speaker not understood] equality for everyone. >> next speaker, please. >> barry toronto followed by mark gruberg. is mr. gruberg here? okay, all right. >> mr. toronto. >>> yes, good afternoon again. i first want to alert you that i saw on facebook somebody shared a link of an article in the new york times about the international association of taxi regulators was working on creating regulations to deal with those apps, [speaker not understood] and side cart. our own chris hiyashi has been instrumental in being involved in helping create those regulations. i think i'm a little disturbed that this information is not getting out to you guys and to us about what you guys are actually doing. i think it's important that this information and what she's actually proposing be included, is actually advertised -- proposed -- advertised so we have an idea what's going on. and that helps us in having confidence that sfmta is doing something, and where this is going to go. and i think that's important that you get a presentation from her in your january 15th meeting about what's happening with that. because w

speaker not understood] equality for everyone. >> next speaker, please. >> barry toronto followed by mark gruberg. is mr. gruberg here? okay, all right. >> mr. toronto. >>> yes, good afternoon again. i first want to alert you that i saw on facebook somebody shared a link of an article in the new york times about the international association of taxi regulators was working on creating regulations to

. >> mark gruberg, taxi association. i wanted to call to your attention what the mta is doing with regard to drivers. this is extremely important in terms of service because the drivers are the ones who provide the service. if you don't have good drivers, you don't have good service. if you don't have experienced drivers, you don't have good service. so far they have taken more than $25 million out of the taxi industries, they have approved the leasing of medallions to cab companies, 150 to 200 medallions that are being leased by cab companies cutting off the drivers who have waited for these medallions for up to 17 years. in the next year alone they will receive a minimum of 20 to 25 million dollars from the taxi industry and possibly as much as 50 or 75 million or more. i am not making these numbers up, they are real numbers, i can pencil them out for you. they have taken drivers' futures and thrown them into the gutter. this is what this agency is about. i'm not laying this on staff, i think staff is trying to do thei