WORST CABBY EVER ON THE LOOSE IN NY

Meet Ramez Akladious, the worst - and most dangerous - taxi driver in the city.

He allegedly slashed a passenger with a boxcutter, drove drunk and, to cap it off, hurled ethnic slurs and lunged at a rider - who happened to work for the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Beware: Even though his taxi license was revoked Friday, he still could be rolling on the streets of New York.

Despite several arrests last year - and the fact that he had only a suspended probationary license - Akladious, 26, kept driving.

It wasn't until he crossed the wrong passenger - the TLC operations manager - that he was technically stripped of his cab license.

But even then, he didn't show up at the hearing to hand over his license, a source said. "He just blew it off," a source said.

The TLC worker, Phedra Braxton, who took her case to a city administrative law judge, said Akladious became enraged during a Jan. 5 ride down Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, screaming and cursing at a bicyclist in his way.

She also noticed he did not have his hack license properly displayed.

When she asked him to take her to an ATM - after he told her his credit-card machine wasn't working - he locked all the car doors and threatened to call the cops, Braxton said.

"He grabbed my jacket and bag through the partition window. I said, 'Get off me, what are you doing?' " she said. "He tried to spit on me . . . When I got out and started screaming, he said, 'I should have never picked your black ass up. You black people never pay.'

"Here I am, an employee for the TLC, and all the years I caught cabs, I never had an encounter like that before," Braxton said. "It's unbelievable that people like that are allowed to drive and deal with the public . . . The worst part of this is that he never should have been driving."

She warned that Akladious "will never get a license with the TLC again."

TLC Commissioner Matthew Daus upheld the administrative law judge's recommendation to revoke Akladious' probationary license - he'd never gotten a permanent one - and fine him $4,350.

Akladious never responded to the decision.

Efforts to reach him at home were not successful.

"The [judge] characterized your misconduct in this case as 'serious,' and I agree," Daus wrote Friday. "It is apparent you cannot comport to TLC rules."

Sources noted a check of the driver's credentials should have been done by the company leasing the cab to him. The TLC did not know what company Akladious drove for.

Akladious' arrest record began less than three months after his probationary TLC license was issued.

On May 15, he allegedly assaulted another driver by smashing his side-view mirror, then his face. That incident was followed June 7 by his alleged boxcutter-slashing of a cab rider who accused him of taking an unnecessarily long route, a source said.

On Sept. 22 in Queens, Akladious was arrested for allegedly striking a man in the face.

On Oct. 9 in Manhattan, he was slapped with a charge of DWI.

MTA fare hikes looming unless state Legislature comes to the rescue

Straphangers could get socked with another fare hike next year - an unprecedented third in a row - if the state Legislature doesn't come to the rescue, transit sources revealed Thursday.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority projects a $300 million budget gap in 2010 - even if it increases fares by as much as 30% in June and implements sweeping service cuts this spring.

MTA board members have been summoned to an emergency meeting at headquarters this morning to start grappling with the crisis.

The agency had hoped the Legislature would agree to a bailout, including putting tolls on the city's now-free bridges, but no deal has been reached.

Without a pact, double-digit fare hikes and deep service cuts are almost certain this summer. The MTA is ready to set new fares on March 25. A monthly MetroCard, now $81, could rise to $103.

The MTA today will start looking at worse scenarios for 2010 and beyond, sources said.

"I think they are doing the responsible thing," former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch said. "The public has a right to know - and the board has the responsibility to figure out - what kind of system it can operate with the revenues they have. They have to start thinking about shrinking the system."

Ravitch headed a state commission that recommended tolling the city's free East and Harlem River bridges, and enacting an employer-paid payroll tax.

The cash would enable the MTA to scale back fare hikes to 8% and avoid shutting some bus routes and subway lines.

The Ravitch plan also would help fund the MTA's capital program, which pays for day-to-day maintenance, upgrades and system expansion.

With Glenn Blain

Bailed-Out Bankers Still Prefer Cushy Car Service

Paste Linke for a very good video on the recession and black car service. http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/Who_Foots_the_Bill_for_Wall_Street_Bankers__New_York.html

Four of the largest American banks received a total of $75 billion in the recent federal bailout, so it's safe to assume they're limiting some of their luxury expenses.
You'd assume otherwise if you spent Thursday in front of the offices of Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. If you'd have done that, you'd have seen suit after suit hopping into black car after black car, hustling off into the evening.

From Battery Park City to Midtown, the locations may have been different, but the scenes were similar. Buses and yellow cabs passed on by as fancier, roomier, more expensive modes of transport were snapped up by bankers in need of a ride to presumably a nice restaurant or a house in the suburbs.

Drivers told News4 that some of the rides were round-trip to and from bars or restaurants, others out to Westchester or Fairfield County at the end of another long day.

"It's not even cool, man," one taxpayer told News4. "They need to get me one."

A train to towns like Greenwich, Scarsdale or Garden City shouldn't cost more than $10, but the nicer cars to the same locations command a fare closer to $90.

Morgan Stanley issued a statement that said employees "are only permitted to use black cars for travel with clients or to client-related events, or if employees work past 9 p.m. in the office."
New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez said the banks might want to re-evaluate certain practices.

"When you have the taxpayers' money ... at the end of the day, you have to look at your entire operation and say, 'I need to be ... more responsible,'" he said.

Livery driver killed and 3 hurt in Bruckner crash

A livery car driving into the Bronx from Manhattan careened into a family in a minivan on the Bruckner Expressway, killing the cab driver and seriously wounding three others.

A young girl who police said is either 4 or 5 years old was among the injured after the livery car driver smashed into the family of three around 8 p.m. Friday night.

A 22-year-old female driver in the minivan and a 28-year-old male passenger were also taken to area hospitals in serious condition, a police spokesman said.

City Council takes up livery cab passengers' bill of rights

Passengers of the city's 40,000 livery cabs are finally getting a bill of rights of their own.

The list of what riders are entitled to in a livery or black car will be posted in the passenger section, under a bill set to be passed Wednesday by the City Council.

The exact language is yet to be determined by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, but some of the rights include: displayed driver's license; a safe and courteous driver who obeys all traffic laws; clean air in the vehicle that is smoke and scent free; a preapproved fare quoted by the dispatcher, and the right to decline to tip.

"Today when you get into one of these cars, passengers truly have no idea what their rights are, if any," said chief sponsor, Councilman Daniel Garodnick (D-Manhattan).

Yellow cab passengers have had a similar bill of rights since 1996.

Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said passengers who summon livery cars may not widely know that they can complain about lousy rides or fare disputes to the TLC.

Even so, Garodnick said about 1,000 complaints are filed each year by passengers of for-hire cars.

TLC Commissioner Matthew Daus said, "We look forward to supporting the legislation that we crafted together, and seeing that it is properly implemented once the mayor signs it into law."

Too many NY taxi drivers, not enough cabs for them

Many of the thousands of New Yorkers laid off in the financial crisis have turned to driving taxis, but now there are too many drivers and not enough cabs.

Garage owners say they're turning away drivers. Harlem Yellow Cab manager Syed Zahoori says on every shift people get sent home without cabs.

City officials say the number of hack licenses is at an all-time high of nearly 46,000. The number of new licenses is up 19 percent over the last three months compared with the same period last year.

There are about 13,000 taxis.

Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman Matthew Daus says there's always an influx of drivers when the economy is bad but this period "appears to be setting some records."