in the age group
Speaker 2: of eighteen to twenty four or even twenty four to
Speaker 2: twenty nine, becoming more Republican as they come in. They're
Speaker 2: actually the hope for the future, I guess would be
Speaker 2: the way to describe it. So over the weekend, poor
Speaker 2: Bernie Sanders was doing an interview with Jonathan Carl, not
Speaker 2: what you would call a tough interviewer, particularly in terms
Speaker 2: of Democratic guests, but he asked Bernie a couple of
Speaker 2: questions about AOC who was thinking about taking a run
Speaker 2: at Chuck Schumer, who is the Senate Minority leader now,
Speaker 2: and Bernie got quite upset, and we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about that. And my question is, really, this Democratic Party
Speaker 2: is in they got some problems, Okay, they've just been
Speaker 2: wrong on so many issues. Who can lead the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2: I'm putting my money on Bernie Sanders. Although he is
Speaker 2: eighty three years of age, he's probably one of the
Speaker 2: youngest thinking members of the Democratic Party. We'll talk about
Speaker 2: that on the other side, and I'll play this very
Speaker 2: interesting interview that he had with Jonathan Carl yesterday. So
Speaker 2: we will forge ahead right after the ten o'clock news
Speaker 2: here at night Sidware coming back right after this