#NYC taxis halt Brooklyn Bridge traffic to fight debt

New York City cabbies stalled traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge Thursday afternoon to demand debt relief from medallion lenders and the city.

“There is a serious humanitarian crisis that is developing in this industry. All we’re asking for us the debt to be forgiven and reduced to $125,000,” New York Taxi Workers Alliance director Bhairavi Desai said during a City Hall rally preceding the demonstration.

Video posted on Citizen app shows the caravan of yellow cabs stalled out on Manhattan-bound side of the Brooklyn Bridge at around 12:40 p,m.

Traffic got back moving after around five minutes, users reported.

The demonstration comes days after Greenwich, Conn.-based Marblegate — which owns 4,000 of the city’s 13,500 medallions — offered to reduce driver debts to $300,000, reported by the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

The company’s latest offer to driver amounts to $70 million in total debt relief, according to the Journal.

But Desai dismissed it as “nonsense” and “a life sentence to debtor’s prison.”

“The number of $300,000 is the same as what was discussed pre-pandemic,” she said. “What Marblegate and all these lenders are doing us continuing to prey on the desperation of this workforce.”

Caravan participants said their financial situation was already dire before the COVID-19 pandemic, and has only gotten worse — with 75 percent of New York City’s for-hire drivers out of work as of July.

NYTWA wants the city to help shore up medallion owners’ debt.

“We have been asking the city, we have been calling on the mayor forever,” Bronx driver Mouhamadou Aliyu said during the rally.

“How much longer? How long does it take for the mayor to help us out?”

An alternative proposal from city councilman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) would revalue each medallion at $250,000, with the city acting as guarantor.

Torres told The Post his plan “will stabilize the industry without the crushing cost of a bailout.”

A finance industry report obtained by The Post valued an individual medallion at $435,000 right before the pandemic.

“Based on math, Torres’ number looks way more reasonable even when factoring in the pandemic,” said one industry insider who has reviewed the report.

“Asking lenders to go down to $125,000 after they’ve provided $70 million in relief isn’t just unrealistic, it’s absurd.”